Instructor’s Copy
Lab Worksheet – That’s My Baby
Baby Doe and Baby Smith were born two months ago at the same time in the same hospital. Jane
Doe has noticed that Baby Doe does not seem to resemble her or her husband Thomas and is
concerned that their biological baby and the Smith’s biological baby may have been accidentally
switched at birth. The Smith family was contacted by the hospital and agreed to give blood samples
for testing. The country court is awaiting the blood test results so they can make a ruling on this
case to determine if Baby Doe and Baby Smith are with the correct families or have, indeed, been
switched.
You will determine the blood types of the enclosed sample and use this information to conclude if
the Doe and Smith babies were switched at the hospital or were sent home with the correct parent.
Unfortunately, 2 of the vials of blood have been broken in shipping, so tests will need to be run with
the remaining 4. You will be testing Mr. and Mrs. Doe’s blood, Baby Doe’s blood and Tyson
Smith’s blood. These will be conducted in a blind test where you will not know the identity of the
blood samples until after you have completed your tests.
Following the procedures in your training lab, identify the blood type of the following four samples.
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Jane Doe
Type _____________
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Thomas Doe
Type _____________
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Baby Doe
Type _____________
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Tyson Smith
Type _____________
Draw what you see on each slide here.
1. Record the blood type of the blood sample you tested in Part 4. A+
2. You have just been shrunk to the size of a red blood cell. You look closely at the red blood cell
to determine what blood type it is. Where are you going to be looking?
At the cell membrane.
3. You have a friend with AB+ blood. Your friend’s red blood cells will contain which proteins?
Protein A, Protein B, and Protein Rh are all present.
4. Which one of these is a “good” thing to have in your blood? Antibody or Antigen? Antibody
5. Describe how you would know if you were to see agglutination occur.
The blood would appear to get many clumps in it.
6. What would you add to a drop of patient’s blood if you wanted to determine their blood type?
Antibody or Antigen? Antibody
7. How many total drops of blood do you need to find a patient’s entire blood type? 3
8. You are trying to determine the blood type of a patient. You complete the necessary tests and
see the following results: No agglutination with Antibody A
No agglutination with Antibody B
Agglutination with Antibody Rh
What is the blood type of the patient? O+
9. You know the following genetic information about a man – he has an AO gene pair (type A
blood). You know the following genetic information about a woman – she has a AB gene pair
(type AB blood). This man and woman get married and have a baby. List the three possible
blood types this baby could have (do not list the possible gene pairs the baby could have, just
the resulting blood types). Our choices are A, B, AB, or O.
A
AB
B
10. You have the gene pair BO. Your father has the gene pair AB.
What is your blood type? B
What is your father’s blood type? AB
List one GENE PAIR that your mother could be (your answer will need two letters) OO, AO,
BO are all possible answers.