Via Drudge: A doctor at a fertility clinic in the Mississippi capital of Jackson has made a startling revelation concerning a couple who sought treatment at the center. The married pair, who cannot be named to due to patient confidentiality restrictions, had been struggling to conceive and came to the clinic to take part in the IVF program.
“During the in vitro fertilization process, we take a DNA sample from both the male and female to get a profile of their genetic backgrounds,” the doctor involved told Mississippi Herald, whose name must also be suppressed to protect the identities of the patients.
“It’s just a routine thing, and we wouldn’t normally check to see if there was a relationship between the two samples, but in this case the lab assistant involved was shocked by the similarity of each profile.” The lab assistant summoned the doctor, who knew almost instantly that the patients must have been related.
“My first reaction was that they must have been less-closely related; perhaps they were first cousins, which does happen sometimes. However, looking closer at the samples, I noticed there were way too many similarities.” The doctor consulted the patient’s files, and noted with shock that both had the exact same birth dates listed in 1984. “With this in mind, I was convinced that both patients were fraternal twins.”
The doctor now had a dilemma on his hands: did the married couple already know that they were twins, and had yet still married and now hoped to conceive a child together? Or were they blissfully unaware of the situation.
“During the in vitro fertilization process, we take a DNA sample from both the male and female to get a profile of their genetic backgrounds,” the doctor involved told Mississippi Herald, whose name must also be suppressed to protect the identities of the patients.
“It’s just a routine thing, and we wouldn’t normally check to see if there was a relationship between the two samples, but in this case the lab assistant involved was shocked by the similarity of each profile.” The lab assistant summoned the doctor, who knew almost instantly that the patients must have been related.
“My first reaction was that they must have been less-closely related; perhaps they were first cousins, which does happen sometimes. However, looking closer at the samples, I noticed there were way too many similarities.” The doctor consulted the patient’s files, and noted with shock that both had the exact same birth dates listed in 1984. “With this in mind, I was convinced that both patients were fraternal twins.”
The doctor now had a dilemma on his hands: did the married couple already know that they were twins, and had yet still married and now hoped to conceive a child together? Or were they blissfully unaware of the situation.
(Link for more)
19 comments:
The Obamanation doctrine would let them conceive but then abort any errors.
Argh!
That would tend to freak someone out.
I've had 3 DNA tests, and belong to AncestryDNA.com, Family Tree, and 23andme. One thing that has really surprised me, are the shear numbers of cousins that I have that were adopted. So, I could see where something like this could happen. Although rarely in this cited case.
Hey, cuz!
We're all brothers, right?
I presently have 9,723 cousins on Ancestry.
@AllenS: How is cousinship genetically defined? Sequence homology? Identical?
Wow, that's a lot of cousins!
After realizing I have so many cousins over time I developed a fanciful notion that grew to obsession. I was overtaken with the urge for looking them up and with the intention of sexing up my cousins. For mysterious interconnectivity fun. But there were so many! I began my journey by whittling down the number of targets. Males out, that got it down to 5,000. Then age and other parameters until it was narrowed so finely I started with women born on my birthday.
And thus a great adventure began.
I have no idea, chick.
What's the problem. According to the Supreme Court they can get married and have children just like any two random gays. We don't have the right to say anything. They violated their privacy and should be prosecuted for unmasking their medical records.
Fake.
I did the DNA stuff on Ancestry and .....lo and behold.....the connected me with my first cousin, who I hadn't seen since the 1960's! We had lost contact with all the moving around my family did, plus my mother passing away in her 40's.
It was very cool. Also got connected with my father's cousin, my second cousin, that he had never seen.
I grew up with several really, really beautiful and slightly older girl cousins. But I never had fantasies about having sex with those beauties. Nosireeebob. I never did. That would have been wrong.
Ostensibly, this story is about the doctor's dilemma but I wonder if this would be a story if it hadn't occurred down south thereby feeding the inbred hillbilly theme.
I did Ancestry recently and along with the European DNA they said I had a possible connection to the Genetic Community of Settlers of the Missouri Ozarks & East Tennessee. Quite perceptive of them since my mother's family is from the Appalachian area of East Tennessee. I don't think that particular branch of the family would have tolerated an inbred marriage. My great uncle killed his sister's fiancee on what would have been her wedding day (late 1800's) because he had impregnated her before the holy matrimony. This uncle served his time proudly, which probably sounds inbred these days, and lived a good life after he got out.
If, and when you do the DNA, you see the good, the bad, and the ugly. And, there's nothing wrong with that.
I remember studies and articles linked at TOP about how people who are genetically related, particularly parents and children and siblings, are likely to be very attracted to each other if they didn't know each other as children. People who knew each other when one or both were toddlers (and who aren't broken) form an aversion even to those they aren't biologically related to. Usually the story attached to the "study" is one where they *knew* because they were looking for a biological parent or child and found them.
You'd think that the social taboos would be so strong that people wouldn't act on what they felt, but I suppose if you're already willing to be pervert you'd go do it anyway.
I feel sorry for this couple because they didn't know. And now they have to decide what to do.
Incest is best or something.
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