Virtual Twin/Artificial Twinning

Where to Start:

• Check out the following Creating a Family radio shows:

  • May 3, 2011: Conversation with Melissa Fay Greene: No Biking in the House (Listen Now)

  • Mar. 10, 2010: Adopting Out of Birth Order, Artificial Twinning and Other Controversies in Adoption (Listen Now)

  • Dec. 9, 2008:  Nurture vs Nature -- Which Trumps in Parenting? (Listen Now)

•  Other Creating a Family resources:

  • Chart on the Pros and Cons of Adopting More Than One at a Time

  • Top Ten Tips for Parenting Artificial Twins (Virtual Twins) Through Adoption

  • The Complete Book of International Adoption - On page 62, I give excerpts from interviews with two adoptive moms who made the decision to adopt two unrelated similar aged children at the same time and one mom who decided to not adopt two.

  • Blog on Virtual Twins Through Adoption: An Adoptees Perspective

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Information and Resources on Artificial Twinning/Virtual Twins in Adoption:

• Artificial Twinning/Virtual Twins Through Adoption is also known as false twinning, pseudo-twinning, or judicial twins.

• Great, honest assessment of the pros and cons to adopting two children very close in age.

• Sept. 4, 2008 NYT article In Studies of Virtual Twins, Nature Wins Again based on research by Dr. Nancy Segal, who was interviewed on this topic on the Dec. 10, 2009 Creating a Family radio show.  

• Instant Family? A Case Against Artificial Twinning by Patricia Irwin Johnston as promised by the title, this article argues against adopting two unrelated healthy infants at the same time.  It does not address adopting an older child that is the same age as a child already in the family

• An article by a mom of artificial twins that acknowledges the disadvantages while maintaining that it is possible to do well.

• Artificial Twinning: This article raises the point of the potential for unscrupulous agencies and facilitators to create fraudulent articficial twins / virtual twins playing in to many adoptive parents desire for an instant family. When an agency or orphanage deceives families and the government in an attempt to pass off unrelated children as biological twins. This is what I want to address today. Fraudulent artificial twinning.

• Prayers and Casseroles - things you need to know/have/get to survive the first six months of a multiple child adoption is a great handout prepared by a family that has been there and done that.  They provide useful information for parents adopting older children and multiple children at one time.

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