Cases of twins being born with different skin colors are quite rare, but they do happen, especially in the United States. However, this typically occurs in interracial marriages, where one parent, for example, is white and the other is dark-skinned.
There is a unique case in the world where in a pure white family, without any ancestors from other races, two boys were born – one white and the other black. It turns out that millions of families are not immune to such surprises.
This story began in the Netherlands, in the city of Utrecht, on December 1, 1993. Willem and Wilma Stuarts, lifelong white Dutch, without a drop of foreign blood, were preparing for the long-awaited birth. For six years, the wife could not conceive. Doctors came to the rescue, and IVF procedure was performed.
The birth went quite quickly. With a three-minute difference, two boys were born. The first, named Teun, was fair-skinned like his parents. The second, named Coen, had curly and dark skin, like…
Like who?
One can only sympathize with the father when he was shown the newborn sons. Immediately, questions about paternity arose. Willem refused to recognize the children, accusing his wife of infidelity. The couple turned to a family psychologist. And doctors had to intervene not only to save the family but also to understand the phenomenon. The answer was found six months after the birth.
First, DNA analysis was performed on all four Stuarts. It turned out that Willem was the biological father of only one of the twins. Naturally, the fair-skinned Teun. And the DNA of the dark-skinned boy was found to be most closely related to another client of the same clinic – a native of the island of Aruba off the coast of South America.
The ethnic composition of the island was formed several centuries ago. Almost all Arubans are the product of a mixture of three races – Negroid, indigenous, and a little European.
Aruba is a Dutch overseas territory, and its dark-skinned residents often come to live and work in the wealthy metropolis. One of them (his name remained secret) provided biological material for IVF for his wife, also dark-skinned. By the way, they had a boy. Just one.
But how did the genes of another man end up in an embryo for Wilma Stuarts? The investigation revealed that one of the nurses simply forgot to clean the pipette when taking material from the Aruban man, and then from Willem Stuarts.
Interestingly, a similar case, where due to the carelessness of medical staff, twins (twins) had different fathers during IVF, was not the first. Five years before the Dutch case, the same thing happened in the United States. But there both children were white, and the double paternity accidentally came to light when the mother wanted to do a DNA test on the newborns for a completely different reason.
No one can say how many such cases there might be in total.
An American mother sued doctors for two million dollars in compensation, but she kept the children. But there, everything was simpler, but what about the Dutch couple?
In addition to the moral choice – to raise a dark-skinned child, there was also a legal one. His biological father had all the rights to the baby, just like Wilma Stuarts. And Willem Stuarts was not involved at all.
The matter went to court, but both fathers were able to reach an agreement. The Aruban man waived his parental rights, and Willem adopted the dark-skinned son of another.
The Stuarts deliberately shared their story with all the media, becoming news heroes. But they did it not for material reward. The spouses assumed that relatives, friends, and neighbors would definitely start gossiping about the wife’s infidelity when they saw the different twins.
When the children grow up, they will also think something bad. For example, that Teun is the real son, and Coen is adopted. Surely, there will be well-wishers who will pass on dirty gossip to the grown-up sons.
So they better know the truth from the very beginning.
The Stuarts deliberately hide their whereabouts. They lived in a small village, but after the birth, they decided to move to cosmopolitan and tolerant Amsterdam, where having adopted children of another race would not surprise anyone.
In 2005, the parents gave their last interview and provided video materials from the family archive, based on which the frames for the article were made. They said that the boys were doing well, and the biological father of the dark-skinned Coen began to communicate with his son. Willem does not interfere.
The fate of the brothers may yet be revealed.
