by Staff writer
A married couple discovered they are twins when they went to a fertility clinic to find out why they have not been able to have children.
Their doctor was forced to break the heartbreaking news to the pair, who were separated at a young age when their parents died.
It was only discovered when a lab assistant at the IVF clinic in Jackson, Mississippi, noticed their DNA samples were remarkably similar.
The assistant alerted the doctor, who told the Mississippi Herald he knew instantly they were closely related – before discovering they were born on the same day in 1984.
Neither the couple or doctor can be named for patient confidentiality reasons.
Revealing their reaction to the news, the doctor said they initially ‘burst out laughing’ in disbelief.
He added: ‘The husband said that a lot of people remarked on the fact they shared the same birthdays and looked similar to each other, but he said it was just a funny coincidence and that the couple were definitely not related.
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| At first, lab technicians believed the couple may be unknowing cousins, but soon ruled that out because the DNA was too similar. |
‘The wife kept pleading with me to admit I was joking, and I wish that I was, but they had to know the truth.’
The couple explained they met while at college and bonded over their near-identical backgrounds.
The doctor said: ‘The fact they’d both been adopted, after their parents had died, meant they’d both experienced a similar childhood, and they felt they could really connect with each other. If only they had known the truth, it could have saved them so much pain later on.’
Their parents were killed in a car crash and the children were adopted into separate families, but neither family was told the child had a twin.
For the first time in his career, the doctor was relieved he couldn’t help the couple conceive, he added.
Marriage between siblings in Mississippi could lead to a jail term of 10 years, but the man and woman are not likely to be charged due to the unique circumstances.
They are now considering their future together.
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Source: Mississippi Herald
so sad