Posts filed under ‘Siamese Twins’
Siamese Twins – Judge orders fatal separation (2000)
Barcode (ID): 03B0583714 
Clip Duration: 1 min 30 seconds
Ethical Content Rating
Usefulness for Teaching Bioethics
Overall a good clip – illustrates how Siamese twins are joined (or can be in the case of Mary and Jodie) and has good ethical content in showing both sides of the argument and showing another successful separation of the MacDonald twins
Description:
A High Court judge has given doctors the permission to separate Siamese twins against the wishes of their parents – even though as a result one of them will die. The judge said both would die if nothing was done. The babies, both girls, were born 3-weeks ago: one relies on the heart and lungs of her sister to keep her alive. The judge said their parents loved them both – equally – and simply could not bring themselves to choose “life for one” at a “frightful cost to the other.”
- Siamese twins, Jodie and Mary, born at St Marys Hospital, Manchester
- Parents are from remote part of Eastern Europe with poor medical facilities
- Parents statement ‘Everyone has the right to life, so why should we kill one of our daughters to enable the other one to survive? That i not God’s will.’
- Judge ignored will of parents however under British law, the Children Act requires him to put the interests of the children as paramount
- Judge said ‘Mary lives only because of her physical attachment to Jodie. The blood and oxygen that maintain her life comes from Jodie.’
- Good scientific diagrams of Siamese twins
- Twins joined at the abdomen – if not separated may die as one depends on the other
- Fuzzy section – MacDonald twin successfully separated
- However not always the case – decision to go ahead is ‘so heartbreaking’
