When I read this story in the New York Times, I checked to see what I had posted in the past regarding twin ethics and was shocked that I could find only two essays on the topic. After all, twins deliberately impersonating each other for their own benefit has been a theme from ancient Greek comedies and Shakespeare right through to “The Jackson Twins” comic strip, “The Parent Trap,” and “The Patty Duke Show.”
There was a “Columbo” episode where twins used their ability to impersonate each other to pull off the “perfect murder,” which naturally Columbo solved anyway. But just because twins switching identities can be clever, funny, effective, or cute doesn’t make it ethical.
The first of my twin ethics posts involved a twins who impersonated his brother to win $50,000 in a contest. The other one came from Brazil, where twin brothers had used their resemblance to impersonate each other and date as many women as possible, and then defend themselves from allegations they were cheating on girlfriends. These twins were ducking child support one of them owed by refusing to say which one of them had fathered a child (DNA tests proving inconclusive because they their were identical twins) assuming they would escape having to pay. It didn’t work: a judge ordered that they both had to pay child support and that the names of both men ended up on the girl’s birth certificate.
Now about those funky Australian twins Karen and Sara Holmgaard. They are on the same national women’s soccer team and are not above “bamboozling” opponents, especially since at the moment Karen is battling an injury and isn’t the threat that her sister, “experiencing one of the most prolific seasons of her career” is. “The best was last year against West Ham,” Karen told the Times. “(Hawa) Cissoko was meant to mark me when we had a corner because Sara was usually on delivery. But I came on late in the game, and Sara wasn’t doing the delivery this time, so we were both in the box. She ends up tracking Sara not me, and I ended up scoring! One of our Danish team-mates on their team had to explain to her we were twins.”
I guess that’s not strictly unethical (I just barely understand all the soccer jargon), since no overt action was taken to suggest that one twin was the other. The ethics Alarms position is that twins (under instruction from their parents, before they are 18) have an ethical obligation to eliminate the possibility of mistaken identity by dressing distinctively and even encouraging different hair styles and mannerisms. The Holmgaard twins, however, can be seen on a video speaking in perfect unison to a television reporter, finishing each other’s sentences and “sporting matching blue, bunny-spotted nursing scrubs and low, blonde ponytails.”
I regard this as a pre-unethical condition. Nothing good is likely to come of it.
Ethics Alarms 
Nothing these twins did was unethical. Soccer players have numbers on their back and as long as they don’t swap them then all is good. What is unethical impersonating the other when sitting the other’s exams, or showing a police officer the other’s ID. And a magician using twins is definitely ethical as the whole point of magic is deception.
[NOTE:This unauthorized commenter writes “I know you don’t like me to comment but…” What an asshole. The guy is banned. he has been banned for more than a year. He knows exactly why he has been banned, and if he hadn’t been banned for ordering me how to run my own website (“Do X OR ELSE”) he would have been banned for intentionally violating the stated conditions of posting here. The conduct is, essentially, vandalism fueled by astounding egotism and arrogance. He had a chance to reinstate himself as almost all banned commenters do; instead he keeps posting and wasting my time. from now on, I’ll keep his comment shell up and fill them with selections of Proust or something…JM]
Errol..1) Note that I didn’t say what they did was exactly unethical. 2) The New York Times article says they “bamboozle” opponents with their identical appearances, however. Bamboozling is unethical. 3) I did call this a “pre-unethical condition” —you saw that, right? It means in this case that deliberately making yourself indistinguishable from your twin is encouraging confusion and tricks like the previous identical twins discussed here have engaged in. 4) In soccer, as in hockey, the numbers are mostly for the benefits of the officials and the crowd. I agree with the observation that the uniform numbers render the girls distinguishable if an opposing coach and players are focusing on it, but the story the girls relate in the piece—the only “bamboozling” described—shows that their appearance can be confounding anyway to their team’s benefit.
Isn’t bamboozling part of the game? What else would you call feinting? Unpredictability is a skill in many sports. I imagine that players of hockey or American football, with their helmets that somewhat obscure their faces, might sometimes take advantage of their opponents not being sure who they’re facing and what their strengths and weaknesses are. Just because it’s not normally possible in soccer/football doesn’t mean it’s unethical.
You might think that the variable of player identity confusion should be isolated from this particular type of competition, and that is a defensible opinion. I would say that it is up to the regulatory board(s) of the sport to decide whether a team must help opponents distinguish its players on the field (such as by wearing different headbands, hairstyles, face paint, et cetera). Until a regulatory authority makes a pronouncement on whether this element of misdirection should be part of the competition, any visual similarities between teammates can be fairly exploited to the extent the teammates are willing to alter their own appearances. Fair?
IMO, this is on the other team’s coach(es), or the failure of their player to be observant. It sounds as though they assign their girls to “cover” particular members of their opposition. Competent coaching should (and usually does, in other sports?) include pointing out particular skills, habits, weaknesses, strengths, etc. of their opponent. One assumes it’s known that the twins are on the opposing team, so it’s up to their competitors to deal with that.
Feinting is unethical, just like a player pretending to be hit by a pitch in baseball. The fact that “everybody does it” and it’s tolerated doesn’t change its status as a lie.
(And so is “pitch-framing” in baseball.)
I don’t follow. Except for under certain rules, as you mention, feinting is a component skill in a number of types of competitions (as EC noted, above). Unless the twins use some extraordinary devices to confuse their opponents (a possibility you imply in calling it “pre-unethical”), it’s just tough luck and/or lack of preparation if their opponents can’t keep track of them.
If the soccer authorities think it’s an issue they can mandate some special identifier for twins …differently colored armbands, or some-such, though that might give an unfair advantage to the other team in tracking their opponents.
Feinting is allowed because it can’t be stopped, just like pitch-framing (until robo-umps take over). “We can’t stop it” is a rationalization.
As much as I love you, Jack, I fear we’re doomed to disagree on this one, as I’m still more in agreement with EC’s opinion. In many sports feinting is considered a skill…fencing (obviously), boxing, basketball, etc., and maybe to a lesser extent, sports like football or…soccer. Using body language to cause an opponent to misjudge your move is usually acceptable. Even leading off base might be a feint to distract or interfere with a pitcher’s performance. Although these girls’ situation is unusual, it’s not artificial or contrived, and , as has been noted, the officials can create rules to control it if they decide it’s unfair.
I’ll repost what I just wrote to Errol: Ah. I misunderstood what you mean by “feinting,” probably because I’ve never been able to sit though an entire soccer game in my life and would rather read Henry Miller backwards than educate myself about the game.. The practice I was referring to is “flopping,” which is “feinting” an injury or foul. My mistake. Feinting is ethical. “Flopping” is not.
That’s a relief…It just didn’t sound like you.
Oh, getting confused and shooting off my mouth when I’m completely wrong sounds a lot like me, too often, I’m afraid.
Completely wrong. Feinting is a skilful device to deceive the opposing player in both soccer and rugby and presumably some other sports. The ruling bodies of the sports do not want to stop it. If a rugby player can deceive a player into going one way before he goes the other way then he misses getting tackled and may score a try. If he can throw a dummy pass of the ball to a player but then passes it the other way then great. Why would he want to tell the opposition what he intends to do?
Boxers use the feint all the time. Why would he want to let his opponent know where he was going to hit him?
Ah. I misunderstood what you mean by “feinting,” probably because I’ve never been able to sit though an entire soccer game in my life and would rather read Henry Miller backwards than educate myself about the game.. The practice I was referring to is “flopping,” which is “feinting” an injury or foul. My mistake. Feinting is ethical. “Flopping” is not.
I did see on the sports news once where a soccer player was ‘injured’. After a few minutes of medical attention the medics carried him off on a stretcher. Next the athlete has a miraculous recovery and a few seconds later he is running back on to the field as fit as a fiddle so the referee gives him a red card. Feigning injury is definitely unethical.
A few years ago there were three sets of high school identical twins with the surname Brown who played soccer at the time. If they had been put into the same team then that would have been confusing for both the opposition and the commentator.