# Identical twins and paternity **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 30, 2006, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identical-twins-and-paternity/354824 "2006-04-30T07:36:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2006, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identical-twins-and-paternity/354824/1 "2006-04-30T07:36:31Z")
What if a woman claims to have had sex with two identical twins and conceived a child, and both twins either confirm or deny, while the paternity test reveals that one of them is indeed the father? Do they split the alimony? Pay double? Fight it out with baseball bats? ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2006, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identical-twins-and-paternity/354824/2 "2006-04-30T07:42:55Z")
I just realized “alimony” probably isn’t the right word. Insert “child support” instead. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2006, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identical-twins-and-paternity/354824/3 "2006-04-30T08:17:46Z")
Nope. The twins are genetically identical. ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2006, 8:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identical-twins-and-paternity/354824/4 "2006-04-30T08:38:39Z")
I always thought this would be a good murder plot. One twin sits at a bar, the other murders someone. Each one claims he was the one at the bar with the alibi. I’m not sure how you’d get over reasonable doubt. ---
**Author:** ![hlanelee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3bc359/32.png) [@hlanelee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hlanelee)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2006, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identical-twins-and-paternity/354824/5 "2006-04-30T11:25:08Z")
What about cousins… identical cousins? :rolleyes: I’ll move along now. ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2006, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identical-twins-and-paternity/354824/6 "2006-04-30T11:59:46Z")
It’s happened > **[Paternity suit runs into double trouble](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/nov/28/davidsmith.theobserver)** > > It is a paternity suit that not even DNA testing can solve. A five-year-old boy may never know his father's identity because his mother claims she had sex with identical twins at the time he was conceived. > [@](#): > > It is a paternity suit that not even DNA testing can solve. A five-year-old boy may never know his father’s identity because his mother claims she had sex with identical twins at the time he was conceived. According to the article, even though they are identical twins it may still be possible that they have some slight differences in their DNA > [@](#): > > Scientists in Canada have said it is possible for identical twins to have slightly different DNA because of genetic mutations while the embryos are duplicating in the mother’s womb at an early stage of pregnancy. But such differences are not detectable with the standard method of testing. ---
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2006, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identical-twins-and-paternity/354824/7 "2006-04-30T12:14:44Z")
> [@DanBlather](#): > > I always thought this would be a good murder plot. One twin sits at a bar, the other murders someone. Each one claims he was the one at the bar with the alibi. I’m not sure how you’d get over reasonable doubt. There was an Isaac Asimov ‘union club’ story that explored this idea… not really twins, and I’m not sure if it was a murder. But two hoodlums, with a ‘striking resemblence’ to each other, (they were nicknamed the twins by other criminals they worked with,) who had fondness for running scams like this… one committing a crime while the other had a good alibi, and doing everything they could to establish doubt as to which was which. Eventually, one of them was caught in the act and chased, but he managed to meet up with his ‘twin’ and figured he was home free, that no-one would be able to tell which one had just run into the building. Unfortunately, it was a bright day outside, and both guys had a fondness for light-sensitive sunglasses that took a little while to clear up again… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2006, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identical-twins-and-paternity/354824/8 "2006-04-30T12:44:24Z")
> [@DanBlather](#): > > I always thought this would be a good murder plot. One twin sits at a bar, the other murders someone. Each one claims he was the one at the bar with the alibi. I’m not sure how you’d get over reasonable doubt. L&O:SVU did this, except they were children and one was being raised as a girl due to a botched circumcision. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2006, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identical-twins-and-paternity/354824/9 "2006-04-30T13:11:15Z")
> [@DanBlather](#): > > I always thought this would be a good murder plot. One twin sits at a bar, the other murders someone. Each one claims he was the one at the bar with the alibi. I’m not sure how you’d get over reasonable doubt. The Practice had a story like this, only it was a rape and not a murder. Mark Frost’s book “The List of 7” featured a pair of reformed twin criminals who used this gimmick during their burglary careers but it wasn’t central to the story. ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2006, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identical-twins-and-paternity/354824/10 "2006-04-30T16:31:13Z")
> [@cazzle](#): > > It’s happened > [Paternity suit runs into double trouble | World news | The Guardian](http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1361255,00.html) > According to the article, even though they are identical twins it may still be possible that they have some slight differences in their DNA My father was an identical twin. As they aged they looked less and less alike. [Here is a picture at about age 65.](http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/dwsimm2000/detail?.dir=/8cf7&.dnm=a5afscd.jpg&.src=ph) Not much alike any more. Although can be some DNA differences they are unlikely to be discovered on a DNA test. I believe the tests are done on a sample basis rather than a complete examination of the entire string. That is, sample sequences are taken from the entire DNA string and those samples are analyzed. That’s why the results are probabalistic rather than certain. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2006, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identical-twins-and-paternity/354824/11 "2006-04-30T18:14:13Z")
> [@cazzle](#): > > According to the article, even though they are identical twins it may still be possible that they have some slight differences in their DNA While this is true, the odds are that the genetic difference between a random cell from Twin A and a random cell from Twin B would be no greater than two random cells from Twin A. We are all of us constantly picking up random mutations throughout our bodies. The vast majority of them are totally without effect. In order to be useful for paternity, you’d have to find one that happened to one twin very early in development, so that the majority of his cells would carry it. That would require a huge amount of very detailed work and there’s no guarantee of finding anything. No one’s going to attempt it just for a paternity suit. ---
**Author:** ![Jake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jake)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2006, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identical-twins-and-paternity/354824/12 "2006-04-30T19:33:41Z")
But their fingerprints would be different. Wouldn’t they? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2006, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identical-twins-and-paternity/354824/13 "2006-04-30T19:43:14Z")
> [@Jake](#): > > But their fingerprints would be different. > Wouldn’t they? 😕 [Yes they would.](http://multiples.about.com/cs/funfacts/a/twinfingerprint.htm) ---
**Author:** ![gabriela](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/db5fbb/32.png) [@gabriela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gabriela)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2006, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identical-twins-and-paternity/354824/14 "2006-04-30T20:15:49Z")
> [@David Simmons](#): > > [Yes they would.](http://multiples.about.com/cs/funfacts/a/twinfingerprint.htm) Cool. I never kenw that. Now I have another thing to add to my forensic working knowledge that, in a few short years, I will never remember where I learned it. ---
**Author:** ![Mississippienne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d2c977/32.png) [@Mississippienne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mississippienne)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2006, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identical-twins-and-paternity/354824/15 "2006-04-30T21:15:01Z")
I believe this question has been asked before (re: paternity) and the answer seems to have been that if one twin can’t prove there was no physical way he could have fathered the child, ex. if he was out of the country at the time, the twins have to split child support. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2006, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identical-twins-and-paternity/354824/16 "2006-04-30T23:18:35Z")
> [@Jake](#): > > But their fingerprints would be different. > Wouldn’t they? 😕 Yep. That’s because fingerprint formation is at least partially a random process, not dictated by genetics. ---
**Author:** ![Ceejaytee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ceejaytee/32/2956_2.png) [@Ceejaytee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ceejaytee)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2006, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identical-twins-and-paternity/354824/17 "2006-05-01T13:56:00Z")
Not exactly the same situation, but in NY there was a case (\* In re Nasert\*) where a woman claimed that she was the daughter of one of 2 identical twins. Her presumed father had died and she wanted to establish that she was his child so she could object to the probate of the will. The living twin agreed to have his DNA tested so paternity could be established (there was sufficient evidence that he had never had sex with the woman’s mother, and couldn’t be the father). The test showed a 99.6% probability that the decedent was the woman’s father and she was allowed to object to the probate of the will. As for the murdering twins scenario, Martin Landau did that over 30 years ago on Columbo. Excellent episode. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2006, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identical-twins-and-paternity/354824/18 "2006-05-01T14:14:37Z")
Wasn’t there something in the last few years about Asian twin girls…one good, one bad…and some kind of genetic stink that was kicked up over a murder or something? ---
**Author:** ![Cerowyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/82dd89/32.png) [@Cerowyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerowyn)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2006, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identical-twins-and-paternity/354824/19 "2006-05-01T16:42:42Z")
> [@Kalhoun](#): > > Wasn’t there something in the last few years about Asian twin girls…one good, one bad…and some kind of genetic stink that was kicked up over a murder or something? Girls of Korean descent in California, IIRC. Can’t remember anything specific, I’m afraid. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2006, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identical-twins-and-paternity/354824/20 "2006-05-01T16:54:10Z")
I have a vague memory of a case where an identical twin donated a testicle ( :eek: ) to his sterile twin brother. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identical-twins-and-paternity/354824.md?page=2)