The world keeps advancing technologically, and so is fraud. There is no doubt that the modus operandi of fraudsters has evolved with technology. Fraud covers virtually all aspects of life, including parenthood. I am talking about paternity and maternity fraud.
Between the two evils, only one is spoken about frequently while the other one is barely mentioned en passantly. The reason is obvious. In Nigeria alone, statistics have it that about 3 out of every 10 children are consciously assigned to the wrong father. CONSCIOUSLY!
Meaning that the statistics do not cover unconscious assignment of paternity. This stat is published in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health and can be accessed here. Good luck with trying to find statistics on maternity fraud in Nigeria - or anywhere else in the world.
But maternity fraud does exist and is on the rise in Nigeria. Paternity fraud is perpetrated by women. Maternity fraud, on the other hand, is either perpetrated by women, healthcare practitioners, the two parents, or a combination of two or more of them.
I will explain with a story. A true life story that has been slightly modified for character change.
Mr. and Mrs. A
Mr. and Mrs. A have been in and out of different fertility clinics in the country for some years now. Nothing unusual has been found to be hindering their ability to produce children. They were told to keep their hope alive.
Mr. A has been under serious pressure from families, friends, and associates to try his luck with another woman. In Africa, polygamy is a normal thing, even though the importation of European culture now makes some frown at it.
Mrs. A knows that she's living on borrowed time. If Mr. A should take another wife who ends up conceiving and giving him a child, it might signal the end of her conjugal journey with Mr. A.
Desperate times require desperate measures.
On the advice of a friend, she secretly visited a fertility clinic where a solution was proffered to her predicament. Nine months after, Mrs. A delivered a bouncy baby boy through Caesarian sectioning. It was a memorable event. Everyone rushed to congratulate the couple. Twenty years of marriage without a fruit of the womb is not child's play.
At the fertility clinic, she was injected with different hormonal combinations that induced the symptoms of being pregnant in her body. Her menstruation stopped, her blood's Human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) hormone skyrocketed, and she became bloated due to the side effects of the hormonal drugs.
In short, anyone that sees her will have no doubt that she's pregnant.
Except that Mrs. A knows the truth.
She feigned going for antenatal throughout and doctored medical reports to tender to Mr. A largely with the assistance of the healthcare professionals at the fertility clinic. On the supposed delivery day, she was cut open for real and sewn back.
A newly born baby from an illegal baby factory somewhere downtown was carefully placed beside her. Mr. A was called to come and have a glimpse of his newborn.
Imagine the joy in his heart.
Will he ever get to know the truth? Perhaps.
Different combinations
Instead of the collusion between Mrs. A and the fertility clinic, sometimes, fraudulent fertility clinics commit maternity fraud unilaterally. They pump up unsuspecting women with hormones that give the latter the symptoms of being pregnant.
Not just that.
They mischievously asked her never to visit any other clinic throughout the gestation period and on the day of delivery. They charge a humongous amount of money and claim to be the best in town. If everything goes well, the woman is cut open and presented with a baby on delivery day.
There have been stories of supposedly pregnant women going for scans only for the result to come out negative. Now, the dots can be connected.
In some cases, the fraud is conducted with the knowledge of the husband and the wife.
In the case of a fertility clinic unilaterally coming such a fraud, the child will fail both paternity and maternity tests. In other words, some paternity tests need to be carried out simultaneously with maternity tests.
What do you think?
