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U.K. twins separated at birth unwittingly marry
A pair of twins in Britain who were separated at birth and adopted by separate families were married without realizing they were brother and sister, a legislator recently told the country's House of Lords.
A court annulled the couple's union after they discovered their true relationship, Lord David Alton said during a Dec. 10 debate in the Upper House.
Alton provided few other details about the case during the five-hour debate on a bill that would change regulations about human embryology. He said he had been told about the unusual case by a judge, whom he did not name.
"I was recently involved in a conversation with a High Court judge who was telling me of a case he had dealt with,'' Alton said. "It involved the normal birth of twins who were separated at birth and adopted by separate parents.
"They were never told that they were twins. They met later in life and felt an inevitable attraction, and the judge had to deal with the consequences of the marriage that they entered into and all the issues of their separation.''
The case was first reported Friday in London's Evening Standard.
The High Court's Family Division declined to discuss or confirm Alton's account about the twins.
The case raises the wider issue of the importance of strengthening the rights of children to know the identities of their biological parents, including kids who were born through in vitro fertilization, Alton has said.
Under British law, only a mother has to be named on a birth certificate. Such certificates also are not required to identify births that result from IVF or to identify the sperm donor.
In addition, British law does not require parents to ever tell children that they were the result of donated sperm.
Link: CTV.ca | U.K. twins separated at birth unwittingly marry
