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"The baby with two faces" - what would you do?
Tony Tiger
Posts: 2,254 Forum Member
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An Australian woman has miraculously given birth to conjoined twins with one body and two brains despite doctors initially telling them to terminate the pregnancy.
Renee Young and Simon Howie, of Tregear in Sydney's west, welcomed their daughters on Thursday six weeks before they were due.
The couple, who found out via an ultrasound that the twins they were expecting was in fact one child with two symmetrical faces and two brains connected by the one brain stem, said doctors were shocked by the girls' exceptional progress.
'They are breathing perfectly on their own and feeding,' Mr Howie told Woman's Day.
Ms Young gave birth to the girls, named Faith and Hope, via an emergency caesarean at Blacktown Hospital last Thursday.
The girls were born with a rare condition called diprosopus, which means they share the same body and vital organs but have their own faces and brains which are connected by only one brain stem.
'Even though there is only one body, we call them our twins. To us, they are our girls and we love them,' Mr Howie said.
They were transferred to the Children's Hospital at Westmead shortly after they were born.
'We have no idea how long they will be in hospital. We just want to bring them home, happy and healthy to make our family a little bit bigger and a bit more chaotic,' Mr Howie said.
story here
Could you, or would you, keep them if you were given the news after an ultrasound? As heartless as it might sound, I know I would be completely against it. Especially in a case this severe, for lack of a better term, there just doesn't seem the prospect of any real quality of life at all.
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If the parents feel they can cope with this wheres the harm?
shouldn`t it be about the life of the children rather than whether the parents can cope, they won`t be cute little babies forever.
The other brain doesn't have a left hand.
As long as the children aren't experiencing pain it should surely be up to the parents? I'm sure the docs will have informed them of the medical circumstances.
What are you saying exactly? They shouldn't live because they look abnormal?
If they were your kids then you would immediately realise that is something you could never do.
The wider world is people like you and me. Are you saying you are not equipped to 'deal' with it? I agree much of the wider world won't be equipped but is that enough of a reason to terminate?
we are being asked what we would do, not what they should do. i`m saying that i`m not sure that i wouldn`t have terminated and it`s nowt to do with coping as a parent but the future of the children, particular as adults.
Well that's left me more confused. Not your fault, btw, just me being a bit slow.
Does each brain control one half, or certain parts of the body exclusively then? So maybe if brain #1 controls one arm only then as far as it's concerned it only has one arm. Is that how you mean?
For some reason I was thinking they'd both be able to control all parts of the the body and have a battle of will over it or something.
Ok. The only reason I would consider terminating is if the child was going to go through a life of excruciating physical pain. The wider world may find it difficult to accept and people can be very cruel. But people can also be very kind and compassionate. Things only look odd for a while, then they become 'normalised'.
As for termination, it obviously wasn't enough of a reason for the parents, but I think it would be for me (for clarity, I'm male, so maybe it's 'easier' for me to say that anyway). Whilst the ultimate decision wouldn't legally be mine, I don't think I could agree with or condone bringing a baby into the world knowing full well it's already hideously deformed, with no known way to offer any cure, corrective surgery or even any 'respite' for them from it.
It's more than just looking abnormal... 2 brains sharing a body means 2 brains sending different information to the body, that's going to be a very difficult life for them.
Yes it's up to the parents, but your suggestion that it comes down to whether the parents feel they can cope is somewhat ridiculous.
The parents have made their decision and hopefully did so considering the life that their daughters will lead as they get older.
i don`t know what this means but as someone who gets stared at a lot by strangers i predict a fair bit of misery.
...why does EVERY article, which people post on here always come from the Daily Mail?! It seems that all DS users only read this paper.....!?