[size=20pt]Woman tricked by Nigerian doctor into believing she had given birth wins right to keep the baby[/size]



LONDON . A British woman who claimed she was tricked by a Nigerian doctor into believing she had given birth has won a legal battle in her attempt to adopt the baby she thought was hers.

The woman and her partner are fighting to regain custody of the little girl after U.K. social services became suspicious that they were not her biological parents and took her into care.

The woman claims she was convinced she had become pregnant and gave birth to the child after seeking fertility treatment in Nigeria. She said that she was drugged while undergoing a process that she thought was a genuine birth and believed that the child was hers.

A judge this week ruled that the mother, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was an innocent party who had been duped in a so-called "baby exchange" scam in the African country.

The Appeal Court ruling is likely to greatly improve the couple's chances of being approved as the child's adoptive parents.

The court heard that the couple were "desperate" to have a baby and that the woman travelled to Nigeria in 2010 in the hope of conceiving through fertility treatment. Believing she was pregnant, after nine months the con men sedated her to make her believe she had given birth at a clinic, she said.

After returning to Britain in 2011, suspicions about the baby's parentage were raised by a doctor and the local authority was alerted. Tests established that the woman and her husband were not the baby's biological parents and the girl was put in the care of foster parents. Social services told the couple the "birth" had been staged and that the child had been wrongfully removed from her unknown parents in Nigeria.

As part of ongoing care proceedings, a judge ruled in December that the woman was an innocent victim of Nigerian fraudsters.

The lawyers for social services challenged the finding at the Appeal Court, arguing that no judge could reasonably believe the woman was unaware that she had not been pregnant, and had not given birth to the girl. The appeal was rejected, with the appeal court upholding the lower court's decision.

The court said the judge was "fully alive" to the extraordinary nature of the woman's claims, but found her to be "credible" and concluded social services had failed to prove she was a "knowing and willing partner" in the scam.

A newspaper article was produced at the High Court hearing that detailed a similar incident, put forward as evidence to establish that there was a practice of "baby exchange" in Nigeria. The child's court-appointed guardian supported the couple's case, saying they had been "desperate and distressed" and were therefore an "easy target" for exploitation, the court head.


http://www.financialpost.com/todays-paper/Woman+tricked+into+thinking+gave+birth/6495877/story.html

the growths,tumors or fibroids that are induced in these women to make them believe they are pregnant- what happens to the condition after they receive the baby?

is it removed or are they given something that makes it shrink.

From my own understanding of d rulings,I feel it just implies dat d woman shd not b liable for criminal proceedings,it nowhere asserts her right to adopt d child.It wud b unheard of for a court to grant dem custody of a child dat was probably criminally taken away frm d biological parents.It also says a lot about d couple for dem not to av known (or made pretences not to av known,bc a pregnancy test must av bn done along wt a scan,both of whc wud av put a lie to her claim of pregnancy).I think d lady was a willing& desperate partner in a scam to hoodwink everybody both home& abroad of her being pregnant

a UK ultrasound showed nothing in the uterus, but when they got to nigeria, they were told by the people at the maternity/fertility clinic they went to, that the woman was pregnant and a baby was indeed there.

she was also instructed not to go back to a regular doctor besides the one/s working in that specific clinic, for any check ups or tests.

so, since we all know how we nigerians believe the metaphysical when it comes to physical matters, the couple went with the latter option which told them the lady was pregnant, as opposed to the outside test which debunked any such claim.

as per whether they were aware of the truth of the matter or not- that i cant say.