Biological Identification of Monozygotic Twins

Identical twins cannot be distinguished based on their DNA. Although DNA analysis has been one of the best technique for individualization and it has sent the traditional techniques to the background. One out of every 80 births results in twins and one-third of all the twins are monozygotic (identical) twins. Some identical twins have been reported to be involved in fraud, which can be called as "twin fraud", since people mistake the identities of the identical twins. The childhood mischief by the identical twins of switching places on their teachers and taking each other's exams may grow into serious criminal activities in adulthood. There have been cases reported where an identical twin was sentenced for a crime that was committed by his/her sibling (Costello, 1999). Further, because of the medical advances in the treatment of premature babies, population of identical twins is increasing. However, there are various biometric techniques which may be useful in differentiating identical twins. Biometric which refers to automatic identification of people based on their physical or behavioral characteristics is inherently more reliable than traditional methods of identification. The distinguishing nature of physical characteristics of a person is due to both inherent individual genetic diversity within the human population as well as the random process effecting the development of embryo