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You have learnt about artificial twinning already, and you may wonder: What is the difference between artificial and natural twinning? Actually, artificial and natural identical twinning are basically similar, and the main difference is that one is man-made and the other is the work of God. |
| Twinning is the process that leads to the production of more than one offspring. It results in twins, and with decreasing frequency, triplets, quadruplets, quintuplets, sextuplets, septuplets, and octuplets. Multiple births are relatively uncommon in humans and other primates. |
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In the creation of naturally identical twins, a single fertilized ovum divides to form two complete organisms. Each twin has an identical genetic pattern (DNA). Such twins are always of the same sex, are generally alike in physical appearance, and have identical blood-group types. Natural twinning from one fertilized egg usually takes place early in pregnancy. |
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In the creation of fraternal twins, which is unrelated to artificial twinning, two separate ova is each fertilized by a sperm and each develops into a complete organism. Fraternal twins may or may not be of the same sex and need not resemble each other more than do any other two offspring of the same parents. |
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Although natural identical twins have the same set of DNA and they are essentially clones of each other, they grow and develop different characters with time. About 4000 times a day, clones are created by means of nature when a fertilized egg splits into identical twins. Does this mean that when man engages in artificial cloning, thus mimicking the process of God, it is not wrong? This then leads us to the next question... the very existence of God itself. The great debate on cloning has been addressed to some extent in the website already, so we won't go into that here. To read about the detailed twinning process, click further. |
