A woman has given birth to her brother's twins after having no idea they were related.

Neither Mark MacDonald or Rachel Elliott knew each other existed until adulthood but it was not long after meeting that they decided to go down a road few siblings have tried before.

Mark, a professor from Beaverton in Oregon, US found himself unable to have children with his wife and Rachel, who is from the other side of the country, offered to be their surrogate.

Rachel, who works as a mortgage lender in Raleigh, North Carolina, received a nod of approval from her pastor husband and went on to carry her full brother's children almost 3,000 miles away from him.

The pair have penned their unusual experience in a soon to be released book titled 'Love and Genetics: A true story of adoption, surrogacy, and the meaning of family'.

Mark grew up knowing he was adopted but only discovered he had a sister in Rachel when a bit of digging led to a flurry of letters, emails, and eventual face-to-face meetings between them.

Their new combined memoir reveals how Rachel gave a brother who she barely knew, and his wife, the ultimate gift of not one child but two.

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Mark, who works at Portland State University and Intel Corporation, went from having no known blood relatives to a family he could not have dreamt of prior to Rachel's offer of surrogacy.

Their situation started a new precedent for maternity in surrogate cases in the state of Oregon based on the biological mother rather than the surrogate herself.

Love and Genetics is set for release online next week on March 22 and interested customers can join authors Mark and Rachel for a virtual launch party hosted by Portland's Annie Bloom's Books at 5pm local time.

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