Paternity Case Hannah Johnson

The Discovery This past week a family sued the Tomlin Medical Center because it is believed that the hospital messed up when reuniting the newly born son with his parents. They developed this theory because their three year old son looks very little like them. In order to prove this theory, the mother, father, and son will have their genes run through gel electorphoresis.

Gel Electrophoresis Restriction enzymes were put into each person’s DNA before electrophoresis took place. The ran gel electrophoresis and the genes of the son did not match up with the parents. This proved that child they had taken home years earlier was not actually their son. Now they had to find a way to find their biological child.

Finding the Real Child Looking into the hospital’s records, two other boys had been born that day. They used a method of DNA testing called RFLP analysis Completing this process would tell the parents whose child was really theirs.

RFLP Analysis In the RFLP method of DNA testing, the DNA is cut into fragments by certain enzymes. An electric current is then used which separates the DNA fragments by size. The separated DNA fragments are identified by DNA probes. These probes are pieces of custom made DNA that bind and identify with a specific gene locus

In Conclusion After running RFLP analysis. The parents found out that the second boy who had been born in The Tomlin Medical Center was really their child. Soon after, the parents were reunited with their biological son.