Pakistan doctors fight to save life of baby with six legs

Originally posted by xBlueButterflyx
reply to post by Biliverdin

 

It's not exactly a conjoined twin, it's a parasitic twin, there is a difference. A conjoined twin is still able to live and thrive and they can usually be separated. A parasitic twin never separates from the embryo while the dominant twin continues to grow, the parasitic twin doesn't and doesn't really develop properly and can get absorbed by the other twin. It only lives off the blood supply of the 'host' but is not self aware. There was a story where a boy had a parasitic twin removed from his stomach, you could see hair and really distorted features but there was no brain inside the 'head' of it.

It is a conjoined twin, parasitic is just the term given to this form of conjunction. It is merely a matter of the two fetuses not developing equally. The link that I posted explains in greater detail and also provides the exact example that you have given. Even when there are seperate brains, that is no guarentee of each twin surviving, as has been shown in recent cases, often the shared organs cannot be adequately divided.

There is a really good short story by Philip K Dick, I can't remember the title off the top of my head right now, it's in the Eye of Sybil collection though, that explores some of the metaphysical implications of parasitical twinship...the X-Files ripped off the idea in one of the later series too and took it upto the next level.

Originally posted by Seeker Mom
Fighting to save the life of a human being born with such an extreme deformity is a form of cruel and unusual punishment, as far as I'm concerned. There was a day when such an unfortunate baby would be allowed to die a natural death. I do believe this is one of those cases. Remember, just because you can do something doesn't mean that you should.

The operation has so far been successful, and despite a considerable scar, the boy should be able to lead a normal life. We have the means to help babies like this, and have advanced to the stage medically where most operations are successful, and it is more likely that had he been left to die 'naturally' as you put it, that that short life would have been one of incredible pain and suffering as his twin and he competed for nutrients and grew accordingly. This way, via a major operation certainly, he has been seperated from his twin and will simply need to recover from the surgery. How is that cruel and unusual?

Besides, there is no indication that this child would have died naturally as you put it, and you may also remember that there was also a day when such children would be sold into the fairgrounds to be put on display in the freak show for people to pay to gawp at, do you want to return us to that world too? There is absolutely no reason that this child can't have a normal life, as normal as any of us. By your argument perhaps we shouldn't treat cancer, or even asthma...after all, survival of the fittest would preclude their survival too. Shall we let the person choke on a bone for being stupid enough not to chew, after all, just because we know the heimlich maneuver will work doesn't mean we should use it.