This was listed in the China Daily’s weird news section:
Water theory proposed to explain incidence of twins
(China Daily)
Updated: 2007-12-05 09:07Houjiabian Village in Jiangsu Province has 150 households, with a population of about 500.
In the past 10 years, 11 couples have married and six of them gave birth to twins.The best explanation so far for this high rate of twins appears to be that there is something in the water supply. Experts are looking into the situation.
Seriously? The best explanation is that there is something in the water supply? Something like fertility drugs?
Who wants to bet the first couple got their hands on some Clomid and once they got knocked up, passed the spares along to the next couple in line??
Sigh. This kind of stupid crap is in the paper all the time.
The water theory sounds like something my Chinese mother-in-law would come up with and believe in very fervently. (When we had a boy, she told us that it was because my husband’s yang outdid my yin. She went on to “prove” this theory correct by citing a bunch of celebrity couples.)
Or this is a kissing cousin situation. In a village that size would you expect a lot of intra-family marriage? Did they say whether they were identical or fraternal twins?
Sorry if this isn’t related to the post, but I wasn’t sure where to contact you.
Have you seen this in the news?
A Dutch couple abandoned their Korean adopted daughter in Hong Kong because she didn’t “fit in” with their family.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=501281&in_page_id=1811
Fertility drugs for everyone!