Question I would like to see debated.

[Toma RNK]

Sorry for lack of an appropriate title.

The question:

If a pair of male identical twins impregnate a pair of identical female twins, could the resulting offspring be considered siblings?

[junchurikioftheleaf]

......good question

however i would say no as twins while spawned from the same egg are two different organisms if they were full on clones the story would be different but twins fall just below that line

[An Old Friend]

The answer to that is obvious, no. Siblings come from the same mother, but what would result from what you have just explained would be cousins. They may look similar, but that doesn't mean anything. I look nearly exactly like a younger version of my uncle, are we considered brothers? No. So, my answer is no, they'll be considered cousins.

Edit: And it's great to see you again Toma.

[deidara330]

No. For one thing there's no guarantee they would look exactly alike, or even as much alike as either of their parents, due to recessive and dominant traits in genes. It would be no different than taking another two different sets of parents and saying that their children are considered siblings. As An Old Friend said, they'd be cousins. For them to be siblings they would have to have the same parents (or at least the same mother, I think) and they don't. Therefore, saying they're siblings would be like saying the two female twins are both the same person.

[Kreegah!!!]

If both sets are Siamese then maybe.

Also, maybe each twin has lain with the other because it was hard to know in the dark who was who. So perhaps indeed.

[Kunoichi]

Legally no... scientifically yes.

If you preformed a DNA test on both offspring the results would show that the two offspring are siblings when in reality they're cousins.

[Maikeru D. Shinigami]

Yes, because I'm not a conformist.

[mrsticky005]

Originally Posted by Maikeru Shinigami

Yes, because I'm not a conformist.

That's what all conformists say.

[deidara330]

Originally Posted by Kunoichi

Legally no... scientifically yes.

If you preformed a DNA test on both offspring the results would show that the two offspring are siblings when in reality they're cousins.

Where do you get that? There isn't a large chance they'd be identical at all.

[Kunoichi]

Originally Posted by deidara330

Where do you get that? There isn't a large chance they'd be identical at all.

Toma never said identical, he said siblings. My brother and I are in no way identical, we look nothing alike, and yet if we took a DNA test we would have enough common alleles for any doctor to see that we are infact related.


Genetically speaking, you could take the child from couple A and run a paternity test using the DNA of couple B and it would say that child A is their child.

[tsuki]

Originally Posted by Kunoichi

Legally no... scientifically yes.

If you preformed a DNA test on both offspring the results would show that the two offspring are siblings when in reality they're cousins.

Yes I would agree. The DNA tests would show that they have enough similar gene traits to be considered siblings.

I am inclined to think that this has to have happened before. I mean there are so many people in the world it must have happened at some point or another.

[Kunoichi]

Originally Posted by tsuki

Yes I would agree. The DNA tests would show that they have enough similar gene traits to be considered siblings.

I am inclined to think that this has to have happened before. I mean there are so many people in the world it must have happened at some point or another.

If not in the real world then atleast on CSI or some other crime drama

[ItachiAnbu]

Originally Posted by Toma RNK

Sorry for lack of an appropriate title.

Originally Posted by Toma RNK

The question: If a pair of male identical twins impregnate a pair of identical female twins, could the resulting offspring be considered siblings?

Spoiler:

Definition of SIBLING
2
: one of two or more things related by a common tie or characteristic <the sedan's smaller sibling>

Another merriam-webster definition gives us better insight into the first:

Spoiler:

Definition of THING
8
: individual <not a living thing in sight>

Based on these givens, I would say that the two individuals you described could be considered siblings.

[Inuyasha]

Good question

Ask a Doctor

[Jutsu Junkie]

You only need logic. If siblings are determined by genetic tests, then the answer is yes. If siblings are determined by social convention (having at least one parent in common or merely being raised/adopted as the children of the same parents) then the answer is no. So the truth is a matter of context. Are we talking about prevailing social custom or science? The nature of the question suggests we are talking about science...