In my role as a PhD student in the OPIG group, I integrate and analyse data from various biological, chemical and data sources. As I am interested in the intersection between chemistry, biology and daily life, it\u00a0seems suitable that my next BLOPIG posts will discuss and highlight how biological phenomena have either influenced law or history.<\/p>\n
Connection between Law and Biology – The Curious Case Of A Human Chimera What does this dangerous mixture of multiple diseases, an ancient mythological monster and the promised connection between law and biology have in common?<\/p>\n Apart from a really bad joke, the term \u201cChimera\u201d is an actual term in biology to describe a biological entity of multiple diverse components, e.g. a human organism, whose cells are composed of distinct genotypes. But how did such a biological phenomenon like a chimera enter the court of law?<\/p>\n The Romans famously defined that the mother of a child is the one who gives birth to it (Mater sempre certa est<\/em>, which can be translated as \u201cThe mother is always certain\u201d). \u00a0I would like to point out that in the times of in-vitro fertilization, this principle is no longer viable, since a child can now have both a genetic mother and a birth mother.3 Accused of being a \u201cwellfare fraud\u201d or a surrogate, the judge ordered that Lydia Fairchild had to give birth to her third child in front of witnesses. Immediately blood samples were taken, which revealed that Lydia Fairchild also did not share DNA with this child, despite giving birth to it. Now accused of being a surrogate, Lydia\u2019s case looked dire. Subsequently, scientists collected Lydia\u2019s cell material from various body parts and tested for a genetic match with her children. The DNA from her cervical smear was found to be a match, while the DNA collected from her skin and hair was not. Additionally, DNA samples from Lydia\u2019s mother matched her childrens\u2019 DNA. 4-5<\/sup><\/strong><\/p>\n Interestingly, while both Lydia and Karen were carrying two sets of DNA as a result of prenatal fusions with their twins, they didn\u2019t show any phenotypic sign of being a chimera, e.g. different skin types or the so-called Blaschko lines.7-8<\/sup><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n All links were last viewed on the 24.04.2018.<\/p>\n My next blog post: Can a mismatch in maternal DNA threaten a government? How Biology can Influence History.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In my role as a PhD student in the OPIG group, I integrate and analyse data from various biological, chemical and data sources. As I am interested in the intersection between chemistry, biology and daily life, it\u00a0seems suitable that my next BLOPIG posts will discuss and highlight how biological phenomena have either influenced law or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","wikipediapreview_detectlinks":true,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[495],"class_list":["post-4046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":495,"user_id":44,"is_guest":0,"slug":"anne","display_name":"Anne Nierobisch","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ca4e669549272020b68503a44f391f6376a9859e3975265369e719141b4d1d19?s=96&d=mm&r=g","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blopig.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blopig.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blopig.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blopig.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blopig.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4046"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.blopig.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4046\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4064,"href":"https:\/\/www.blopig.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4046\/revisions\/4064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blopig.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blopig.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blopig.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4046"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blopig.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=4046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/strong>Our scene opens in a dark lab, where a scientist injects himself with an unknown substance. The voice over notes that they created a monster named \u201cChimera\u201d while searching for their hero \u201cBellerophon\u201d.\u00a0 This scene is the famous opening scene of the movie \u201cMission Impossible II\u201d , where we are introduced to the dangerous bioweapon \u201cChimera\u201d, a combination of multiple diseases. As \u201cChimera\u201d is a mythological beast from Ancient Greek mythology, with a lion’s head, a goat’s body, and a serpent’s tail, the naming of this bioweapon seems appropriate.<\/p>\n
\nIn case of tetragametic chimerism, human chimeras thus possess forty-six chromosome pairs instead of the \u201cusual\u201d set of twenty-six chromosome pairs, and as such, their organs and tissues are constructed according to the DNA outlined in the respective organ or tissue.
\nTetragametic chimerism occurs by the fertilization of two ova by two spermatozoa, which develop into zygotes. These zygotes then subsequently fuse into one organism, which continues to develop into an organism with two sets of DNA.1-2 <\/sup><\/strong><\/p>\n
\n<\/sup><\/strong>This Principle was disproved in 2002, when Lydia Fairchild applied to receive Welfare for her two children and her third, unborn child, from the US State. Paternity tests were conducted on all children to prove her ex-partner\u2019s paternity. While the tests proved the paternity of the father without a doubt, Lydia was shown to be no genetic match to her children.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nFortunately, Lydia\u2019s lawyer read a journal article about a similar case involving a woman named Kareen Keegan.2, 4-5<\/sup><\/strong> Karen, a 52-year old woman, had renal failure. As she needed a kidney replacement, Karen\u2019s sons underwent the histocompability process to test for donation.Yet the genetic tests showed that only one of her three sons was related to her.1<\/sup> Material from her entire body was tested for genetic matches to her sons\u2019 DNA, but only genetic material of her thyroid matched her sons.2
\n<\/sup><\/strong>Ultimately, the researchers concluded that Karen was a tetragametic chimera, born of the fusion of her zygote and her twin sibling in her mother\u2019s womb. As Dr. Lynne Uhl, a pathologist and doctor of transfusion medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, said:
\n“In her blood, she was one person, but in other tissues, she had evidence of being a fusion of two individuals.”6<\/sup><\/strong><\/p>\n\n