Heteropaternary Exuberance Twins born with two different fathers

Rare case confirms: Twin girls in Vietnam have different dads
Although they saw the light of day on the same day and were born by the same mother, two girls in Vietnam still have two different fathers. This has now been confirmed by a DNA test. Experts call this rare phenomenon "Heteropaternale Superfekundation".
Twins with two fathers
A 34-year-old Vietnamese man did not care much about the differences he saw among his twin girls. One of the children had thin straight hair, the other thick wavy one. One day, however, he was persuaded by family members to have a DNA test done to rule out that the babies were exchanged after birth. According to a report in the "Viet Nam News", scientists at the Center for Genetic Analysis and Technology in Hanoi stated that the man is only the biological father of one of the girls. The other child does not carry his genetic material, but that of the mother.
Twins from two different fathers. Image: Patryk Kosmider - fotolia
Extremely rare phenomenon
Twins with two biological fathers are extremely rare. "Heteropaternary superfecundation" is called the phenomenon of professionals. It can happen when one woman during a menstrual cycle, two eggs are fertilized in two sex acts. The sex can also be several days apart. Both eggs can therefore be fertilized by different men. However, the half-siblings grow together in the womb. According to the report, the mother in Vietnam has now acknowledged that she has had more sexual intercourse than her partner.

Evidence of an infidelity
Only around 20 cases of "step twins" have become known worldwide so far. However, scientists assume a high number of unreported cases. On the one hand, the phenomenon is still relatively unknown and on the other hand, paternity tests on twins, where a child looks very similar to the father, are not often done. If such cases are discovered, there are sometimes tragedies such as divorces, since the tests reveal that the woman has slept with two men within a very short time. A "Heteropaternale Superfekundation" also proves an infidelity.

Similar case in the USA
Last year, a similar case in New Jersey (USA) made headlines. At that time, it was about a woman demanding support for her children born in January 2013. However, a DNA test revealed that the man was only the biological father of one of the twins who gave birth to his partner - the other girl was conceived by someone else. At that time, the court ruled that the man only had to pay for one of his two children. (Ad)