Mississippi married couple discover they are biological twins: But is the story of a Jackson couple being brother and sister really true?
A Mississippi married couple have received a shock of their lifetimes after being informed they were biological twins after visiting an IVF clinic.
Nevertheless further research may have led to the since ‘viral story’ being another instance of fake news and news media ongoing failure to check verifiable sources along with the temptation to fabricate facts for hits for the sake of advertising revenue.
The original story appearing in the Mississippi Herald cited an unidentified, Jackson couple struggling to conceive a child having visited a clinic when a fertility doctor informed them they had striking similarities in their DNA.
The discovery came after a physician requested a DNA sample from both the male and female to get a profile of their genetic backgrounds.
Explained the un-identified doctor: ‘My first reaction was that they must have been related; perhaps they were first cousins, which does happen sometimes. However, looking closer at the samples, I noticed there were too many similarities.’
Adding, ‘With this in mind, I was convinced that both patients were fraternal twins.’
At one point the wife had implored the physician to ‘stop joking’.
A purported investigation led to to the discovery of the siblings having been separated at a young age after their biological parents died and adopted into different families, both not knowing about the other.
Thursday’s news left the couple at a loss with what to do, as marriage between siblings is outlawed in the southern state.
The media outlet went on to say neither the couple nor doctor could be named for patient confidentiality reasons.
After the doctor informed the husband and wife that they were related, the pair reported the Mississippi Herald tried to put together the pieces of their lives.
The report went on to say the couple realized their parents both died in a car accident and due to a filing error when they were adopted by other families, the adoption parents were never told about their child’s other sibling.
The pair unknowingly reunited while attending college and quickly bonded over their strikingly similar backgrounds and fell in love.
Reiterated the physician: ‘They were attracted to each other due to their similarities. 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.’
Adding: ‘For me, it’s a particularly unusual case because my job is all about helping couples conceive a child. This is the first time in my career that I’ve been glad I haven’t succeeded in that regard.’
The penalty for marrying a sibling in Mississippi is up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $500.
Due to the highly unusual nature of this instance, the couple would not face any charges, noted the dailymail.
Not necessarily understood is how the Mississippi Herald or the dailymail were able to ascertain an expose of purported underlying events within a matter of two days, as most efforts to procure information from a government agency concerning births, deaths and adoptions are often a long wrought process.
Of note, a report via snopes cast doubt on the story, noting the initiating media outlet not having verifiable details (such as the byline of the reporter who wrote it, the name of the clinic, the identity of any medical specialist there, or the name of the patients involved).
A regard of the journal led this author to finding the purported media outlet only being in existence since April 10 and having a domain authority ranking as compiled by SEO MOZ of only 10.
Also dubious is the same site running a similarly non-detailed article about a man who claimed he was sexually seduced by a horse. A story which also failed to link to other verifiable sources.
Or that the Mississippi Herald‘s web site includes no contact information — no physical address, phone number, or e-mail address — for its office or any of its personnel.
Snopes also noted the story was virtually identical word-for-word (save for the change in locale) to one published by the web site of another non-existent newspaper, the Denver Inquirer, back in December 2016 (also just after that site’s establishment).
