DNA TESTS FOR PARENTS AT HOSPITAL.

THE hospital whose blunder led to mixed race twins being born to a white couple may offer parents who were treated at the fertility clinic DNA tests for their children.

The assisted conception unit at Leeds General Infirmary was named last week as being at the centre of the mix-up which appears to have happened when sperm taken from the black couple was used to fertilise the egg of a white woman.

A Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust spokesman said the tests to establish a child's biological parentage without doubt would only be offered to someone who had successfully undergone IVF treatment at the clinic and only after a range of other options had been explored.

Since the identity of the clinic was made public by the High Court more than 30 patients have called a special helpline set up to deal with concerns of parents who received treatment.

But the spokesman also stressed that DNA tests would only go ahead if it was considered to be in the best interests of the children involved.

'One of the key questions would be whydo you want to know,' he said.

'If it was considered that the reason was not in the best interests of the child, it would not go ahead.'

He said the tests would only be carried out as a last resort at the request of the parents and only following extensive counselling.