This story seems a bit odd to me as the vast majority of the article centers around the Human Fertilization and Embryology Bill currently being debated in Parliament rather than the human tragedy of the mistaken marriage.
Posted on 01/11/2008 3:39:18 PM PST by Aristotelian
Twins who were separated at birth have married each other, unaware that they were brother and sister.
Each had been adopted by a different family, with neither being told they had a twin.
A High Court judge annulled the marriage after the couple discovered they were siblings, the House of Lords has been told.
The judge ruled that the marriage had never validly existed.
The couple's identities, along with details of how they met and fell in love, remain a closely-guarded secret.
But the cross-bench peer Lord Alton, who told the Lords the case had been revealed to him by the judge involved, said the pair had felt an "inevitable attraction".
He raised the case to illustrate the need for adopted children to be given full access to their birth records during a debate on the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill last month.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
I don't think blood tests of old ever tested for sibling similarities, just looked for disease, right?
But I agree, now that we have DNA testing, that should be the new 'required' test, which would reveal genetic traits as well as things like 'we both carry the MS trait, eh?'. A lot more now can be determined via DNA than we ever could have done before with just a blood test.
I question the authenticity of the story. Those who are desperate to have all adoption records unsealed might be prepared to go to any lengths to make that happen. I do feel badly for these two people if this did in fact happen. I guess I just feel that if a birth mother or father requested anonymity after an adoption, their wishes should be respected. They did the right thing by allowing the children to be adopted. They should be allowed their privacy if that’s what they want.
These two met innocently, developed a relationship and got married.
I'm thinking the same things.
These people must feel terrible.
You only have genetic defects is if it is repeated for several generations.
Totally a non-story.
God could not fault them for this situation that came from absolute innocence.
We life in a world that is so screwed up, that even something like this could happen. And now these kids will have to pay the price for a sin that was not their own. I cannot believe that God would fault them.
A relationship that developed between two people who knew better and pursued it knowing all the while it was wrong, would not be the same. Guilt would have prevented the bonding in the same manner as the two innocents. They would always have known being revealed, it would cost them their sordid relationship.
I believe the laws that prevent familial marriages are sound. There is reason for them. And in all instances where prior knowledge was present, I would advocate rectification.
I simply cannot in this one. I am very sorry for these two kids. Pending a full understanding of what their potential kids might face, I would urge them to cool their jets later to quietly move away to live their lives together.
If it was certain the children would be damaged, I would have to consider alternatives. If the kids truly loved each other, I might suggest a vasectomy and some form of artificial insemination.
Love conquers all. Unreasoned piety seldom does.
Yes, it is. But mating half brothers and half sisters is no where near as "dangerous" as full brothers and sisters. Ask any animal breeder. The former is done fairly often, and in fact occurs in nature quite a bit as well (usually the same way as the sperm donor case, same sire, different dam.) But the latter is rarely, very rarely, done deliberately.
First cousins and half siblings share the same degree of genetic "closeness". Cousins share half of their ancestry, that is from the shared set of grandparents, as do half siblings, but the 1/2 comes from a single parent instead.
You are making two assumptions though. One, that both celebrated their birthdays on the true date, and two that they looked alike. My wife's brothers look very little like her and/or her sisters, even the one who shares the "coloration" of the brothers.
Sounds like some of the bums hanging out at the local city park.
LOL
Yep, they probably were able to catch stuff like RHfactor issues, too but they were mostly concerned about stds and stuff like hepititis.
There is no adultery unless there’s physical contact and/or lust.
not if they both carry the recessive gene for a serious defect
It's only more likely. When the gametes dance, nothing is certain.
They could have had themselves sterilized and adopt, or they could have had genetice counciling. If their family had no history of genetic problems, then they'd probably be OK. Assuming that their birth parents were both known and such a history was available.
After all when people with achondroplasia (most common form of dwarfism) marry, they have a about a 25% chance of having a baby who would very likely not even survive to be born, or would die at birth, yet such "little people" marry each other, and have children, all the time.
She’s my sister, but Damn she’s hot.......
Or in Die Walkure!
(For those who don’t know: Siegmund and Sieglinde were brother and sister separated at birth. Sieglinde marries Hunding. Siegmund comes after a fight and claims sanctuary—from Hunding’s men, who he has been fighting. That night, Siegmund and Sieglinde get involved and Sieglinde has a son, Siegfried, who was like Arnold Schwarzenegger without the deep intellectual interests.
(Not only that, but in Siegfried, the third opera, Siegfried gets Brunhilde, who apparently shares the same grandfather - Wotan.
(Amazing how this stuff sounds better in German, nicht wahr?)
Thanks for the response on point. I appreciate the thoughts.
Here we have two people who were abandoned at birth. I don’t care how much love is expressed by future parents, it’s something that may never leave them entirely. There are abandonment issues that may haunt these people for their entire lives. Again, they may not, but here these two have found an uncommonly exceptional soulmate that will go a long way toward easing that pain. And then this. Once again the most significant person(s) in their leves, were once again removed.
I was handed off by my parents to my grandparents around three years of age. My grandmother later explained that I told her and my grandfather that I hated them for a full year after that. This and some contributing factors had a terrible impact on my ability to bond.
This isn’t something that I dwell on. It’s something that never bothered me until some issues came up around the break up of my first marriage around 40, when my wife found it worthy to attack me based on the circumstances of my early years.
I’m 56 years old today, and I don’t touch on these matter often. It’s not something I dwell on. I re-established contact with my father at 18 and have had a decent relation ship with him since, with normal exceptions.
My mother and I never did accomplish that, even though she did try. And that is haunting in and of itself.
There are times though, when I look back on those early years and know that I’ll never resolve the issues that period raised in my life. My father is still alive, but I wouldn’t burden him with this at all. It’s just something you accept, even if you can’t forget.
These twins will carry this with them forever. This resolution is as unforgivable as it gets. And I would urge folks to do everything in their power to keep the relationship together and help ease these kids through these trying times.
My heart goes out to them.
Didn’t I hear this one from A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far Far Away...
This story seems a bit odd to me as the vast majority of the article centers around the Human Fertilization and Embryology Bill currently being debated in Parliament rather than the human tragedy of the mistaken marriage.
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