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An Israeli family court has approved the adoption of a child who was likely switched at birth in a foreign hospital, following a complex legal case that revealed he has no genetic connection to the couple raising him.
Judge Rotem Kodler-Iash of the Be’er Sheva Family Court recognized the couple as the boy’s adoptive parents, saying it was necessary to secure his legal and emotional status after efforts to locate his biological family failed.
The case dates back more than a decade, when the mother gave birth via emergency cesarean section in her seventh month of pregnancy at a hospital abroad. She did not see the baby for the first three days due to post-surgical complications and was told he was being kept in an incubator. Four months later, the mother and child moved to Israel to join the father, an Israeli Jew, and the couple initiated a paternity test to regularize the child’s legal status in Israel.
The results were shocking: the man was not the biological father and the mother had no genetic link to the child either. The shocked parents performed a second test that returned the same result. Suspecting a mix-up at the hospital, the couple petitioned the court to be recognized as the boy’s legal parents.
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In her ruling, Judge Kodler-Iash wrote that given the conditions in the country where the child was born, tracing the fate of their biological child proved impossible. Authorities were unable to produce documentation, and attempts to locate the child’s true origin were unsuccessful. A criminal investigation into possible baby-switching yielded no evidence, and the case was closed.
The judge emphasized the emotional bond between the child and the couple, who have raised him as their own since infancy. The boy, now aware of the circumstances following recent therapy sessions, considers them his true parents.
“This child must not be left without legal parents or national identity, especially since he has been raised from infancy as a Jewish Israeli child,” the judge wrote. Noting the parents’ devotion and professional support for the adoption, she granted their request and issued an adoption order.