Irish siblings plan to marry

[scotus]

One other interesting point is that initially they did not know they were related.

That set me thinking about how many relationships out there are like this, unknown to the couple.

If you think that this is very rare, then just consider this: a research project in the UK had to be abandoned when they realised that 2 in 5 of the children they were investigating could not have had the father that was stated on their birth certificates.

[Cable87]

One other interesting point is that initially they did not know they were related.

That set me thinking about how many relationships out there are like this, unknown to the couple.

If you think that this is very rare, then just consider this: a research project in the UK had to be abandoned when they realised that 2 in 5 of the children they were investigating could not have had the father that was stated on their birth certificates.

Good points there Scotus. It is something to keep in mind about the fact that they obviously didn't know they were related when they first met (which would've been completely avoided, as I'd said, if a paternity test hadn't been disallowed by the court).


As for the other point, the study you mentioned, I'd seen similar statistics from a nearly identical study conducted in the States, where the findings concluded that in random paternity testing, at least 2 out of 10 children (in the U.S.) are being raised by men who ARE NOT the biological father, but the men in these cases BELIEVE that they ARE the biological fathers of those children. So this means that the women in these cases have cheated and/or lied to their partners, and that other men have actually fathered the kids they are raising as their own, WITHOUT them even knowing it-- makes me want to get paternity tests done at birth for any future children I might have, just to make sure...