Mystery surrounds paternity of child whose mother had sex with identical twins
The paternity of the child, whose mother had sex with identical twins four days apart, will remain a secret for now.
The Court of Appeal said it was unclear which twin was the biological parent due to the limitations of current DNA testing.
The legal case involved a child whose identity was concealed and whose birth certificate listed one of the twins as the father, referred to in court documents as P.
However, the other twin, together with the child’s mother, attempted to assume parental responsibility by appealing the previous family court decision approving the initial registration.
Sir Andrew McFarlane, who presided over the appeal, along with Lady Justice King and Lord Justice Stuart-Smith, concluded that although the court was unable to identify the father, parental responsibility for the twin currently listed on the birth register would be suspended until further arguments were heard.
Sir Andrew explained that DNA analysis confirmed that one of the twins could be the father, but could not distinguish between them and explained that there was a 50 per cent chance that the correct father was already registered.
In the ruling, handed down this month, he said: “The truth about P’s paternity at the moment is that their father is one or the other of these two identical twins, but it is not possible to say which.”
He added that although future scientific advances may allow identification, “this cannot be done in the future without very significant cost, and therefore.” [the mother’s] ‘Truth’ is dual and not one man”.
Judge Madeleine Reardon had previously found that “both brothers had sex with the woman four days apart in the month that P became pregnant” and that “it was equally likely that each of the brothers was P’s father”.
Sir Andrew said the first twin had “no right” to be registered as the father and any resulting parental responsibility would “end”.
But he was “not entirely convinced” to make a positive statement that the first twin was not the father.
“Failure to prove a fact means not proving that fact, not proving the contrary. There is a distinction between failing to prove something and making an affirmative statement that the asserted fact is not true.”
