A Chinese man is left stunned after finding out that his twin babies have two fathers. The parent, who remains unidentified, made the sh...
A Chinese man is left stunned after finding out that his twin babies have two fathers.
The parent, who remains unidentified, made the shocking discovery after taking the newborns to undergo a DNA test as part of the standard procedure to register their births in China, a DNA analyst told reporters.
The man was astounded upon receiving the test results which indicated that his wife also had sex with someone other than him, Chinese media report.
Deng Yajun, the practitioner who produced the paternity report, said that the chance for such case to happen is one in 10 million.
'First, the mother needs to produce two eggs instead of one in the same month [to have twins],' Ms Deng, who is also the director of Beijing Zhongzheng Forensic Identification Centre, explained to China News Weekly.
'Second, she needs to have intercourse with two men in really short space of time to make it possible.
'The results showed that the children have the same mother but not the same father. They have at least two fathers,' Ms Deng suggested.
Twins being born with different fathers is an extremely rare occurrence known as heteropaternal superfecundation.
Women usually have to have sex with two different men within a day before or after ovulation for both eggs to be fertilised.
Similar stories have been reported in China before as another Chinese mother was forced to admit that she had cheated on her husband in a one-night stand after receiving the DNA results last year.
It came after the couple from south-eastern China's Xiamen city went to register the birth of their twin sons at the local police station in 2019.
In order to complete the registration, they had to produce the results of a paternity test to prove that the babies were theirs.
The husband, known by his alias Xiaolong, had wondered why one of his sons didn't look like him at all.
The director from the Fujian Zhengtai Forensic Identification Centre said that Xiaolong was furious after reading the DNA report and confronted his wife.
It is said that his wife initially denied having an affair and accused her husband of falsifying the results.
Xiaolong further interrogated his wife, who then admitted that she had slept with another guy and that it was a one-night stand.
The father said he was happy to raise his own child, but not the one from someone else, according to the report.
In 2014, an affluent businessman from eastern Chinese city Yiwu was devastated after discovering one of his twin sons was not related to him.
According to Sanxiang Urban Newspaper, the father, named Zhou Gang, decided to take his children for a DNA test after realising his elder son had double eyelids.
He said both he and the children's mother had single eyelid, therefore he found it strange that one of the babies had double eyelids.
Experts say it is hard to calculate the exact odds of the phenomenon, but previous studies suggested the chance could be between one in 400 pairs and one in 13,000 pairs, according to The Guardian.
CAN TWINS HAVE DIFFERENT FATHERS?
It may sound impossible, but twins being born with different fathers is an extremely rare occurrence known as heteropaternal superfecundation.
Cases typically only come to light when suspicious relatives request a DNA test of a newborn.
But one study suggests heteropaternal superfecundation may affect as many as one in 400 twin births in the US.
Heteropaternal superfecundation occurs when a mother releases two eggs that are then fertilised by two sperm cells from different men.
Women usually have to have sex with two different men within a day before or after ovulation for both eggs to be fertilised.
Although heteropaternal superfecundation is rare in humans, it is relatively common in other animals, including dogs, cats, cows and rodents.
In species where females have multiple partners, some males have even developed strategies to ensure their sperm reaches the egg.
This may include evolving penises that damage the female's reproductive tract, preventing subsequent mating, as seen in dragonflies.
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