Women Separated at Birth in 1965 Take Legal Action Against Norwegian Government for Human Rights Violations

Back in 1965, a woman from Norway gave birth to a baby girl at a private hospital. Just a week later, she brought her little bundle of joy home, blissfully unaware of the life-altering mix-up that had occurred during her stay.

As time went on, the child’s dark curls set her apart from her mother, leading Karen Rafteseth Dokken to speculate that her little one had inherited traits from her husband’s mother. It wasn’t until nearly sixty years later that the shocking truth emerged: her biological daughter had been switched at birth in that very maternity ward in central Norway.

To put it plainly, the girl Karen raised, known as Mona, was not the baby she had given birth to.

Fast forward to the present, the Oslo District Court has recently heard their case. Karen and Mona allege that their human rights were neglected when authorities uncovered the mistake—long after the girls had become teenagers—and subsequently opted to cover it up. They believe this breach significantly hindered their family connections, asserting that this right is protected by the European Convention on Human Rights. Their demands? An apology followed by financial compensation.

In a poignant moment in court, a tearful Mrs. Rafteseth Dokken, now 78, recounted how discovering that she had been given the wrong child shattered her world years later. “I never once considered that Mona wasn’t my daughter,” she said. “She was named Mona after my mother, after all.”

Mona, on the other hand, shared her lifelong feeling of alienation. This unsettling sensation prompted her to take a DNA test in 2021, which confirmed that she wasn’t biologically related to the people who had raised her.

Interestingly, the woman who raised Mona’s biological sister was aware of the situation far earlier. A routine blood test in 1981 revealed that Linda Karin Risvik Gotaas, the girl in her care, wasn’t her biological offspring. Despite this shocking news, the woman did not pursue any legal avenues to rectify the matter. While the Norwegian health authorities learned of the mix-up back in 1985, they chose not to disclose the information to the families involved.

“Rights have definitely been trampled on,” asserted Kristine Aarre Hanes, the attorney representing Mona. She argued that the state had violated Mona’s right to discover her true identity for decades. “If she had known the truth in her youth, maybe things would have been different,” she lamented. Instead, it wasn’t until she was 57 years old that she finally learned of the reality, only to grapple with the loss of her biological father, who had passed away, and the complete absence of contact with her biological mother.

The details surrounding the 1965 mix-up at the Eggesbones hospital remain vague. Reports suggest that during the 1950s and 1960s, multiple children were accidentally switched at that very institution. Back then, babies were commonly grouped together while mothers took much-needed rest in separate rooms. Prior to permanent placements, some of these mix-ups were caught, but not this one.

In response to the gravity of the situation, an official from the Norwegian Ministry of Health and Care Services expressed that the state had no knowledge of other similar cases and that a public inquiry would not be forthcoming. Asgeir Nygaard, representing the Norwegian government, is pushing back against the claims, arguing that the switch took place in a private institution. He contends that the health directorate in the 1980s lacked the legal authority to inform the lay families of the mix-up.

“Documentation from that era shows that officials found it hard to navigate these assessments, particularly since it was legally ambiguous what actions they could take,” Mr. Nygaard explained in a statement ahead of the hearing.

Consequently, in court, he’ll argue that no compensation should be awarded and that the claims might be too old to pursue legally. The case is set to continue until Thursday, but it’s yet unclear when a final decision will be rendered.

Edited by: Ali Musa

alimusa@axadletimes.com

Axadle international–Monitoring