Political & Elections

BigG · Guru

RE: Baby with Two Heads on One Body

Poetsheart · Senior Member

This whole situation is a nightmare of the very worst kind. I feel so sorry for the parents of these twins. How can they even stand to look at them? I know it sounds terrible, but I don't think I could. There's no up-side to this scenario. Absolutely none, and it's all bound to end in tragedy. Is "The State" going to step in and assume responsibility for these childrens' needs? I wonder what comes next.

Razorsharp · Guru

"I would probably get an abortion as soon as I found out."

I have to admit I have a tough time with abortion. It seems like killing of a human being without that (very little) person's consent. However, I think this case is a good example of why abortion would be appropriate. If a mother knew her child would be born with two heads, wouldn't it be immoral for her to have that child?

SamuraiLandshark · Guru

The family didn't know this until a few days before the babies were born.

I don't think what you said is wrong, romani. In those circumstances, I would probably do the same.

There is a good liklihood that these girls won't make it to adulthood. There was a huge chance they wouldn't have made it to delivery. There are so many issues here - cost, pain and suffering and the fact that these are two girls in a non-girl friendly environment. What kind of lives can they hope to have?

It's terribly sad that this happened the way that it did. With modern medicine, we assume that this is going to be caught early on.

romanigypsyeyes · Guru

To be completely honest, I would probably get an abortion as soon as I found out. I know it sounds terrible, but I think it would be much easier to have an abortion than to grow attached to both people (?) and then ultimately have to make the choice that would possibly kill both of them anyway.

Plus, the money that would be poured into medical care over the year could bankrupt many families. That stress alone is enough to make many families break apart. Often, kids who are very sick and cause stress within the family blame themselves for their family's problems (trust me, I know from personal experience), and all in all I don't think it's for the common good to bring them into the world- for the twins, for the family, for anyone.

*sigh* This post kind of makes me sound terrible, but I hope it's not taken that way.

As for the girls- I wonder what kind of life they'll lead. It's hard enough for "normal" girls in rural China- I can't imagine what it's going to be like for "abnormal" girls. My heart goes out to them and their family.

SamuraiLandshark · Guru

This would be a parent's nightmare. The ethics behind what to do are complicated. They can't be separated so that each would have a life.

What is the most humane thing to do? Remove the head of one of the twins, thereby killing one of the girls, but possibly allowing her a normal life? What about pain? How much pain would there be for these girls.

There was a set of conjoined twins that I heard about when my kids were little. They were profiled on the cover of Life Magazine. One of the girls is currently engaged. This astounds me. These are living, breathing functioning twins who happen to inhabit the same body. I don't know what I would do, given the circumstances.

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abigail_and_Brittany_Hensel/url]

-- Edited by SamuraiLandshark on Tuesday 10th of May 2011 11:59:11 AM

Razorsharp · Guru

A hospital in southwestern China says conjoined twin girls with a single body and two heads have been born at its facility.

Ok, so what would you do if you were a parent in this situation (of course, after all the crying, etc.)? Cut off one head? Nothing?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/as_china_conjoined_twins