# Conjoined twins
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conjoined-twins/444004
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [April 4, 2008, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conjoined-twins/444004 "2008-04-04T23:16:55Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2008, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conjoined-twins/444004/1 "2008-04-04T23:16:55Z")
Are some twins conjoined due to genetic factors? IOW, do conjoined twins have a greater probability of giving birth to conjoined twins, themselves, than the greater population?
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### Author:  [@GilaB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GilaB)
#### Post date: [April 6, 2008, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conjoined-twins/444004/2 "2008-04-06T02:37:53Z")
Well, conjoined twins are a type of identical twin. Identical twins happen when one fertilized egg splits into two cells, and as I understand it, that’s a completely random event, meaning that there’s no tendency towards having identical twins that can be inherited. (Women can inherit the tendency to ovulate more than one egg at a time, which leads to fraternal twins.) So I doubt that conjoined twins would have greater odds of having conjoined twins than anybody else would.