LONDON, England – The white baby girl born to black Nigerian parents seven days ago in London, is to undergo full genetic tests.And Ben and Angela Ihegboro are also trying to discover whether they have any white ancestry.The devout Christian couple believe there are no Whites on either side of their families that could have led to Nmachi’s skin colour. But Ben’s mother Amebo, 70, is unusual in having blue eyes. Ben and Angela agreed to let experts study Nmachi as geneticist Dr Mark Thomas of University College, London, said the odds of the baby’s white colouring were “between many millions to one and a million to one”.He said: “I suspect there’s been a mixture of a mutation, like albinism, combined with a dormant white gene.”Doesn’t matterBen, 44, a customer services adviser, said: “It doesn’t matter to us quite how she came about but we will do what we can to find answers. She’s a beautiful, miracle baby and we love her. She could be green and yellow – we would love her the same.”Ben and Angela, of Woolwich, South London, were amazed by their blonde daughter’s birth at Queen Mary’s Hospital, Sidcup.The reasons why this phenomenon could have occurred was looked at by experts quizzed by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). According to the radio and television network, there are three potential reasons for baby Nmachi’s unexpected appearance: “dormant white genes which entered both of her parents’ families long ago, a genetic mutation unique to her, or albinism”.The first reports on the family’s strange case had ruled out albinism, but the BBC says Nmachi’s doctors have not ruled it out.Albinism, a condition whereby a person has little or no colour in their skin, hair and eyes, can remain dormant in genes for many generations. Just because the couple’s living relatives aren’t afflicted by the disease, that doesn’t mean they aren’t carriers. It is not an uncommon condition in Nigeria.Another possible explanation is that Nmachi’s parents may harbour long dormant Caucasian DNA from a long forgotten interracial coupling.A third possibility is perhaps the most tantalising but also the scariest. Nmachi may have a unique genetic mutation that doctors have not seen before.
(The SUN/BBC)
