r/BeAmazed • u/mikeyv683 • Jan 22 '25

History Identical triplet brothers, who were separated and adopted at birth, only learned of each other’s existence when 2 of the brothers met while attending the same college

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u/[deleted] Jan 23 '25

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u/WendySteeplechase Jan 23 '25

there were actually 4 (quadruplets) and one died at birth.

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u/throwaway_60_ Jan 23 '25

Thank you. I was hoping someone would post this fact. Hope people see it. This is among the most wild facts about the case. Identical quadruplets are extremely rare.

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u/Proper_Race9407 Jan 23 '25

I have a theory that their mother was secretly impregnated through artificial insemination while she was institutionalized (yes, she was admitted to a mental hospital). This is because having 3 or 4 identical twins is extremely rare to occur naturally, the chances of conceiving monozygotic quadruplets are estimated to be around 1 in 15 million to 1 in 70 million pregnancies. Such occurrences are more common in cases involving artificial insemination.

This could explain why the study's records remain sealed to this day... The perpetrators are possibly still alive.

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u/MyDogisaQT Jan 23 '25

1 in 15 million when there are 5 billion (at the time) people? It’s totally possible.

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u/Lazy_Fall_6 Jan 23 '25

Exactly, even if lengthened to 1 in 70 million there could be many cases of identical quadruplets alive at any given time in the US alone

Edit:

There are seemingly 122 million pregnancies per year worldwide. So that could be 2 cases of identical quadruplets every 3 years.

Rare? Absolutely! Impossible, no.

https://www.unfpa.org/press/nearly-half-all-pregnancies-are-unintended-global-crisis-says-new-unfpa-report

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u/Upstairs-Hedgehog575 Jan 23 '25

They didn’t say it was impossible, that said it was extremely rare - which is an understatement. Their theory isn’t all that wild given that there are only 72 documented cases of naturally conceived identical quadruplets in medical history.

I can’t find how many have been in the states, but it’s going to be very very few indeed. I can’t find much about the mother, but if the study was indeed looking into mental health then it would have been easier for them to create the test subjects themselves rather than waiting for them - with quadruplets obviously being an unintended (but presumably welcome) consequence. Or equally plausible is that a woman with mental health issues decided she couldn’t look after 4 boys! I guess we might find out in 2065.