She just called me. She said, 'Are you sitting down? 'You have an identical twin brother.' I literally almost drove off the road. Tonight on 20/20 ` identical twins separated as babies and none of them knew. (INDISTINCT CHATTER) I was in shock that I have an identical twin. I needed to find her. That is my mission in life is to find her. An adoption agency deliberately splitting up twins. This is wrong. What they did was really, really wrong. They didn't give a damn for anybody. It was screwing with people's lives. And it was all for a secret experimental study. They weren't just separated. They were placed in homes and each of them studied for more than a decade. It was weird, and I hated it. Poked and prodded, filmed at tests like these. Like lab rats. Like, they didn't care. Literally like lab rats. Pieces of their childhood still locked away from them. Does that show you that they knew what they were doing was wrong? That this is so unethical? Now they're demanding answers. You knew that she was a twin, and you never mentioned it. I mean, I'm sorry. How many other twins from this study are still in the dark? They stole my childhood. You can't get that back. Somebody has to own up to this. They have to. Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2018 Kia ora, I'm Carolyn Robinson. Welcome to 20/20. Imagine finding out as an adult that you had an identical twin. That would be shocking enough, but for several people we're about to meet, there was more to come. These twins were deliberately separated and adopted by different families as part of a secret experimental study. None of the families were told about the other sibling. Tonight, Elizabeth Vargas brings us this astonishing story. Adorable identical twins Gracie and Audrey. Born and separated in China, and then adopted by different families in the United States. They reunited on Good Morning, America when they were 10 years old. Audrey, are you ready? Yeah. You want to do this? Mm-hm. You ready? Come on. Come on. All right, there you go. Come over here. All right, Gracie. Come on out and meet your sister. Yay! (AUDIENCE CHEER, APPLAUD) (GIRLS SOB) Can I just touch you? Oh! (LAUGHTER) (GIRLS SOB) Aw! Now meet Howard Burack, who surprisingly has a lot in common with those little girls. You always knew you were adopted. I did. I was adopted, and, you know, I grew up in a nice middle-class, upper-middle-class family in a nice suburban area north of New York City in Rockland County. And normal childhood, normal whatever. Great parents. You went to the Louise Wise Agency. Yes. But in 1998, when he was 35 years old, Howard became increasingly curious about his biological mother. He wrote to the Louise Wise Agency to ask for information. Someone at the agency called back with news that hit like a bolt of lightning. She said, 'You have an identical twin brother.' And I'm, like, 'Well, thanks for telling me that.' After I was shocked, but, you know, 'How do you find that person?' Because that's what I wanted to do. I can't imagine hearing that news. Yeah, it was... Yeah, not too many people get to hear that, I guess. (CHUCKLES) Did you ever remember any feelings of... loneliness or feeling something was missing? I had that a little bit, and definitely I've had that feeling over the years, for sure. What does it feel like? Just you feel like you're missing something. Just don't know what it was. You can't touch it; you can't feel it. Just something was there. But this exciting news was bittersweet, because Louise Wise Services told Howard New York law did not allow the agency to reveal the identity of his identical twin. I spent about two years, you know, every day thinking about this. It never left. Did you start doing that thing where you start looking at people on the train? I did. Looking at faces for a face that looked like you? Yep. And I was, you know, I would tell people, like, 'If you ever see a person that looks like me...' '...stop them and get their name.' Yeah. Yeah. And it sounds like you were haunted by it. Oh, it was pretty disturbing. I mean, it was just... I don't know. It's, like, 'How can I find this person? 'Am I ever going to find this person? Is this person alive?' Howard's story is part of a new documentary by Lori Shineski. Her film uncovers a secret scandal hidden for decades. MAN: How many twins are there and how many are aware that they are twins and how many are not? The shocking story of an adoption outrage. Babies placed with families who were deceived about their origins. MAN: My parents always used to tell me that I was more special because they chose me as opposed to just had me. They decided to separate these twins and triplets, place them in different families and never told the families that they had adopted a half of a twin set or a third of a triplet set. Shineski titled her film The Twinning Reaction. The easiest way to explain the twinning reaction is it is the twin bond that's so obvious to us today. In the womb together, in their crib together, touching and holding each other, looking to each other, interacting from a very, very young age. Twins, triplets and other multiples hold a special fascination for those of us born alone. Hollywood loves twins too. Come play with us, Danny. Whether by a precious fluke of biology or Mother Nature purposefully and exquisitely repeating herself, twins are considered by some to have a mystical bond, an unbreakable connection begun in the womb. Lawrence Wright has written about twins for The New Yorker magazine and published a book on the subject. We have sibling relationships, we have kinship relationships, but of all of those relationships, the most unusual and rare is the identical twin relationship. You are closer emotionally to your twin than anyone else you will ever meet. It's a clone. It's a replicant of you. It's precious in a way. So here's where we told the world that you have arrived. Aw. Sharon Morello was born in 1966, and was adopted through Louise Wise Services then an eminent adoption agency for Jewish children. In the '60s, Louise Wise was the place to go if you were a Jewish family looking to adopt a Jewish baby. That's right. It was apparently the most prominent Jewish adoption agency in New York City. It was very well respected. Researching her documentary, Lori Shineski, now a consultant for ABC News, dug up life-changing surprises, including a stunning secret about which, even at age 48, Sharon had no clue. Lori called Sharon's adoptive mother. And then my mother calls me. And says... 'Some lady just called me to say she is doing a documentary and that you have an identical twin sister.' And I said, 'Excuse me?' And I hung up the phone. Are you serious? And I was in shock. I just couldn't... I took me hours to call her back to say, 'All right. What's going on?' She was never told you were a twin. No. I feel like she was so betrayed, and that just hurts me. Would she have adopted twins? Oh, she said she would have, definitely. And when we come back, we are there when two of these identical twins finally get to meet after almost 40 years. * Welcome back to 20/20. Separated at birth for a secret psychiatry study, several sets of twins and triplets only found out as a adults that they had identical siblings. The multiples were deliberately placed into separate adoptions with different families, who were never told the truth. As we go back to Elizabeth Vargas, one of those sets is finally meeting face-to-face. Howard Burack was dumbstruck to learn he had an identical twin. The brother he never knew he had is Doug Rausch. Doug found out he had a twin in 2004 when the adoption service that split them up was going out of business. LORI: When Louise Wise was shutting down, there was a woman there who had cancer and who knew she was dying, and before she left and before this place closed down, she called Doug. Guilty conscience? Yeah. She couldn't go to her grave without letting some of these kids know that they had identical twins. She even told me. So goes, 'I'm not supposed to do this, 'and I can get in a lot of trouble, but I'm going to do it anyway.' So I appreciate that. Her conscience took over at that point. Yeah. So someone had one. Someone had one. Exactly. She said, 'Are you sitting down?' And she said, 'Well, I have some news for you. You have an identical twin brother.' And I was like... I literally almost drove off the road. Like, it's not something you ever expect to hear. Doug gave the agency his number and waited anxiously to hear from his identical twin brother that he had never known he had. Arriving at the airport in Columbus, Ohio, a long-delayed reunion. Hi. My God. (LAUGHTER) How you doing? Two years after finding out his brother existed, Howard is finally getting to meet him in person. (LAUGHTER) It's like looking in the mirror. (EMOTIVE MUSIC) It's definitely an eerie feeling, each time I look at you and I sort of... Got the mime thing going on. It's just like you're looking at yourself in the mirror, and I think we hit it off right away and, you know, instant connection. I felt like I knew Doug my whole life. Yeah. Their lives began as a single cell that split into two. They share almost identical DNA. As they compared the lives they have led separate and apart, they noticed patterns. He is very laid back, and he is very sincere. Doug is very laid back. I always a make the joke that sometimes we have to check his pulse to make sure he is still living. Howard's ideal date night is going to a five-star restaurant and getting prime rib. Steak is his favourite food. When they first met each other, it was just like they always knew each other. Doug would always look and me and say, 'Wouldn't it would be cool to be twins? To have twins?' 'I always thought it would be cool to be a twin.' We lived parallel lives essentially. - You both have three kids. - BOTH: Yeah. Similar ages too. Get out. Get out. Get out. Right in the middle. Watch where he's going. Middle! Ready! You guys both coach hockey? Yeah. Yep. Our kids both started playing and we both... I never played growing up. I never did either. You both hold your wallet in your front pocket. Yeah, I don't know how of that is genetic or just... But not many people do that. So you got married the same year. Yep. What year? Uh... '92. (CHUCKLES) You're in trouble. Oh my God. You guys both had to think about it? I knew. I was just slow. (BOTH CHUCKLE) They both don't use any condiments at all. It's not just ketchup and mustard; it's condiments in general. It was the first question Diane asked, 'Does Doug use condiments?' And I was like, 'He has no use for them.' Doug and Howard's ketchup and mustard hating fitting like a puzzle-piece reunion. That's what Sharon Morello wanted too. She was obsessed with finding her identical twin. That's all you do ` live and breathe it. Why that obsessive need? It was fascinating and cool. And what would it have been like growing up? Yeah. Would we have been best friends? Would we have hated each other? Would we have shared everything? Like, so many different things, but we never had that chance. Sharon was determined not the let this chance slip by. I found her on Facebook, and I sent her a little message. We instantly bonded. I mean from that first email, it just, like... we just clicked. We even named our younger ones the same name. Are you kidding? So we both have a Joshua. So that was kinda like the first thing, like, 'No way!' In fact, news of identical twins and triplets secretly separated by Louise Wise Services have been leaking out for decades. In 1980, three 19-year-old men from the New York City area, Robert Shafran, Eddy Galland and David Kellman ` total strangers ` discovered they were identical triplets separated who'd been separated at birth by Louise Wise Services. They became folk heroes, making the rounds on national TV,... What kind of cigarettes do you smoke? Marlboro. Do you all smoke the same brand? ALL: Yes. I was curious ` how is their taste in women? Is it similar? ALL: Yes. Definitely. ...making a movie with Madonna, and a stop here at ABC on Nightline in 1989. Did you laugh as much before you knew one another? I don't think so. I don't think we were as happy. I don't think we were ever this happy. Oh, this is a magic moment, guys. Play the violins. # This magic moment. # (SNAPS FINGERS) (LAUGHTER) It really completed our lives. But as all these identical siblings get reacquainted, they all discover they had one more thing in common, something strange, something uncomfortable. Do you ever remember... having people come over to the house to observe you? I do remember just a person coming, and I remember, like, looking at books. Yeah, they would show me different pictures. I would have to say what did I think that picture was? Each of them has vague, unsettling memories of intrusive strangers coming to visit throughout their early childhood. People would come to my house and they would film me and they would make me ride my bike and they would, you know, do this test and that test. What did they ask you to do? All kinds of psychology tests and drawing and just looking at things and ink blots and drawings and talking to you and asking questions. And I was kind of a shy kid and, you know, you have people asking you questions and asking you to do stuff. It was a little bit horrifying. It turns out after the twins and triplets were secretly separated, they were then enrolled in a mysterious psychological study without so much as a word of it whispered to their unsuspecting adoptive families. They made it sound like this was to everybody's benefit to see how smart this kid is, because I don't know him. Here we are adopting a child, we don't know him, we don't know his background, but it never dawned on me ` why are they coming back so many times? The secret so-called adoption study. What were they really after? And how was it ever allowed to happen? We'll look at that right after this break. * You're back with 20/20. In the late 1960s, several sets of identical twins were separated at birth and adopted out to different families. Those adoptive families were never told about the other twin or that it was part of a secret behavioural study, which meant years of monitoring and years of tests. Elizabeth Vargas continues this incredible story. (CHEERING) Little lookalikes Audrey and Gracie, the identical twins separated in China, adopted in the US, and reunited on GMA, now getting to know each other again. Hi. Hi. We kind of talk the same, and a lot the same. A lot the same. Yeah. A lot the same. Yeah. Chinese adoption officials separated the girls and allowed them to be adopted to unsuspecting families. Not surprising in some parts of the world, but the same thing was happening right here. This brick building in New York City housed Louise Wise Services in the 1960s. The adoption agency acted on the advice of its consulting psychiatrist, Dr Viola Bernard. Defying conventional wisdom about the special bond between twins, she claimed they were better off apart. Dr Viola Bernard was a respected doctor in her time. She was very well respected, and did many good things, but she believed that she was right and that she had... The right. ...the right to separate these twins. Without telling anybody. Right. Twins were purposely being separated because of a misguided, unproven notion on the part of Viola Bernard that twins are better off being in separate families. There is nothing, no basis, to ever support that. And then Dr Bernard doubled down. She enabled a friend ` another psychiatrist, Dr Peter Neubauer ` to begin a long-term study of some of the separated children. They did not tell the adoptive parents that the children were twins, nor did they tell them about the true nature of the study. You never study people without their full knowledge. They were misinformed that it was a child development study, and that is hiding basic facts. Larry Perlman was a young graduate student when he was hired to work as a research assistant on the twin study. He says what Neubauer was after was nothing less than the Holy Grail of science of human development ` an answer to the age-old question of nature versus nurture. Is biology destiny? Or would identical children raised by different parents grow up to live very different lives? We wanted to see if we can tease out some of the subtleties of these processes and how that might affect the development of these two individuals who are genetically identical but are being raised by totally different families. There is reason to believe that Neubauer purposely arranged for some of them to be placed in homes of various economic status to see how those differences affected children. Sharon says it led to a difficult conversation when she and her sister first met. What did she tell you about her life story? Unfortunately, that was one of her first quotes was, 'You had the better life.' And that still hurts me. It was always, 'You had a better life.' Yeah. 'You had more,' you know? Like a scene in these old science films, Perlman says researchers visited the separated twins in their adoptive homes several times a year when they were babies, up until the time they were 10 or even 12 years old. There would be some initial rapport building. Meeting the kid, he can show me around, show me his toys and what have you. They administered developmental, psychological and IQ tests. There would be some arithmetic questions to do in your head. They would make home movies. The filming was just a behaviour sample. Maybe the kid playing or riding his bike. Might have been some interaction with the mother. And they weren't only interested in the children. Researchers scrutinized the adoptive parents as well, especially the mothers. House in a state of chaos. Dolls and clothes on the floor. The furniture is stained and unattractive and tastelessly arranged. A lot of excruciating detail about the mother herself, you know? Did the mothers know this was written about them? I don't know if they understood they were under so much scrutiny. Both Neubauer and Dr Bernard are dead now. Before Neubauer died, Lawrence Wright asked him about the study. I don't think he ever really acknowledged the damage that they might have done to the twins themselves. They had been deprived of that relationship their entire lives by scientists who wanted to study them. The requirement that the scientists get the informed consent of anyone subjected to human research would not become law until 1974. So that study done today would be illegal. But in the 1960s, the doctors involved in separating and studying the twins had to have known that if the public found out what they were doing, the consequences could be explosive. Neubauer talks about the reaction he got when he tried to convince another adoption agency to separate twins for his study. This research may contain amazing discoveries about nature versus nurture, but the twins will never know. After years of testing them and decades of sitting on the data, in the end, Dr Neubauer never published his study. Why wouldn't they publish? I would like to know the answer to that. So what happened to all this research? Peter Neubauer's data is controlled by the Jewish Board of Family and Children Services, and that is sealed until the year 2066. That's right. Neubauer buried the study until 2066, likely long after any of the twins will still be alive. Even if the study had provided some serious intelligence about behaviour and so forth, even then it would be bad, but here nothing came of it. There's no study, no anything. A bunch of locked files. 2011, Doug and Howard wrote a letter to the Jewish Board requesting their twin study data. They received a letter back stating that they were not in the study, so therefore they were not entitled to access this information. It's just not true. If they wanted those home movies and detailed notes about themselves, they would have to find a way to prove they had been in the study. A tall order nearly half a century later. If they had just looked at me and said, 'Sorry.' You know, 'We shouldn't have done that. Here's your stuff.' I think that would have been more than enough, and I would have been satisfied with that, but the fact that they tried to hide it and cover it up just made it 10 times worse. When we come back, twins Doug and Howard fight for those sealed study notes. Do stay with us. * Welcome back to 20/20. Tonight we have met three people who have had a shocking truth kept from them for most of their lives. They and an unknown number of others were separated as babies, given up for adoption to different parents, and then monitored for a secret psychiatry study. The trauma of it is affecting them now in different ways. Here's Elizabeth Vargas. Doug Rausch and Howard Burack still want access to the mountains of data gathered about them when they were children, and at the very least, they want an apology. I'm aggravated that people are continuing to deny and stonewall and not accept the responsibility for what they did. Hey, Doug. Oh my gosh. Documentary filmmaker Lori Shineski along with attorney Larry Coburn took up their cause. I think it's incumbent on all of us to take a good, hard, honest look at what happened, and to the extent possible, try to make it right. In 2013, with the help of that former researcher Larry Perlman, and after two years of battles, they broke through the Jewish Board's resistance and got some of the records released. All right. Let's see what happens. Don't break before I even do anything. There we go. It says film sequence. Date of visit ` 1-10-68. Most of this film sequence is Howard being tested with Mrs David. What did you read in those records? It's amazing to read some of the stuff about what you were thinking or saying when you were a little kid, it's strange. Dr Bernard, the consultant who advised breaking up twins for adoption, told journalist Lawrence Wright in the 1990s she only favoured separating twins who had not had time to develop a strong attachment to each other. So even the doctor who was saying twins are better if they are raised separately was saying if they have had this thing called the twinning reaction, don't separate them. Correct. Because it's traumatic. Yes. In her own words. But as they sift through their records, Doug and Howard discover Dr Bernard didn't even follow her own rule. It turns out Doug and Howard were together for six months before being separated and adopted to different families. For the first six months of your life, the only consistent thing in either of your lives was each other. What they did was really, really wrong. And the more, you know, stuff I read, the more wrong it kind of seems and the more... the more upsetting it gets. In page after page, Doug and Howard's records reveal harrowing details of the stress and trauma they endured after their separation. That's pretty disturbing. People sitting around, dissecting your life. One researcher wrote about Doug and Howard ` clinically referred to as C-5, and C-6 ` 'Following adoption, both boys show a decline in motor dexterity. 'Both also begin rocking after adoption, with C-5 rocking for a longer period of time than C-6. 'C-5 also shows headbanging, which continues until his second birthday.' It's upsetting to know that these people were able to affect our lives in a way that I didn't even understand and... I don't know. I don't even know why I'm getting emotional about it, but it's just... It's not really in my nature, but it's just... It's just hard to... I'm not really introspective, and when you start looking and you start going, 'Well, maybe if that didn't happen, you know, maybe some of the hard spots wouldn't have been hard.' I don't know. So... They didn't give a damn for anybody. Only what they were doing, their work. These are unconscionable people. They stole a... childhood on some levels. Not that... I wouldn't trade my life for anything, but you can't give back. You can't get that back. Hi. Nice to meet you. There is fallout on Sharon's side as well. Disappointingly, her relationship with her newfound identical twin has soured. What happened? There was so much promise in that first visit. She knew I want the story out there, and she didn't want that. So that started, I think, tearing us apart. And now you don't speak? No. We do not speak any longer, which is very, very sad. And it gets worse. Among the 15 children known to have been separated, there are reports of serious mental health issues. It appears at least three separated siblings committed suicide, including one of those famous triplets, Eddy, who in 1995, 15 years after reuniting with his brothers, took his own life. His wife says that he was never able to get over the separation and the lost years of the 19 years he didn't have with his brothers. Is this because of the separation? This twinning reaction that may have happened, and then they were pulled apart? It's their belief that it at least had some impact. The separations had some impact on their feelings of sadness and loneliness and depression as children. When Louise Wise Services went out of business in 2004, its records came here to the Spence-Chapin Agency in New York. It now has the answer to a haunting question. Of the thousands of Louise Wise adoptions, how many other twins or triplets were separated? We contacted Spence-Chapin repeatedly. It's Elizabeth Vargas calling from 20/20 ABC News. We have left several messages with you over the last week. They have refused to return our calls. As for the study gathered by Dr Neubauer currently under seal, Only the Jewish Board has the authority to release it. In a statement, it tells 20/20 in part... That is just a lame statement. I think since they have these records, they should actually send them to all the people that they have records for. So that's kind of bullcrap right there. Excuse my French. Because of that secrecy, it's impossible to know just how many other babies may have been separated, and as adults, still might not know to this day they have a twin. I guess the debate is whose data is it? It used to be my information. It was about me. I don't know. Why is it you have any right to it, just because someone in their will or their estate said this stuff should be locked up and no one gets to see it. It's your information. Not only that, but they obtained it by lying to everybody. Still ahead ` the twins come face-to-face with some of the people who prodded and poked and filmed them as babies. The people who helped keep the secrets of the twin study. Janet, hi. And surprising justification for splitting up babies. It was a time, as we were saying, that was hard to get white babies. And so this was an opportunity for two families to have a baby. (INTRIGUING MUSIC) Will they get the apologies they so desperately want? Find out after this break. I'm hearing things that I can't remember the last time I heard. Healthy hearing is now more affordable with... Call us or visit... . Damp homes are harder to heat, so air it out by opening windows and doors regularly to let fresh air circulate, use externally vented fans and dry clothes outside when you can. Check out the three essentials for a healthy home on our website. * Welcome back to 20/20. A secret experimental study carried out on several sets of identical twins is shocking enough. But these twins also spent most of their lives not knowing of the other's existence. They were deliberately separated as babies and adopted by different families who were kept in the dark too. Well, now some of them have managed to meet each other. And as Elizabeth Vargas continues, they're pushing for the truth about what was done to them. (GENTLE MUSIC) It was Dr Viola Bernard's idea to separate twins. It was Dr Peter Neubauer's idea to study them. And they both agreed not to tell the adoptive families, a secret they would need help keeping. Help from research assistants like Larry Perlman, who took a job working on the twin study as a young graduate student. They didn't believe that the infants would register the separation, would register the knowledge that they had a twin in the first few months. But based on what? Well, it was... (CHUCKLES) It was speculation, because nobody had studied infants. Filmmaker Lori Shineski informed reunited twins Doug and Howard that Perlman had studied them in their separate adoptive homes when they were just 6 years old. More than 40 years later, the twins visited him at his home. Hi. Hi. How are you doing? Howard Burack. Hi. Larry Perlman. Doug Rausch. Nice to meet you. It's been awhile, huh? (CHUCKLES) Yeah. 44 years. Exactly. Yeah. We were 6 when you... Yes. Yes. I actually pulled out the testing I did on you guys when you were exactly 6. So I note that there were 10 twins at that time. 10 sets or 10...? 10 all together. Five sets. For you guys researching, it was a job. But for the people that were in it... That's their life. It's, you know, people making decisions about your life, and you have no control over... Some of them actively just lied to you outright. Lied to my parents anyway. It got me thinking about the damage that was done to the families, to the parents who were kept in the dark about the fact they had adopted twins, and that was a piece that I had never really thought through very much. You know, that made me sad, and it made me think how much of an injustice has been done to all of these twins who were subjects of this experiment. Lori Shineski tracked down another researcher who made house calls studying the unknowingly separated twins and their families. Her name is Janet David. As a researcher, she had made a home visit to Sharon Morello when she was a little girl. As Janet David arrived for the home visit, however, she realized she knew Sharon's adoptive mother, Vivian. They had met in college. Still, even with that personal connection, Janet kept the secret. Janet got out of her car that day, and went inside that house and studied that family and that twin and never told that her baby was an identical twin? No. Wow. More than 40 years after Janet and other researchers studied Sharon, the former research assistant agreed to meet Sharon and her mother. And you might remember this woman ` professional people-finder and ABC News consultant Pam Slaton. Pam first brought the story to 20/20's attention. Janet. Hi. Hi, I'm Sharon. Nice to see you. Yes. I was a research assistant on the study that Sharon was in, and Vivian and I actually went to college together, by one of those small world, incredible coincidences. But if Janet expected a happy reunion, that's not what happened. Things quickly get tense. You knew that she was a twin. Yeah. And you never mentioned it. I can't answer the question. I don't know. We were told that this was the way the study was set up, that the families didn't know that they had a twin, and that's how it was. Because you know it's something that I would have really liked to know. Yeah. And so would she. I'm sure. Yeah, even when the study was over, why you never called to say, 'By the way, you know, there's a twin out there if you ever want to find her.' Well, I left the study shortly after I met your family, but I was low on the totem pole. I was just barely starting graduate school, so I had no authority, no clout, no nothing. Did you feel it was wrong what they did? The study? Doing the study? Mm-hm. I don't. I don't. It was a time, as we were saying, it was hard to get white babies, and so this was an opportunity for two families to have a baby. What a terrible explanation for why they were doing this. The idea that, well, we wanted to make sure there were enough white babies to go around. So if there were two or three, why would you keep them together when you can spread the bounty? We knew that the families were competent parents. It was, like, there was no harm here. We are not, like, experimenting. Right. So that part never struck me as wrong. You know, so it looked like the babies are going to good families. I think they were hoping for an apology, in some way, shape or form. I would if... I mean, I'm sorry. I'm sorry about it, but I was not responsible, and unfortunately the people who created the study and who designed the study are probably not alive. After the meeting, Sharon and Vivian were blunt about their disappointment. She didn't seem sorry. She didn't seem to understand that what she did caused pain. Undaunted by the falling out with the twin sister she hadn't known existed, Sharon Morello decides to search for her biological mother. Hey! How are ya? This time, she brings in a professional ` Pam Slaton. So I have been busy. Family reunions are her specialty. So now I went back to your DNA, and sure enough, whose family tree did that end up in? My... Your twin sister. OK. And I'm like, 'OK, now we're on to something.' So I found your birth mom. OK. Pam uses DNA, social media and her gut instinct to track down Sharon's biological mother. But it's Sharon's nerves that are the issue today. I'm afraid she doesn't know that we were split. And that's gonna crush her. That's gonna... And I don't wanna put that pain on her, you know? It's the type of call nobody is prepared to make or receive. The nerves. Oh my gosh. Hi, my name is Sharon. If you can, please give me a call back. The message worked. Sharon and her birth mother began communicating on email and Facebook. Her mother says she's never forgotten her twins. Her mother shared the baby pictures she got from the adoption agency with Sharon and her sister. She had held on to those pictures all those years. She tells Sharon she was not told in advance that her twins would be separated. And then when called back to say, 'Did you find a home for them?' She was told, 'Yeah, we found homes for them. They're being split.' She was heartbroken. Absolutely heartbroken. One day, they may meet in person. Meanwhile,... Hi, nice to meet you. Sharon, Doug and Howard and their families all attended a screening of Lori Shinseki's film. FILM: She proceeded to tell me that I had an identical twin brother. At least one member of the audience offered what none of the architects of the study ever has ` an apology. On behalf of humanity, I am so sorry for what happened to you. It's a horrible thing, and I would never have forgiven those people for that they did to you guys. I think that there is a cautionary tale there that you can never look at people like data. Humans are not data. The twins Lori discovered are grateful to her for restoring the truth about their birth. He's part of my life. I have a brother now. We're happy that we met each other. Pretty fortunate. They are adamant such a study should never ever be undertaken again, holding out their own lives as a warning to science. Proof that the quest for knowledge should never come at the expense of our humanity. And that documentary Twinning Reaction is available to purchase online. Well, that's our show for tonight. Thank you for joining us. Until next week, kia ora, nga mihi. Captions by Ingrid Lauder. www.able.co.nz