The Midwife Who Swapped 5000 Babies
By: Linda Guest
Tags: Choices, Ethics, Human Behavior, Beyourself, Humanity

Questions about forgiveness

The nurse, who states that she is now terminally ill with cancer, has said that between 1983 and 1985 she swapped 5000 babies in a university teaching hospital in Zambia. She claims that she is making this public now, as she is faced by her own mortality and wants forgiveness from God before she dies.

Let’s unpick that.

Where should forgiveness for this act come from? From God, society, the parents concerned (even though they aren’t aware) or herself?

Does forgiveness diminish the harm that her actions have caused? Have her actions even caused any harm at all if the parents and children are unaware? Has a crime been committed if no-one knows about it?

I have my own views on the answers to these questions but equally I recognise that the issue is a complex one.

I am not a religious person myself, but I deeply respect the views and beliefs of those who are. I can understand why people who believe in any god would feel that having that god’s forgiveness is the ultimate resolution to their wrongdoings, but does this really make their actions acceptable?

Who is forgiveness for anyway? Is it for the forgiven or those who forgive?

Questions about fame — and those that cause the fame

The nurse in the story openly admits that she carried out these acts “for fun”. What if part of that fun was her plan to gain attention?

Indeed, there are many that dispute that her story is even true. If she is making this up to achieve notoriety, then the media are playing directly into her hands by covering the story.

There is an ethical question about whether it is right for me to draw attention to the story whatsoever. Some readers will possibly be interested enough to do a Google search and find out more. Some of you might even feel a bit anxious about whether, in fact, your own family has been affected by this individual. If either of these things happens then have I played my part in the nurse’s game? I sincerely hope not.

This, by the way, is the reason that I am not linking this article to the original story. I’ve made a conscious decision not to name the nurse. As a writer I have reflected on where my boundaries are, and this was my decision. Equally, if you choose to explore further that is your choice.

This sort of dilemma is faced by people such as writers, journalists, documentary producers and film makers constantly. How do we balance the right for the public to be informed, with the fact that sometimes these acts are carried out in the name of infamy?

Is ignorance really bliss or do people have a right to know?

Questions about parenting

This story will strike a chord with parents in particular. Many of us will try to empathise with anyone who finds out that such a terrible thing has happened to their family. We ask ourselves how we think we would feel and respond.

It raises the question about what actually makes a person a parent. Is it a biological status? Many adoptive parents would have good reason to argue against this, saying that the love they feel for their child is just as strong as that of any biological parent. If parenting is purely about love rather than biology, then has the nurse actually swapped ‘their children’ at all?

With many things in life, it is impossible to know how we would feel or react unless we are actually faced with that situation. There are cases of families finding out that a child has been swapped at birth who have refused to swap back, and others where the children have returned to their biological parents. There is no rule book about how to respond in this unique set of circumstances. What if both affected families can’t agree? Whose rights matter most?

This story certainly raises more questions than it answers.