If the sperm of two or more men were metaphorically put in a blender and prepared for artificial insemination, isn’t it possible to have twins with two dads? Has there ever been a documented case? Further, what would those twins be called? The word “fraternal” implies that both babies would have the same parents.
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Yes, it’s possible for fraternal twins to have separate fathers. It’s extremely rare, but does happen. The term for it is *heteropaternal superfecundation*.
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There are cases of two dads for twins. I have seen this in a textbook and I am sure you can just google it as well to look up the instances. The one I saw was two different dads, two races and twins born from intercourse at the same time.
Reminds me of the case where the woman’s womb biologically wasn’t hers so neither were her kids.
Fraternal twins, yes. Identical twins, no.
Fraternal twins are produced when two eggs are fertilized by two sperm. These sperm could come from two different donors. Identical twins come from one fertilized egg that splits and develops into two embryos. That egg that split would only have been fertilized by one sperm from one donor.
Fraternal twins can have diffrent dads. Here is an article about a case where it happened [https://www.businessinsider.com/twins-with-two-different-fathers-2015-5](https://www.businessinsider.com/twins-with-two-different-fathers-2015-5)
It can happen with in vitro fertilization too the clinic makes mistakes
[https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna9438648](https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna9438648)
It is called https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superfecundation How common it is for humans is not known. It is quite common for other animals like dogs and cats. Humans have most of the time just a single child and most humans are quite monogamous so it is not that likely to occur. Cats and dogs have multiple offspring most, around 5 are most common. They are alos not monogamous so multiple fathers for fraternal twin are quite common.
Even if two twins have different fathers it will be quite hard to know in many situations. It has to be quite obvious like in the case with the In vitro fertilization above where the was a clear difference in skin color. It is no different than a non-twin or identical twin where the father might not be the one that thinks he is the father. There are studies that have the result that 1 in 25 fathers are not biological fathers even if they think they are. So there have to be fraternal twins that have a different fathers and no one will ever know.
The common word usage might not have a name for it because it is not common for humans. If you look at the name in science idential twins are called Monozygotic and Fraternal twins are Dizygotic. A zygote is a cell formed when two gametes are combined, A gamete is a sex cell so an egg or sperm for humans.
So the scientific name means from one fertilized egg or from two fertilized egg and does not contain any more information. For 3 or more it is called polyzygotic so many fertilized eggs.
It’s rare, but it does happen occasionally and you don’t need artificial insemination for it. In terms of a documented case: here is a time that it happened on the Maury Show: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QXVfoFMakU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QXVfoFMakU) (you can skip to 7:15 for where he gets the results).
Yes as others have said, a friend of a friend had this happen, they had an open relationship and she had one black and one half white.
Yes. Interestingly the head of the human penis is shaped like it is to pull a previous males leavings out to increase their own chance of fathering potential children.
from what i remember Neil Patrick Harris(Barney from How I met your mother) and his partner have done this through a surrogate mother via in vitro fertilization
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