Posted on 01/14/2008 12:25:48 PM PST by Renfield
London - A pair of twins in Britain who were separated at birth and adopted by different families married each other without realizing they were brother and sister and have now had their union annulled by a court, it was revealed Friday. The extraordinary case, brought to public attention by David Alton, a liberal member of Britain's House of Lords, prompted calls Friday for legislation enshrining a child's right to know who her or his biological parents are.
The twins, whose marriage was recently annulled by a High Court judge because "it never validly existed," had felt an "inevitable attraction" to each other, Lord Alton said Friday.
Details of the identities of the twins involved have been kept secret, but Lord Alton said the pair did not realize they were related until after their marriage.
"They were never told that they were twins," Alton told the House of Lords. "They met later in life and felt an inevitable attraction, and the judge had to deal with the consequences of the marriage that they entered into and all the issues of their separation."
According to Alton, the case raises the wider issue of the importance of strengthening the rights of children to know the identities of their biological parents.
"If you start trying to conceal someone's identity, sooner or later the truth will out," he said.
"The right for children to know the identity of their parents is a human right," said Alton.
Pam Hodgkins, of the charity Adults Affected by Adoption, said there had been previous cases of separated siblings being attracted to each other.
"We have a resistance, a very strong incest taboo where we are aware that someone is a biological relative," she said. "But when we are unaware of that relationship, we are naturally drawn to people who are quite similar to ourselves."
-- Jimmy Buffett
A “Festering Eurabia would consider such a practice, custom. Allahu fubar!
Seeing as there is a 1 in 365 chance you will meet someone with the same birthday as you, (not all that high considering how many people we meet in the ordinary course of life,)I agree that would not occur to me as something other than a coincidence. My mother in law, rest her soul, and I shared the same birthday, different years.
I take it they aren’t identical twins.
My fiance's mother is an easy birther. Not only did she give birth to two offspring on the same date (different years), they were born IN THE SAME CAR (VW Fastback) on the way to the hospital.
I just get a kick outa that.
Not if they are of the opposite sex.
this is such a rare occurrence that any major legislation based on it is simply taking advantage of the bizarre exception to the rule.
“It would be too much to take in all at one time. And with your whole family there while you found out?”
That is the big issue - finding out privately would allow some leeway in how to address it. Family present would just be a nightmare.
These days, the story could be about two women who married or two men who married, but I suspect that if they’d been identical twins they would have not made the mistake.
Of course, the way things are going, it may not be long before we make it legal for siblings to marry each other.
The Paddies are taking over.....
“How could they meet and marry and not know that they shared the same birthday and were born in the same town? They both knew they were adopted.”
Adopted kids do not necessaraly know their birth town.
They did not know they were twins.
Might be BS, but I cannot tell from this.
How could they meet and marry and not know that they shared the same birthday and were born in the same town? They both knew they were adopted.
Pure bs.
The Paddies are taking over.....
The Paddies (Christians) have been here for some time. To my knowledge they haven't flown any planes into any buildings in the name of Allah, nor have they declared any jihad on the US either.
But they have such good intentions.
I mean, it does not mention “identical,” but it doesn’t deny it either.
Even if not identical they would look an awful lot each other ...
so was my response.
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