Separated-at-birth twins get married

[GertrudaRose]

Of course I would meet with him.  But given my age he would be really old, so there's not much chance of that.  I figure that if I am supposed to connect with my sister, the opportunity will present itself. 

[Polly]

That would be something!  :)

[Richard]

Rules of attraction take strange twist

Richard Woods, Claire Newell | January 14, 2008

IMAGINE what they thought, imagine the turmoil they endured.

They are the twins who, it emerged on Friday, were separated at birth and given up for adoption only to meet by chance years later - and marry.

The man and woman, unaware they were siblings, had grown up in different families. Yet when fate brought them together again, they experienced an uncanny bond and a sexual attraction.

As Lord Alton, who revealed the case, said: "They were never told they were twins.

"They met later in life and felt an inevitable attraction."

Did they sense something? It certainly must have seemed odd: both had been born on the same day in the same year.

According to Lord Alton, who was told about the case by a judge, the couple married and later discovered they were twins.

The marriage was annulled at a special hearing in the High Court last year with the judge ruling it had never been valid. Under Britain's 1986 Marriage Act, it is illegal to marry your sibling, parent, grandparent, grandchild and various other blood relatives.

The identity of the twins has not been revealed, nor their ages or where they are from.

Experts, however, suspect they must be at least 30 because the British law on adoption changed in 1976, making it much easier for adopted children to discover their biological parents.

Since then, too, every effort has been made to keep together siblings put up for adoption.

Lord Alton raised the case in the House of Lords to draw attention to what he says is a rising risk of siblings unwittingly marrying each other because of the prevalence of IVF treatment.

Since 1991, more than 27,000 babies have been born from donated sperm, eggs and embryos. There may now be thousands of people who unwittingly share one parent - and who may one day meet and fall in love.

Do such unwitting siblings have a special attraction to each other? And does the law need to be changed so that birth certificates always make it clear who a child's biological parents are?

The case of the twins who married is not the first time a brother and sister have been lovers without knowing their blood relationship.

In one case in the US, a Polish couple had 13 children and gave up nine for adoption. They were all placed with families in a fairly small geographical area. Some of the children were told they had been adopted, others were not. Gary Klahr grew up not knowing he was adopted and in 1979 met and dated Micka Zeman. They had a relationship for six months - and only later found out they were brother and sister.

"My relationship with my sister is the kind of thing that could have you jumping out of the window," he said later. "But we didn't know. Thank God we didn't get married."

Mr Klahr also learned that his best friend, a man he had met by chance in a bar, was in fact one of his brothers.

In Britain, William and Annette Watch had their marriage annulled in 1971 after it turned out they were half-brother and half-sister. When a court declared their marriage incestuous, Annette said: " We've been so happy together and I just can't bear it." With identical twins, there are powerful reasons for a special relationship - even if they have been separated.

Having come from a single egg and sperm, they have the same genetic makeup, which exerts a profound influence on their lives even if they have been brought up in different circumstances.

However, with fraternal twins - who come from two eggs - and ordinary siblings, fewer genes are shared and there is no obvious reason why there should be an innate powerful attraction. Yet researchers believe that a peculiar syndrome does exist in cases where close relatives meet after being separated in childhood.

Glenn Wilson, a reader in personality at the Institute of Psychiatry in London, said: "It's now a widely recognised phenomenon that if you meet someone you have been separated from as a child you may find you are extremely attracted to them.

Ivor Lytton is one of those. In 1998, Lytton, from Edinburgh, met Rita Meadows, who had grown up in South Africa, at a dinner party in Scotland.

Lytton had organised the event after tracing Meadows, who had been adopted as a baby. She was his sister - but he had no idea how powerful the effect of meeting her would be.

"From the moment we met, I was smitten," he said later.

It nearly ruined his marriage and his life.

The danger is that siblings, unaware of their relationship, may marry and have children.

The similarity in their DNA poses significant health risks. "Siblings share half their genes just like a parent and offspring," said Steve Jones, professor of genetics at University College London. "So the problems which could arise from having a child with (a sibling) and having one with a parent are the same.

Lord Alton and others are challenging the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill that is now going through parliament.

They argue that in the age of IVF it is more important than ever for children to know their biological past.

However, some experts argue that forcing parents to record the full biological origins of children on birth certificates could sow even more confusion, and point out that in up to 10 per cent of ordinary births, the husband or partner of the mother is not the true father.

- The Sunday Times

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/sto...40,00.html