Woman who had sex with identical twins told it is 'not possible' to identify dad (news.sky.com)

by qingcharles 63 comments 19 points
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63 comments

[−] pseudocoup 46d ago
From reading it appears all parties are invested in the outcome of children. So this becomes interesting for other reasons.

What is the current state of the art in this type of testing? Why is a definitive result too far off but also too expensive?

[−] PaulKeeble 44d ago
Epigenetic changes might be one possibility, they are sometimes passed down to children and are responses to environmental adjustments. We don't know most of the rules around them however nor what can be passed down and to what extent but potentially in the future we should know more.
[−] muskstinks 44d ago
You need to find a genome change if it exists which requires whole genome sequencing. so its a money question and doesn't guarantee a result
[−] giantg2 44d ago
And even if a genome change exists, it may not show up in the offspring depending on which version of gamete they're derived from.
[−] GeekyBear 44d ago
With identical twins, the genome is identical since both twins derive from the same fertilized egg.

I'm not sure how future advancements can overcome that issue.

[−] muskstinks 44d ago
There can be very small mutation which you might be able to find if it happened.
[−] hnbad 44d ago
If I understand correctly, the current outcome is that the twin remains on the birth certificate but his legal rights granted by paternity have been suspended?

I understand the reasoning that the inability to prove a positive does not suffice to prove a negative but clearly his presence on the birth certificate is a positive claim that has been ruled invalid - shouldn't it then be removed, at least temporarily?

[−] bit1993 44d ago
Hash collision
[−] gadders 44d ago

>>A woman who had sex with identical twins separately "within four days of each other"

Amazing.

[−] muskstinks 44d ago
Why?

And why do we evaluate this on something like hn?

Are you shaming a person for having sex or?

[−] mionhe 44d ago
A person expressing wonder at a surprising situation does not require shaming.

And yes, I think when a person finds themselves in a situation like this they should be examining their life choices.

I don't know why it's on hn though.

[−] muskstinks 44d ago
"they should be examining their life choices." based on your world view though. We became a very boring race only optimizing our lives for work. No alien race would look at us and think we are smart spending so much time doing things which do not add value to our society just because we can't organize ourselves better.

Just because we conditioned ourselves like this, doesn't mean its right or wrong.

And this article doesn't give us enough insight to even judge.

Birth control is not perfect. 99% is very little in comparision to the amount of sex happening in a population of 8 billion people.

[−] asah 44d ago
"Amazing" is not necessarily a judgment, could in fact be congratulations or even judgment-free entirely just amazing story.
[−] ahhhhnoooo 44d ago
Right? Good for her/them, assuming everyone was consenting.
[−] ap99 44d ago
Not really, no.

Sex has consequences like these people are seeing.

Consenting people can still make mistakes and ruin relationships where if they had exercised better judgment they wouldn't have had problems.

[−] IAmBroom 44d ago
A child has one biological mother and effectively two biological fathers.

A significant portion of the population have zero of one or both groups known.

The child will likely be just fine.

[−] ap99 44d ago
The sex part is a bit shame worthy I'd say.

But the part where this woman cannot identify the father is definitely worth shaming.

[−] ahhhhnoooo 44d ago
Consenting adults can have sex with each other. There's zero shame in that.

And though having these two partners was unwise for this reason, it's not really a matter of shame so much as one where we should just find a practical solution that doesnt mess with the kid.

[−] muskstinks 44d ago
No birth control is 100%. We live on a planet were very rare situations are getting published as 'news'. So the fact that you read this news, doesn't tell you anything shameful at all. You are just biased and don't even realise it.

And no you are not allowed to shame other people for their decisions if its not clear that there is a kid getting abused in any way. People are adults and not yours to criticsize if it doesn't affect you or a 3th entity which can't protect itself.

Its your personal opionion you can easily and should keep yourself.

[−] ap99 44d ago
I'm biased against this and you're biased towards it.

And your opinion is just as worthy of being kept to yourself.

It's not that you're against shame you just don't want your bad behaviors shamed.

[−] muskstinks 44d ago
Nope our viewpoints are not the same like a coin with two similiar sides.

I let people do what they want to do without projecting something onto them based of my values. So my viewpoint is openness.

Yours is the complete opposite. You project your values onto them. You are forcing something which doesn't affect you onto others. You want to control them.

Its like people who have a religion/believe say you also have to believe while i say i'm not allowed to push you into something like this.

And in my eyes this is not bad behavior at least not from the information i have. I would be concerned if and only if the kid would grow up without any parent.

[−] nodesocket 44d ago
I mean, 4 days and then she hooks up with your twin brother. Yes, I am shaming her.
[−] spzb 44d ago
Interesting bias to blame the woman. How do you know that the second twin wasn't taking advantage of their identical looks to convince the woman it was the same man she had slept with the first time? She may not even have been aware that he had an identical sibling.
[−] gadders 44d ago
Oh, I blame everyone who was aware.

If one brother was pretending to be the other I blame him more.

[−] ahhhhnoooo 44d ago
Maybe everyone was aware and consenting.
[−] ap99 44d ago
[flagged]
[−] ap99 44d ago
Exactly. This whole "no shame" society has gone a bit too far.
[−] rich_sasha 44d ago
When I first read the headline, I thought it's about a woman who had sex with her own identical twin (and somehow that means their father cannot be identified).

So I was almost disappointed when I read it properly.

[−] readthenotes1 44d ago
It'd be about the same Jerry Springer style
[−] leni536 44d ago
This feels like purely a legal question. The child is equally related the twins both genetically and seemingly in other relationships.
[−] josefritzishere 44d ago
Flagged? The chat looks pretty innoccuous.
[−] qingcharles 40d ago
Yeah, no idea why this was flagged.
[−] Fire-Dragon-DoL 44d ago
Oh wow, if they break up, who has to pay for the kid then?
[−] nyeah 44d ago
Rage farming with no scientific interest. Sad to see this upvoted to front page.
[−] giantg2 44d ago
There is an interesting question - how can we prove paternity or other DNA based questions with identical twins (full sequencing looking for mutations?) and if we can't, how do we handle legal responsibilities in this sort of case?

There's a lot of good material to discuss here.

[−] mieses 44d ago
no there isn't but i appreciate your amusing stupidity. this is a good example of the state of exception that most people with common sense intuitively understand.
[−] snvzz 44d ago
Considering outcomes of children that grow up in a single parent scenario are well-known to be much better when it is the father rather than the mother, in the interest of the child, I would propose splitting custody between the two fathers, leaving the mother out.
[−] cjs_ac 44d ago

> Considering outcomes of children that grow up in a single parent scenario are well-known to be much better when it is the father rather than the mother

I've never heard this and would be very interested in a source.

[−] giantg2 44d ago
Not the same person, but here's something. Just to note, the income portion mention might be lacking additional investigation as child support is typically not accounted for in income numbers.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-single-father-households-...

[−] spzb 44d ago
The buried lede in that link is that mothers who don't have custody of their children are more likely to remain in close emotional contact with their children than fathers are when in the same position. So children living with dad still benefit from having both parents involved in their upbringing. Which undermines OP's assertion that this child would be better off without their mother around.
[−] giantg2 44d ago
Yes, involvement from both parents seems to be the major factor regardless of sex. There is likely additional research needed on why fathers disengage more when the mother has primary custody. With a majority of single parent households being headed by mothers, it seems another area ripe for research is how unlikely it is that the majority of fathers are disengaged to create such a large effect on the whole single mother cohort. Likewise, with the way custody tends to be grated in court, you would expect single father households to have a higher percentage of unengaged mothers due if it was determined that the mothers were the lesser choice for child welfare. I would guess looking at outcomes where one parent died would mostly control for that support mechanism.
[−] ap99 44d ago
Just google it.

Better outcomes all around when the father is the only parent as opposed to when the mother is the only parent.

[−] spzb 44d ago
The burden of proof falls on the person making the assertion. Why should anyone else have to do the work that he/she/they didn't bother with?
[−] giantg2 44d ago
"Why should anyone else have to do the work that he/she/they didn't bother with?"

Because they are curious (consistent with the culture of this site). They would also be more likely to trust their own sources, I assume.

[−] yummybrainz 44d ago
April Fool's?
[−] ahhhhnoooo 44d ago
What the fuck? Leave the mother out of her own child's life? Because statistically there is a marginal difference, which may not even apply here, because population wide numbers aren't a good indicator for specific cases?

Your approach is inhumane.

[−] spzb 44d ago
[citation needed]
[−] muskstinks 44d ago
Yeah probably because our patrichary is shit and woman earn a lot less money than man do which makes it easier for the man to pay for baby sitter, nanny, education etc.

Perhaps we fixup our society instead of blaming it to a woman?