In August 2000, a young woman from Gozo, an island south of Italy, discovered that she was carrying conjoined twins. Knowing that health-care facilities on Gozo were inadequate to deal with the complications of such a birth, she and her husband went to St. Mary’s Hospital in Manchester, England, to have the babies delivered. The infants, known as Mary and Jodie, were joined at the lower abdomen. Their spines were fused, and they had one heart and one pair of lungs between them. Jodie, the stronger one, was providing blood for her sister. No one knows how many sets of conjoined twins are born each year, but the number has been estimated at 200. Most die shortly after birth, but some conjoined twins do well. They grow to adulthood and marry and have children themselves. But the outlook for Mary and Jodie was grim. The doctors said that without intervention the girls would die within six months. The only hope was an operation to separate them. This would save Jodie, but Mary would die immediately. The parents, who were devout Catholics, refused permission for the operation on the grounds that it would hasten Mary’s death. “We believe that nature should take its course,” they said. “ if it is God’s will that both our children should not survive, then so be it.” The hospital, hoping to save at least of the infant, petitioned the courts for permission to separate them over the parent’s objections. The court granted permission, and the operation was performed. As expected, Jodie lived and Mary died. Questions: Who should make the decision from the question of what the decision should be? Would it be right or wrong, in these circumstances,, to separate the twins
CASE STUDY: #2
In August 2000, a young woman from Gozo, an island south of Italy, discovered that she was carrying conjoined twins. Knowing that health-care facilities on Gozo were inadequate to deal with the complications of such a birth, she and her husband went to St. Mary’s Hospital in Manchester, England, to have the babies delivered. The infants, known as Mary and Jodie, were joined at the lower abdomen. Their spines were fused, and they had one heart and one pair of lungs between them. Jodie, the stronger one, was providing blood for her sister.
No one knows how many sets of conjoined twins are born each year, but the number has been estimated at 200. Most die shortly after birth, but some conjoined twins do well. They grow to adulthood and marry and have children themselves. But the outlook for Mary and Jodie was grim. The doctors said that without intervention the girls would die within six months. The only hope was an operation to separate them. This would save Jodie, but Mary would die immediately.
The parents, who were devout Catholics, refused permission for the operation on the grounds that it would hasten Mary’s death. “We believe that nature should take its course,” they said. “ if it is God’s will that both our children should not survive, then so be it.” The hospital, hoping to save at least of the infant, petitioned the courts for permission to separate them over the parent’s objections. The court granted permission, and the operation was performed. As expected, Jodie lived and Mary died.
Questions:
- Who should make the decision from the question of what the decision should be?
- Would it be right or wrong, in these circumstances,, to separate the twins?
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