It sounds like the subject of a Jerry Springer segment, but now, one woman faces an unsure future after a panel of judges has deemed that he can't legally declare who the father of her child is. Although there are plenty of soap opera storylines when a character finds out that they're not the father of their partner's baby – usually due to an affair with someone else in the show – it can also come true in real life.
The anonymous woman’s case ended up in London’s Court of Appeal in the United Kingdom, arguing over parental responsibility with a pair of identical twins who she slept with "within four days of each other."
After one of the brothers was named as the father of the child on their birth certificate, the woman and the other twin headed to court to hash out who could be legally recognized as the biological parents of the baby.
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As reported by the Daily Mail, the panel of judges admitted that it's "not possible" to know who Child P's biological father is. Even though scientists suggested that future DNA testing could be able to determine the child's father, it was currently impossible to distinguish between the pair of men without spending £90,000 ($119,000) on whole genome sequencing.
Sitting with Lady Justice King and Lord Justice Stuart-Smith, Sir Andrew McFarlane declared that the twin currently named on the birth certificate will be removed from having parental responsibility until further arguments are heard.
Whoever is named on the birth certificate is entitled to make decisions on the likes of where the child lives and the kind of education they receive. When a casual relationship between the woman and this brother broke down, the twin not named on the birth certificate then contested paternity.
McFarlane reiterated: "Currently, the truth of P's paternity is that their father is one or other of these two identical twins, but it is not possible to say which."
"It is possible, indeed likely, that by the time P reaches maturity, it may be possible for science to identify one father and exclude the other twin, but, for the coming time, that cannot be done without very significant cost, and so her 'truth' is binary and not a single man."
The case has been described as "highly unusual and possibly unique," thought to be the first of its kind in the United Kingdom, and raised yet more questions on who should have legal responsibility for a child.
It's said that the woman first met the brothers in 2017 and initially couldn't tell them apart. She gave birth to Child P in 2018, with the kid now being eight.
It had previously been decided by Judge Madeleine Reardon that "both brothers had had sex" with the unnamed woman "within four days of each other in the month when P was conceived." According to Reardon, this means it was "equally likely that each of the brothers is P's father."
While McFarlane decreed the first man wasn't 'entitled' to be registered as the father, he also admitted that he wasn't "wholly unpersuaded" that he also wasn't the child's biological parent.
He concluded: "The failure to prove a fact means that that fact is not proved; it does not mean that the contrary is proved.
"There is a distinction between something being not proven, and making a positive declaration that the fact asserted is not true."
A similar case played out in Brazil back in 2019, but when neither twin would take responsibility, and DNA tests couldn't determine which one was the father, a judge ordered them both to pay child support.