Most people look at having twins as a double blessing. You get two babies for the price of one pregnancy, and your kids will always have a playmate who intrinsically understands them.
But in one rare case in China, two boys were born fraternal half-brothers.
Unlike identical twins, fraternal twins don't look the same. And while this is common knowledge, one of the fathers in this case saw it as a red flag when he noticed that the boys had different noses, mouths, and eyes.
In China, when the birth of a child is registered, the law requires the parents to prove the child is biologically theirs. That's when the paternity test revealed that the father did not have biological ties to one of the babies.
That's when the mother had to admit that she had had an affair.
This occurrence is called heteropaternal superfecundation, and although it's very rare -- one estimate says it can only happen in 1 in 13,000 pairs of fraternal twins -- it has been known to take place. Another case of superfecundation was reported in Dallas in 2009.
For it to happen, a woman would have to have sex with two different men within a day before or after ovulation. If she releases two eggs at the same time, they can both be fertilized by different sperm.
The husband, who is going by the alias Xiaolong, told the Chinese newspaper Strait Herald that he is willing to raise his own son, but not the one his wife had with her lover.
