Reuniting Twins separated by a Psychiatrist

Identical twin sisters who were separated at birth have been reunited after 35 years.

But more incredibly, Paula Bernstein and Elyse Schein were astonished to discover they had been part of a bizarre social experiment.

Researchers had kept them apart with different adoptive families to investigate theories over 'nature and nurture'.

Telling their amazing story for the first time, the twins, who were born in New York, said they might have remained oblivious if Elyse, who had been living in Paris, had not decided to look for her birth mother.

She was told that the mother was not interested in meeting her, but was then informed she had an identical twin called Paula.

Social workers eventually managed to reunite the pair.

Their emotional meeting was one thing. But then, following further inquiries, the pair discovered they had been part of research conducted by psychologists - thought to be the only study of its kind on twins separated from infancy.

The twins told yesterday how the experiment was so secret that not even their adoptive parents were told the full truth.

They were told only that the children were part of an ongoing study.

Paula said: 'They neglected to tell them [the adoptive parents] the key element of the study, which is that it was about child development among twins raised in different homes. Nature intended for us to be raised together, so I think it was a crime we were separated.'

After finally meeting three years ago in a cafe the pair talked long into the evening. In a victory for those who are on the side of nature, the two women found they had a host of things in common.

They discovered they had led similar lives, both editing their school newspapers, studying film at university and having been brought up by loving families.

The women, now writers living in Brooklyn, have decided to write an account of their lives.

In their memoir, called Identical Strangers, they have tried to uncover the truth about the study.

'Imagine a slightly different version of you walks across the room, looks you in the eye and says "hello" in your voice,' they write in the book.

'Looking at this person, you are able to gaze into your own eyes and see yourself from the outside. This identical individual has the exact same DNA and is essentially your clone. We don't have to imagine.'

The twins tracked down and confronted the scientists behind the study, including Peter Neubauer, a child psychiatrist. They allege he showed no remorse and offered no apology.

The twins found that he was willingly aided by the Louise Wise adoption agency that handled both their adoptions.

A year after the study ended, in 1980, the State of New York issued guidelines stopping the separating of identical twins by adoption.

Perhaps aware that his research would be criticised, Mr Neubauer reportedly locked the study in a university archive not to be opened until 2066.