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Associated Press

In 1965, a Norwegian woman gave birth to a baby girl in a private hospital. Seven days later she returned home with a baby.
When the baby developed dark curls that made her look different from herself, Karen Rafteseth Dokken assumed she just took after her husband’s mother.
It took nearly six decades to discover the true reason: Rafteseth Dokken’s biological daughter had been mistakenly switched at birth in the maternity ward of the hospital in central Norway.
The girl she ended up raising, Mona, was not the baby she gave birth to.
The babies – one born on February 14 and the other on February 15, 1965 – are now 59-year-old women who together with Rafteseth Dokken are suing the state and the municipality.
In their case, which opened in the Oslo District Court on Monday, they argue that their human rights were violated when authorities discovered the error when the girls were teenagers and covered it up.
Her biological father has died. She has no contact with her biological mother
Kristine Aarre Haanes, Mona’s lawyer
They claim Norwegian authorities had undermined their right to a family life, a principle enshrined in the European human rights convention, and demand an apology and compensation.
Rafteseth Dokken, now 78, was in tears as she described learning so many years later that she got the wrong baby, according to Norwegian broadcaster NRK.
“It was never my thought that Mona was not my daughter,” she said in court on Tuesday. “She was named Mona after my mother.”
Mona described a sense of never belonging as she grew up. That sense of uncertainty pushed her in 2021 to do a DNA test, which showed that she was not the biological daughter of those who raised her.
But the woman who raised the other baby knew long before.
A routine blood test in 1981 revealed that the girl she was raising, Linda Karin Risvik Gotaas, was not biologically related. The woman raising her, however, did not pursue a maternity case. Norwegian health authorities were informed of the mix-up in 1985, but refrained from telling the others involved.
Both women who were swapped at birth have said in interviews that it was a shock to learn about the mix-up, but the knowledge made pieces of their lives fall into place, explaining differences both in terms of appearance and demeanour.
Kristine Aarre Haanes, representing Mona, said the state “violated her right to her own identity for all these years. They kept it secret.”

Mona could have learned the truth when she was a young adult, but instead “she did not find out the truth until she was 57”.
“Her biological father has died. She has no contact with her biological mother,” added Aarre Haanes.
Circumstances surrounding the 1965 swap at Eggesboenes hospital are unclear, but media reports by NRK suggest there were several cases during the 1950s and 1960s where children were accidentally swapped at the same institution. At the time babies were kept together while their mothers rested in separate rooms.
In other cases the errors were spotted before the children were permanently placed with the wrong families, according to the reports.
An official from the Norwegian Ministry of Heath and Care Services said the state was unaware of similar cases and that there were no plans for a public inquiry.
Asgeir Nygaard, representing the Norwegian state, is fighting the case on the grounds that the 1965 switch took place in a private institution and that the health directorate in the 1980s did not have the legal authority to tell the other families when they discovered the error.
“Documentation from that time indicates that government officials found the assessments difficult, inter alia because it was legally unclear what they could do,” he wrote in a statement before the trial’s opening.
“Therefore, in court, we will argue that there is no basis for compensation and that the claims being made are in any case statute-barred.”
The trial is scheduled to run through Thursday, but it was not clear when a ruling is expected,


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Nordic nations

The women say the Norwegian authorities undermined their right to a family life and are demanding an apology and compensation. Photo illustration: Shutterstock

The Oslo District Court in Norway. The women say the Norwegian authorities undermined their right to a family life and are demanding an apology and compensation. Photo: NTB Scanpix via AP

The Oslo District Court is seen in Norway in October. Photo: NTB Scanpix via AP

Vietnam man, suspicious that ‘too pretty’ daughter not his, shocked by birth switch accident

A man in Vietnam who was suspicious that his “too pretty” daughter was not his child was shocked to find that the child had been accidentally switched at birth. Photo: SCMP composite/Shutterstock

The man was so suspicious about his daughter that he turned to alcohol. Photo: Shutterstock

A DNA test revealed that the girl was not fathered by the suspicious man. Photo: Shutterstock

Liver cancer patient switched at birth in critical condition as he waits on appeal against compensation ruling

Switched at birth, advanced liver cancer patient Yao Ce (right) and Guo Wei celebrate their birthday in Shanghai in June 2020. Photo: Jiemian.com

Switched at birth, Yao Ce (2nd L) and Guo Wei (2nd R) celebrate their birthday in Shanghai in June, 2020 along with their families. The middle-aged woman in short hair is Du Liqing, Yao's birth mother. The one with longer hair is Xu Dongmei, Guo's birth mother.CREDIT: WEIBO

Xu Dongmei, Guo's birth mother  holds  birthday gifts she prepared for switched at birth as children, Yao Ce and Guo Wei, a pair of Shanghai-branded Monkey Year commemorative watches.CREDIT: WEIBO

Chinese police say no evidence healthy and sick baby switch decades ago was deliberate after mother claims conspiracy by other family

Switched at birth, Yao Ce (right) and Guo Wei celebrate their birthday in Shanghai in June, 2020. Photo: Weibo

Switched at birth, Yao Ce and his son in Shanghai in June, 2020. Credit: Weibo

Yao Ce died of liver cancer on March 23 in Beijing. Photo: Handout

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Authorities discovered the error when they were teenagers but kept it a secret, say the women, who are now 59


Authorities discovered the error when they were teenagers but kept it a secret, say the women, who are now 59.


Human rights

Norway