DNA Paternity testing on twins.

Why do we need to test both twins when we test for paternity?

A bit of background....

You may think that if children are twins, the paternity results of one child can be taken as being applicable to the other child, right? Wrong! Although strange, it is possible that twins can have two different fathers.

This is referred to as Heteropaternal Superfecundation. It happens when a female produces two eggs which are fertilized by 2 different fathers during the same cycle. This is rare in humans but it is estimated that 1 in every 400 sets of fraternal (unidentical) twins is bi-paternal, meaning that they have 2 different fathers.

After the egg is released from the ovaries, it remains viable for 12-48 hours before it disintegrates. If, during this period a woman produces more than one egg and has sexual intercourse with one male and again with a different male in a few hours or a few days, it is possible for the eggs to be fertilized by both the men.


For this reason, when performing DNA paternity testing on twins, unless the twins have been proven to be identical twins, it is important to test both the twins against the alleged father or fathers.


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