Events
A New Jersey resident will only pay child support for one of the twins. It was discovered that twin girls were born to two different men.
The decision was made by a US court after a woman, whose name was not disclosed to the press, began to demand alimony from her father for their joint children.
As a result of the DNA test, it turned out that the twins have different fathers, and the man is the biological father of only one of the twins.
Therefore, Passaic County Chief Justice Sohail Mohammed ruled that the mother will receive child support from the defendant for one of the twin sisters, the one for the man own daughter.
The judge dismissed the mother's claim, in which the woman also demanded alimony for her second child.
Twins from different fathers
According to Dr. Brooke Rossi, who is an OB/GYN at Cleveland University Clinics, cases where a woman can get pregnant with twins from two different men are quite rare , but this is quite possible.
This phenomenon can occur if a woman has ovulated twice during the cycle instead of one with a short time interval.
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If sexual contact with two different men occurs during this period of time, each egg can be fertilized by both partners.
Heteropaternal superfecundation
According to Dr. Rossi, a woman is likely to become pregnant with twins from two different men if she had one sexual partner on Tuesday and another on Wednesday.
This phenomenon, which is quite rare, is called heteropaternal superfecundation in the medical literature.
Experts estimate that approximately one in 13,000 twin pregnancies involves twins with different fathers.
Dr. Rossi noted that in cases where fertilization occurs so close to each other in terms of timing, the gestational age of both embryos will be the same, and babies will be born without any complications.
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According to court documents, the woman admitted to having an intimate relationship with two men. However, she gave the court the name of only one father of her twins, claiming alimony on his part.
Karl-Hanz Wurzinger, Laboratory Corporation of America, noted that he faces about six cases of heteropaternal twins every year.
This phenomenon has been known since the 1970s. According to some court documents, only two such cases of heteropaternal twins in the US were reported at the time.