So, OP, what are you saying? That two rights make a left?
I always thought it was three. (You know, as in: "Two wrongs don’t make a right, but three lefts do.) 
This case was actually written up in a journal of medicine. And the thing about the twins being absorbed, I did run across that while doing some online research about chimeras. Being left-handed, that article stuck in my mind. Seems some scientists hold this theory, and I’ve heard that as many as 1 in 8 pregnancies actually starts out as twins.
There is a rather common idea that dermoid cysts are “absorbed twins” but this is not true. Regardless of the fact that the Catholic Church used to make the “mother” of a dermoid cyst have it baptized upon removal.
My stomach was full as it could be
And nobody ever got around
To finding Timothy
Obligatory Onion link.
This is not a proven theory, nor is it possible to prove. The theory itself however is known as the ‘vansihing twin theory’.
The idea being that there are either 2 distinct causes of left handedness or that left handers were once part of multiples that got absorbed or didn’t survive for whatver reason. AN Austrialian scientist claimed to have debunked the Vanishing Twin theory some years ago:
however the reason that the he didn’t is that a second zygote may disapear within hours of a women being pregnant. To monitor this process effecitvely would mean monitoring each women effectviely from the moment of conception. This, of course, is massively impractical and impossible to achieve under scientific conditions. So jry is likely to be forever out on this one but one of two things can be said. Either:-
- There are 2 kinds of lefties; or
- Lefties were once part of multiples
There is a good Time article explaining why these 2 should be the case:
“Left-handedness” is not just about the hand one may use to write or throw a ball. It’s merely an outward visual sign of someone who may be brain-wired very differently than the larger “right-handed” population.
It seems to me those who have issue with left-handedness and the larger brain hemisphere dominance issues are part of the inferior, right-handedness majority.
Nitpick, She’d be related like an aunt rather than a mother (or at least a “half” aunt if, to compound the improbable, the merged twins she was just happened to have been fathered by different men.)
The “absorbed twin” thing happens a lot more frequently than anyone would think. I don’t recall the %, but it’s non-trivial.
As for the OP, I’ve never heard of this. Are mirror image twins always different handed?, though?
It’s a zombie twin, people! A Zombie twin!!
No. It is not true.
That’s the name I’ve heard this theory go under too. I’m surprised so few of you have ever heard of it - the OP is not asking some off-the-wall question. I think I might have originally read about in New Scientist, but any internet links to that article seem to have … vanished. :eek:
Vanishing twin theory I’ve heard of. As an explanation for most left-handed twins- that is off the wall.
But it’s part of vanishing twin theory, and it does have a lot of logic behind it.
You’re left-handed, aren’t you!
Darn cannibals!:mad:
I don’t know if lefties are surviving twin-eaters, but I do know left-handed zombies eat right-handers’ brainzzzzzzz.
All right, this has gone on long enough. I just can’t live with the lie anymore. Yes, I absorbed my right-handed twin. And he was delicious.
left hander here. can i just say…
EW!!! :eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:
So… I’m the evil twin…I killed my twin…AND I’m a Zombie?
Cool
I don’t expect that that is true, though I love the idea.
There is such a thing as mirror image identical twins though, and they are generally opposite handed.
It’s possible that the theory has become more widely known in the seven years since the question was asked.