Journal #4: The Unanticipated Appearance of The Recessive Gene

Below is a picture that will sum up the newspaper article I found, very concisely.

No, she is not adopted.

(Click to View the Original Article)

Here's a brief summary: Angela Ihegboro, wife of Ben Ihegboro and who are both Nigerian, had given birth to a blond-haired, blue-eyed girl called Nmachi. The baby is not an albino, and is perfectly healthy—she just happened to be white.


According to both parent, they cannot recall any white ancestry of their families and was in shock over the "miracle" baby, who is apparently "one in a million". The father insisted Angela's fidelity to him, and even if she was unfaithful, the baby "still wouldn't look like that".

Now, this event is faintly resembles a couple with the mixed-racial twins; and it is the genetic twists nature often execute that marks both cases in similarity. Assuming the wife was faithful, the Ihergboros would definitely have had genes of white ancestry, generations ago, that somehow ended up in both parents' gametes.

The random chance of these two partners meeting, and having the similar recessive genes, as well as having a specific sperm fertilize a particular egg, makes this occurrence incredibly fascinating. Although, something that stood out to me is Ben's words, "still wouldn't look like that". I find the possibility deriving from Angela's infidelity plausible, as if there were another man (note: hypothetical; no implications that she is cheating), he could very well have white ancestry on his side, or is white—and thereby, resulting in Nmachi. Of course, in order for that to happen, Angela would have to have white ancestry on her part too. But after all, that is an if.

Nmachi

Citations



Author Name: Virginia Wheeler
Title of Web Document:  Black Parents...White Baby
Title of the Hoisting Website: thesun.co.uk
Date Rretrieved: Nov 3rd
Date: January 12th, 2011