Name: Cheryl V.
Status: Other
Age: 40s
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: December 2002
Question:
My question concerns the blood type of a child who was
possibly born from incest. The child's blood type was always A+ until
after the age of 21. This child had various surgeries while growing up
and the transfusions used in the surgeries were always A+. Then after a
Hysterectomy at the age of 21, it was discovered that this individual no
longer had A+ blood type. The blood type had somehow changed along the
line and became A-. How is this possible?
Replies:
I would say that a mistake was made somewhere. Your blood type is determined
genetically and your genetics do not change during your life time. There are
cells in the body which can mutate, but there would not be enough of those to
change your overall phenotype. Either the child was mistyped initially and
it was assumed she was A+, or she was mistyped after. When you say her blood
type "was always A+," how many times was she typed as a child/young adult?
And where? Was she always given A+ blood and one time given A- blood? You
can give A- blood to someone who is A+ and not get a transfusion reaction.
Maybe they were short of A+ in the blood bank. In the hysterectomy incident,
was the test repeated? Unless there is some breaking new research that I
do not know about, what you describe is not possible. And this situation
doesn't have anything to do with possible incest.
NEWTON is an electronic community for Science, Math, and Computer Science K-12 Educators, sponsored and operated by Argonne National Laboratory's Educational Programs, Andrew Skipor, Ph.D., Head of Educational Programs.
