May 7, 2004
I'D NEVER WANT TO LIVE LIKE THAT...WELL, OKAY:
Our lives as conjoined twins (BBC, 5/02/04)
Conjoined twins are rare - with less than a dozen adult pairs living in the world today.Only a few hundred pairs of conjoined twins are born across the globe each year - appearing about once in every 100,000 births.
They face a dilemma - whether to opt for a life-threatening operation to separate them or to stay together.
Conjoined twin sisters Lori and Reba Schappell have chosen the latter and against all odds, lead independent and fulfilling lives.
The American twins' unusual lifestyle is documented in the BBC Radio 4 programme "Still Joined".
The programme makers say that on seeing the twins you are "immediately conscious of their physical difference" and "feel sorry for them".
This is not a reaction they appreciate.
The twins, aged 42, are joined at the head, but still manage to lead independent lives.
They share 30% of their brain tissue and their non functional left eye.
Reba has spina bifida and is unable to walk.
They face in opposite directions and have never seen each other's faces without the aid of a mirror.
Although their brains are joined, they insist they have separate thoughts, emotions and personalities.
The twins, from Pennsylvania, enjoy being together and cannot contemplate living separately. They do not want to live apart.
They said: "We're happy as we are.
"Why should we risk our lives just to conform to what society wants.
Funny how most of the conditions that healthy people contemplate and think should allow them to kill their children or themselves turn out to be things that the sufferers adapt to fairly well. That's why surveys show that the healthy support euthanasia and the sick don't. Posted by Orrin Judd at May 7, 2004 9:08 PM
This reminds me of the most famous pair of "Siamese twins" (to use the old, definitely non-PC term) ever, Chang and Eng Bunker. They not only led independent lives in antebellum America, they actually married (each to a different woman) and fathered a whole bunch of children. Oh yeah, did I mention they were Eurasian (mainly Chinese in ancestry), lived in North Carolina, and were slaveholders in the antebellum period? (Hey - maybe that last is why they weren't mentioned in the article.)
Posted by: Joe at May 7, 2004 10:14 PMAnd also why the comfortable do and the wanting don't.
Posted by: Peter B at May 7, 2004 10:43 PMYou say "most," but that may not be correct. I know of a good many sufferers who do not adapt fairly well. I had a brother-in-law who spent the last several years of his life unable to see, speak, move or feed himself.
Whether he would have preferred to die or not, he couldn't tell us. But he didn't adapt at all.
Posted by: Harry Eagar at May 9, 2004 4:14 AMIf he'd wanted to die he would have.
Posted by: oj at May 9, 2004 8:16 AMI would not presume to say for him.
Posted by: Harry Eagar at May 10, 2004 5:55 PMNo, but you'd (generic you, not you in particular) presume to kill him.
Posted by: oj at May 10, 2004 6:25 PM