Twins. Part 1. the Conception, Development, and Delivery of Twins

Twins have occupied a prominent place in human imagination and mythology since ancient times. Greek mythology enshrined the twins Castor and Pollux in the heavens as the two stars of the constellation Gemini. Ancient Rome was said to have been founded by twins, Romulus and Remus, raised in the wild by a wolf. The establishment of several North American Indian tribes, such as the Hurons and Iroquois, is also ascribed to twins. Although deified in myths, twins have elicited ambivalent and opposite reactions among human communities. In Twins and Supertwins, Amram Scheinfeld, former member of the Genetic and Evolution Seminar of the University Seminars, Columbia University, New York, noted that the birth of twins was sometimes taken to be a bad omen, and one or both twins were killed or allowed to die through neglect. I But T.O. Oruene noted that groups such as the Yoruba tribe of Nigeria, who at one time practiced infanticide, today regard twins as special children invested with magical powers. z Twins also occupy a special place in modem science. For example, genetically identical twins provide researchers with a kind of natural laboratory to explore the role that heredity and environment may play in the development of various medical and behavioral problems. In the first part of this essay, we’ll discuss the unique biology of conceiving November 12.1984