Update: A recent viral news piece told the story of a married couple, who, for years, allegedly thought that their similar birthdays and appearances were mere coincidences but found out they were biological twins after a fertility clinic discovered the uncanny likeness of their DNA profiles. But the clinic’s alleged discovery, though astonishing, is currently unclear and seemingly unfounded. Reportedly, a doctor at an unnamed IVF clinic in Jackson, Mississippi revealed the details to Mississippi Herald and even if his claims were published by other news outlets, Snopes has since released an article debunking such claims.
As per the story, the man and woman allegedly sought the help of the clinic because of their struggle to conceive a child. While the clinic does not normally verify if there’s a link between two DNA profiles, the assistant handling the case supposedly noticed that the couple’s results were far too similar.
Upon checking that the man and woman shared the same date of birth, the doctor allegedly concluded that they must be twins. He tried to explain the case to the couple and when he asked them if they knew about their biological link, the doctor said they laughed at the idea.
“The husband said that a lot of people remarked on the fact they shared the same birthdays and looked similar to each other, but he said it was just a funny coincidence and that the couple were definitely not related.”
Mississippi’s Herald’s story went on to say that the man and woman met in college and felt comfortable with each other right away because they were adopted following the deaths of their parents. The article claimed that the couple’s biological parents have perished in a car crash and since the infants’ relatives were unwilling to take them in, the state adopted them out to two different families. These families were never informed that the respective baby they welcomed into their homes had a twin.
The doctor insisted that they were biological twins because of the pieces of evidence yielded by their DNA. Unable to immediately accept the doctor’s statements, the wife reportedly pleaded and urged the doctor to say everything was a joke. In a dramatic twist of events, the website claimed that the pair is now thinking twice about their future together.
While the state has yet to confirm or deny the existence of such case, U.K. politician Lord Alton revealed a similar plight in 2008. It’s the reason why he pushed to grant children greater rights to know more about their biological parents. Due to the “appalling” truth, the couple had their marriage annulled.
“If you don’t know you are biologically related to someone, you may become attracted to them and tragedies like this may occur,” he said.
That time, Pam Hodgkins from non-profit group Adults Affected by Adoption told Standard that there were previous cases of siblings who become attracted to each other because they didn’t know they were related.
“We have a resistance, a very strong incest taboo where we are aware that someone is a biological relative. But when we are unaware of that relationship, we are naturally drawn to people who are quite similar to ourselves. And of course there is unlikely to be anyone more similar to any individual than their sibling.”
Chris Atkins, also from the same organization, believes that although rare, twins being attracted to each other is not a surprising case. He calls it “genetic sexual attraction” and since people tend to like others with similar preferences or looks, siblings who reunite and are unaware that they’re related will think, “This is my ideal match.”
Audrey Sandbank, author of Twins and Triplet Psychology , also said that the twins could feel “like soulmates” upon their first meeting because of the shared genes. For her, cases of lovers discovering they are twins are traumatic.
“This is a terrible trauma for them. They lost each other as babies and now they have lost each other again. They have been bereaved twice.”
A Genetic Sexual Attraction forum has been created to help people with the same ordeal.
[Featured Image by iStock]