Conjoined Twins Could Live for Years
L O N D O N, Sept. 14 -- Conjoined twins at the heart of a legal battle between doctors and their parents may not be doomed to die within months, a lawyer for the parents told an appeals court today.
The dilemma facing the British court over the fate of the conjoined twins — the medical term for Siamese twins — has captured public attention, sparking a debate about whether doctors have the right to kill one baby in the hopes of saving the other.
Doctors at St. Mary’s Hospital in Manchester, where the babies were born on Aug. 8, believe both twins will die within six months if they are not separated, but that one twin — identified as Jodie — could survive on her own. The less-developed twin, Mary, could not survive separation, doctors say.
A lower court ruled last month that the babies should be separated, even though that would mean certain death for Mary. The court accepted doctors’ arguments that Mary is “essentially a parasite and should be removed, so her sister can live.”
The parents, who are Roman Catholics from an unidentifiedEuropean country, oppose the operation and have appealed the lower-court decision. They have told the court they love both their children and “cannot begin to accept that one should die to enable the other one to survive.” That, they say, is “not God’s will.”
Chances of Survival
Simon Taylor, counsel for the parents, said today a cardiologist from London who examined the twins thought there was at least a 10 percent to 20 percent chance that the children could survive more than six months.
A surgeon also thought the twins could live together manymonths, perhaps even a few years, Taylor told the three judgeshearing the appeal.
“I’m aware that that raises a horrible specter of survivalgoing into years — God knows how many years — but it exists,”Taylor said.
Lord Justice Alan Ward commented that these opinions were“pretty vague,” but Taylor said he raised them only because ofthe repeated assertion that the weaker twin would die in any case.
