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[SargerusBR]

Time to reset the world

 

[Stumpokapow]

1 in 500,000 live births doesn't seem all that rare. There are a mean of 600 such cases in the US right now? 2400 in China? That's stunning, I've never even heard of this before.

 

[BeatResetsTheWorld]

1 in 500,000 doesn't sound that rare to me...

 

[dark_chris]

They're a part of perfection now.

HAHAHAHHAHA Im dying!

 

[titiklabingapat]

It could be possible.

I don't know about "many" But it might be more common than we all realize.
Unless you got different parts of your own body tested for different DNA, you'd most likely never know, because most of the people with this appear completely normal.

TLC did a special about this about 10 years ago. Let me see if I can find it online




EDIT: I can't find it.



Amazon has it listed but not available


But I did find some articles about the condition

http://boingboing.net/2009/05/01/the-mind-blowing-wor.html

One person outside: But two people "inside": That's the gist of the chimera, a human being who carries the DNA (and sometimes the body parts) for two. It sounds crazy, but it happens. In fact, doctors think it probably happens more often than we realize. Unless there were some reason to test the DNA from cells in different parts of your body, you could easily be a chimera and never know it. Happy Freaky Friday, everybody.
So how's it happen? In this excerpt from my book, Be Amazing, I explained how chimeras happen, and how confusing it can be to be one.


First: Get That Meddling Sibling Out of Your Way
Imagine you're a fertilized egg, just a few days old. There you are, floating around the womb and minding your own business, when, BAM! You run smack into another just like you. Well, not just like you. But certainly close enough to be a threat. Now, you have a choice. You can roll over and let yourself be born as just another fraternal twin, or you can stand up for your individuality and absorb the interloper. Naturally, you do the smart thing, and nine months later your parents take home one healthy baby.

Then: Discover That They Aren't As Dead As You Thought
Like a horror-movie villain locked into a three-picture contract, your twin never really died. Instead, she'll end up hiding in plain sight--within your very cells--rendering you a chimera, a single human who carries the genetic makeup of two different people. Most of the time, there aren't any outward signs that your body is harboring a stowaway. But when you do notice, things get a little crazy. Take Karen Keegan, who discovered her chimera-ness at age 52. When Keegan needed a kidney transplant, she and her two adult children underwent DNA testing to figure out which kid's kidney would be the best match for mom. Surprisingly, the tests showed neither. In fact, according to DNA, Keegan's children weren't her children at all. The case confounded doctors for more than two years until, in 2000, the docs finally realized that Keegan's blood cells carried different genes from the cells in her ovaries---the long-absorbed twin was found.

Perhaps you're wondering whether chimeras can incorporate twins of two different sexes. The answer is yes, and the results are often much stranger. In 1998, Scottish doctors reported treating a teenage boy for an undescended testicle. But when they put the kid under the knife, no second testicle could be found to pull down. Instead, where the ball should have been, doctors discovered an ovary and fallopian tube. Chimera strikes again.

For some fun further reading, check out the story of Lydia Fairchild. Like Karen Keegan, Fairchild's chimeric nature was discovered after DNA tests said she wasn't the mother of the children she was pretty sure she remembered giving birth to. Unlike Keegan, however, Fairchild's kids were still young and the initial DNA test almost cost her custody.

Much like Professor Xavier of the X-Men, illustrator Michael Rogalski is locked in deadly, psychic battle with his evil, chimeric twin.


​

Wiki, for Lydia Fairchild she was the one pictured above from the a TLC show called "I am my own Twin"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lydia_Fairchild


Lydia Fairchild is an American woman who exhibits chimerism, with two different sets of DNA present in her body. She was pregnant with her third child when she and the father of her children, Jamie Townsend, separated. When Fairchild applied for welfare support in 2002, she was requested to provide DNA evidence that Townsend was the father of her children. While the results showed Townsend was certainly the father of the children, the DNA tests indicated that she was not their mother.

This resulted in Fairchild's being taken to court for fraud for claiming benefit for other people's children or taking part in a surrogacy scam. Hospital records of her prior births were disregarded. Prosecutors called for her two children to be taken into care. As time came for her to give birth to her third child, the judge ordered a witness be present at the birth. This witness was to ensure that blood samples were immediately taken from both the child and Fairchild. Two weeks later, DNA tests indicated that she was not the mother of that child either.

A breakthrough came when a lawyer for the prosecution heard of Karen Keegan, a human chimera in New England, and suggested the possibility to the Fairchild's lawyer, Alan Tindell, who then found an article in the New England Journal of Medicine about Keegan.[1][2] He realised that Fairchild's case might also be caused by chimerism. As in Keegan's case, DNA samples were taken from members of the extended family. The DNA of Fairchild's children matched that of Fairchild's mother to the extent expected of a grandmother. They also found that, although the DNA in Fairchild's skin and hair did not match her children's, the DNA from a cervical smear test did match. Fairchild was carrying two different sets of DNA, the defining characteristic of a chimera.
​

Wow. So in all of us, there is a Cell waiting to devour all DNA (in the womb).

 

[Mista Koo]

So... Any gaffers on here actually absorbed their sibling and developed super powers at a young age? It's OK. Your secret identity is safe with us.

There is a gaffer who kept her twin's uterus, didn't find out until her second childbirth.

 

[pashmilla]

There is a gaffer who kept her twin's uterus, didn't find out until her second childbirth.

What. Is there a link?