One fertility doctor's utter twistedness means that a number of children have a 'serious issue' ahead of them as they grow up.
Writing for The Daily Mail, mum-of-two Victoria Hill revealed that back in 2024, she received a text message from an ex-boyfriend named Ethan, declaring that they were in fact biologically related.
"You are my sister," he wrote alongside a screenshot of Victoria's profile on DNA-testing website.
Understandably, she was horrified by this life-altering news out of the blue.
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"I couldn't sleep for days," she recounted. "I kept having flashbacks to the special times we'd shared... it was all tainted. Of course, when we'd got together we'd had absolutely no idea we were related – or that there was even the remotest possibility we could be."
Victoria described herself and Ethan as 'teenage sweethearts' who'd enjoyed sexual relations between the ages of 17 and 18.
"When we bumped into each other at a friend's wedding in our mid-20s, I was struck by a wave of emotion and wondered whether we should rekindle our relationship," she continued.
"Thankfully nothing happened, and I met my husband Ben shortly after. But things could so easily have gone the other way. What if Ethan had become my husband and father of my children? It's unthinkable. The idea that I've been intimate with my own half-brother is torturous enough."
As for how she and her ex resurrected contact all these years later, they'd apparently discovered together that their mothers underwent fertility treatment with the exact same doctor.
During the 1970s and '80s, there was a strict aversion throughout society to this kind of conception treatment, with the fertility specialists even advising patients to have sex straight after the procedures.
"That way, if they did get pregnant, they would never know for sure who the biological father was. They were advised never to tell their children, too," Victoria added. "DNA tests weren't available then, so paternity could not be proven either way."
Enter Yale University's former professor of medicine, Dr. Burton Caldwell, who treacherously used his own sperm for countless inceminations at his private clinic.
Victoria wrote: "It turned out he had been secretly donating his own sperm to his patients for 20 years. Not only is this morally reprehensible, flying in the face of any code of ethics, but there have been grave consequences for me, my family and his many other offspring."
The facility was based in the city of New Haven, Connecticut, where approximately 135,300 people live.
"At the last count, I had 25 half-siblings – 14 sisters and 11 brothers – and consequently there are more than 50 first cousins in our vicinity," she shared.
"But more are always coming forward. In fact, as well as Ethan, I've recently learned I had two other half-siblings at our school – one sister and another brother. This increased my chances of unwittingly having a relationship with a close relation.
"It's a serious issue for my children, aged eight and three, too. Should they stay in the area, they will need to ask potential partners to have DNA tests to avoid unwitting incest with unknown cousins.
"And to think I could have lived my whole life without knowing the truth."
Topics: Sex and Relationships
Dan Seddon