Conjoined Twins

[Zarathustra]

I didn't know which forum to post this, the Close or here. I saw these two girls on TLC the other night, and I can't stop thinking about them.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkKWApOAG2g

This is so strange, it really stretches what it means to be human. They are more than just two people joined. They are two people in the same body. They have separate brains, spines, hearts, and lungs, but share a diaphragm, a large intestine, and reproductive organs. Each controls an arm an a leg (which the other can't feel), but they have managed to coordinate their movements so they can walk, run, drive, swim, play sports, ect. Each can write separately, think separately, talk separately, but they still seem to have a mental connection because they can finish each other's sentences with an eerie precision. They scratch either side of their body (which they purported don't feel). There is some subconscious overlap, it seems. They share sensation at the middle line of their body.

But even stranger is how to think of them as separate or one person with two heads. It might seem obvious at first that we should treat them as two people because they have two distinct personalities. But what about legally? Do we give them one speeding ticket, or two? Hire them for a job as one person, or two? Let them take colleges courses as a single person, or as two? Since it's impossible for them to say, take a test, without seeing each other's work, is it really fair to allow them to have two separate grades and college credit when they collaborate on every single aspect of their work in a way that goes *way* beyond "cheating?" Can they really perform the work of two people, such that they deserve two paychecks? Can they get married without it being polygamy? If they are legally two people, then how can one get married and "force" the other into this marriage? But if they both agree (as it seems they must) isn't this legally marrying two women? Since they share one set of reproductive organs, who would be the mother? Both? How can anyone have *two* biological mothers? What if one wants to have sex but the other doesn't? Are you raping one even though the other gives consent?

Clearly, these girls blur the line between individuals and "dual" being in a way that I can't wrap my head around. What if one girl kills someone? You can't put them both in jail, can you? Or are they both responsible for each other's behavior?

[lorin]

Discovery did a one hour documentary on them last year. They are pretty amazing. I am fascinated at their ability to cooperate. Each one "commands" one hand and one foot. Every action they take is a cooperative effort. Walking, running, and now they are taking drivers ed. My teenager can't seem to coordinate her brain and arms when it comes to driving. Can you imagine coordinating two separate arms with two separate minds?

Their whole existence is based on cooperation and respect for each other. They also have a great talent and ability to compartmentalize, to see each action and task as seperate and distinct.

Here is another pair of conjoined twins, the Shappell twins, that have survived and prospered. Their situation is even more challenging in that they share 30% of their brain matter.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lori_and_Reba_Schappell

[rdhopeca]

Frankly I am at a loss for words. I can't even begin to imagine, I mean, what happens if they fall in love with different people? I'm assuming they are going to someday, aren't they? What if one has insomnia and wants to read while the other is trying to sleep?

What would happen if only one of them had a heart attack?

Incomprehensible...

[Vraith]

I think I saw that show about them too, (if not them, another very similar "pair"
All the questions above just leave me...I don't think there's even a word for it..incomprehensible times 10 to the n-th, where n is the biggest number you can think of.
Even the heart attack question, which is the easiest isn't (does the other heart have enough oomph? Does it have arteries that connect? Can the dead side be put on permanent life support? (Or...god...amputated, leaving a one armed, one legged survivor)
Boggled, completely boggled.

[dlbpharmd]

Amazing. I've never seen them before. Remarkable young ladies.

[Dromond]

Astounding!
I've seen conjoined twins before, but never quite like this, where all the questions brought up on this thread are so ponderous.

I'm leaning towards one body, one person... I can't validate it in words, I can have my mind changed on this one, but it seems to me that there's one body and an extra head (mind) that is the issue legally.
(I hope that never happens, it seems unsolvable.)

(I just deleted a sentence here because as soon as I typed it the other side seems as valid as the other.)

Wow.
I'm just thrilled that those girls seem to be enjoying life. Strong parents can't be overstated here.

Some would say God chose them ( I don't hold to that) but I couldn't imagine myself able to cope with a like situation. Maybe the reality of it makes it possible.
Whew! I feel great admiration for those girls, and much respect. Along with the family.

[Xar]

Cases such as this - in particular, of conjoined twins which cannot be separated with today's surgical techniques - really force us to think of how we define "person" from a moral and a legal standpoint - which might not be the same. About a century ago, if I remember correctly, another set of conjoined twins (Violet and Daisy Hilton, if I'm not mistaken) faced a situation similar to one which has been described in this thread: one of the twins fell in love with a man and wanted to marry him. History does not record her sister's comments on this, although it seems to have been acquiescence (and they were joined in a far less... intimate way than Abigail and Brittany Hensel, for that matter), and the groom-to-be apparently was willing to accept the extraordinary circumstances, but the State denied the marriage request, stating that by virtue of the fact that the twins would live together all their life, any marriage either of them entered would in effect lead to polygamy, since the groom would live with two women (nevermind the fact that they had two distinct legal identities and he would only legally marry one).

There is a fascinating book on the topic of conjoined twins, which also talks about their psychology and the amazing fact that no matter what the form of conjoinment, of all the conjoined twins who reached adulthood without being separated, only one couple (the two Iranian sisters whose case was presented by the media years ago) ever chose to be separated: all other recorded instances of twins who grew to adulthood without being separated not only actively denied wanting to become singletons (even when the possibility had become feasible due to medical advances), but when one of the twins eventually died, the other consciously would choose to die with his or her sibling, rather than being separated before death (which was again a possibility for at least some such couples).

The book in question even argues at length on the morality of "sacrifice separation" and whether conjoined twins should be separated at all (i.e. if it is better for healthy conjoined twins to grow to adulthood as conjoined, but otherwise healthy people, or as separate but likely disabled people). It's a divulgative text, so even if you don't have a background in medicine or biology, it's still very understandable. For any who are interested, the book is called "One of us", by Alice Domurat Dreger.