The mother had relationships with both men, the courts unable to determine which of the twin brothers is the father of the child

The courts have no way of identifying the child’s real father. The British Court of Appeal was unable to establish with certainty the identity of the biological father of a child born after his mother had sexual relations with so-called “identical” twin brothers, reports The Daily Telegraph this Monday, March 30.

The child’s mother became pregnant after having sexual relations four days apart with each of the brothers, a delay which does not make it possible to establish with certainty the father of the little girl born subsequently. The case came to court after one of the brothers was listed as the father on the baby’s birth certificate. But the other twin, along with the mother, asked to regain parental authority. A previous judgment had refused him this possibility, which led to an appeal to the Court of Appeal.

“It is impossible to say which” of the twins is the father

But the Court of Appeal of the United Kingdom and Wales, the highest court across the Channel behind the Supreme Court, ruled that it was “not possible” to identify the father. If a DNA test confirmed that the brothers could each be the father of the child born and that it was not a third man, their status as monozygotic twins implies… identical DNA. On this simple basis, it is therefore impossible to know the progenitor.

“At present the truth regarding the child’s paternity is that his father is one or the other of these twins, but it is impossible to say which one,” said Sir Andrew McFarlane, chief judge of the family court section. “It is possible, even probable, that by the time she reaches adulthood, science will be able to identify one of the fathers and rule out the other twin; but, for the moment, this cannot be done without a very high cost, and its truth therefore remains binary and cannot be reduced to one man,” he added.

The obligations of the “father” registered on the birth certificate suspended

Pending a more reliable decision, the Court of Appeal suspended the man listed as father on the birth certificate from all parental obligations. According to the judges, the first twin “did not have the right” to be registered as a father and any responsibility incumbent on him under the birth certificate “must end”.

However, they did not remove his name from the civil status document, due to the fact that there is still a “50% chance” that the man is indeed the father of the child. “The inability to prove a fact means that it is not proven; This does not, however, prove the opposite,” they added.