Woman who slept with twins days apart told baby's dad can't be identified
Topics: UK News, Parenting, Life, Sex and Relationships
Niamh Shackleton
Featured Image Credit: Getty Stock
Topics: UK News, Parenting, Life, Sex and Relationships
A court has ruled that it cannot be determined who the biological father of a woman's child is after she slept with identical twin brothers in short succession of one another.
The mother and one of the twin brothers took the case to court after the other brother was named on the baby's birth certificate.
It is unknown how old the baby is, but the tot is simply referred to as 'P' in the court documents.
The mother and the brother who launched the petition wish to be named on the child's birth certificate as the parents, but the other brother is listed instead. With this in mind, they filed a request to have him removed.
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The Court of Appeal in London, UK, has since denied their request though after a panel of judges said it was 'not possible' to know who the baby's actual father is.
The court heard that DNA was unable to distinguish which of the brothers was the baby's biological father, Sky News reports, but there is a possibility that scientists will be able to in the future.
According to Judge Madeleine Reardon, both of the brothers had sex with the woman 'within four days of each other in the month when P was conceived', and that it was 'equally likely that each of the brothers is P's father'.
While one of the brothers remains on the child's birth certificate, the court ruled that he no longer has parental responsibility until the court hears further arguments.
In the judgement handed down earlier this month, Sir Andrew McFarlane said: "Currently, the truth of P's paternity is that their father is one or other of these two identical twins, but it is not possible to say which.
"It is possible, indeed likely, that by the time P reaches maturity, it may be possible for science to identify one father and exclude the other twin, but, for the coming time, that cannot be done without very significant cost, and so her 'truth' is binary and not a single man."
He added that since it is currently unclear who the baby's dad is, the first twin is 'not entitled' to be listed at baby's father — but neither is the second twin.
While this family want DNA testing to prove who the baby is biologically related to, sometimes these typic of genetic testing can cause chaos.
For example, a woman who was gifted a DNA test went on to find that her dad wasn't her biological father. Her real father had been a sperm donor and she discovered that had 10 half-siblings.