A Beijing hospital has been ordered to pay 500,000 yuan (US$68,000) to two families 21 years after they took home the wrong newborn babies, the Beijing Youth Daily said yesterday.

A woman surnamed Pan, who gave birth to twin boys at the hospital in 1986, watched as her "sons" became less alike as they grew older, the report said. One grew to 184 centimeters in height with strong features, the other grew into a "skinny and delicate" child about 14cm shorter.

After neighbors and her sons' classmates mentioned seeing a boy "exactly the same" as the older "twin", Pan took her sons to be tested. The results showed only her younger son was biologically related. Pan eventually found her biological son in the care of another family surnamed Rao, who had delivered a baby boy at the same hospital four days before. The two families sued the hospital after confirming that they had each taken home the other's baby.

The court said the hospital had "lacked effective regulations governing the separation of new-born babies" and ordered emotional damages.

Last year, two Chinese families in the southern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region sued a local hospital 15 years after they took home the wrong baby boys.

(Shanghai Daily December 14, 2007)