Long-Lost Son Embraces Mother After 42 Years of Separation

Jimmy Lippert Thyden, a man who was stolen from his mother at birth and told he had died, has reunited with his birth mother in Chile after 42 years. Thyden, a criminal defense attorney from the U.S., embarked on a journey to find his birth family after reading about Chilean-born adoptees being reunited with their relatives. With the help of a Chilean nonprofit organization, Thyden discovered that he had been a victim of counterfeit adoption. Tens of thousands of babies were taken from Chilean families in the 1970s and 1980s, coinciding with the human rights violations during the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet. Thyden's reunion highlights the ongoing efforts to address counterfeit adoption cases and seek government recognition of the adoption scheme's pervasiveness.