The families of two children, who were accidentally swapped at birth 12 years ago, should try to settle their dispute peacefully, not in courts, Russia’s child ombudsman Pavel Astakhov said on Wednesday.
The Belyayev and Iskanderov families learned about the mistake accidentally after 12 years of raising each other’s daughters. The Belyaevs filed documents for a divorce and the father asked for their daughter’s DNA test to establish paternity.
The test revealed that neither of the Belyayevs were the biological parents of their daughter and the following police investigation established that their real daughter was living with the Iskanderovs.
“The families have only one way to get through this; to come to an agreement and live in peace,” the ombudsman said. “Give the children a chance to grow up healthy and successful and let them sort out this problem on their own.”
He said a court ruling is unlikely to solve the existing problems.
“They won’t swap children again because in both families the girls are treated like biological children,” Astakhov said.
Last year the families already won a battle in court after a judge in the Chelyabinsk region ordered the maternity ward, where the mistake took place, should pay three million rubles (over $100,000) to each of the families.
