I never knew that there are conjoined twins. Chalk it up to I live my life with my head up my butt, but utnil I read an article in Time ( Or Life, same thing, the more photojournal one) it showed a picture of two, I guess, conjoined twins. Two heads, one body ( two arms, legs and regular guts and stuff.) The girls were jumping rope.
It’s kinda sad, if you ask me, because, well dating will be a nightmare and the sex life would be for only the porno dreams of the SDMB men.
But, it got me to thinking.
Do they have one or two social security numbers? Technically, when they would work, it would be one body doing the work.
TLC has been running ads for a show about twins that features a “set” of women who are joined at the forehead! One twin is much smaller and has to be carted around on some sort of wheeled stool. They each have/had boyfriends with whom they had sexual relations. The other twin says she just “blocks it out”!!!
I find it very difficult to comprehend having children born like this. Would I separate them so that one could live?
I have seen the twins you spoke of (on TV) and though they have one body, their personalities are as different as twins would be if separate. They are both delightful and have overcome many difficulties so far, the hardest being walking. Sure they are different from most of us, but they are healthy and bright. There are so many other things ( much worse ) that children suffer from than having been joined since birth. If you get a chance to see the girls interviewed you’ll be surprised. I was!
Eng and Chang were known as the origial “siamese” twins. They were born to a Chinese father and half Chinese half Malaysian mother in Siam in 1811. They traveled the world as a side-show act, then settled down and married two girls who were sisters. They had 16 children between them.
Sometimes separation is medically possible, other times it would kill both – as I understand is the case with the sisters joined at the head and neck, whom I have also seen on TV. Charming women, both. And, of course, sometimes the parents have to make a terrible choice. There was an Irish pair of girls I heard of who had to be separated for the sake of saving the stronger one; otherwise they would both have died from the strain on the heart of the stronger girl.
I certainly imagine that they are legally treated as separate individuals, but it does raise some questions about the legal rights and responsibilities of one over the other – what if one wanted a tattoo (or a husband) and the other didn’t? In these days I can just imagine one conjoined twin suing the other.
I’ve seen these girls on specials about conjoined twins and they really creep me out. (I’m insensitive, I know) They really are the embodiment (sp?) of a ‘two-headed baby’ because they share only one body and I just can’t get past it. Didn’t their mother have an ultrasound?!? I’m betting the ob/gyn faced a HUGE malpractice suit.
These twins do a lot of interviews and while their situation is tragic, to me, it seems less disturbing. (FTR, they are joined at the forehead, though somewhat end-to-end, necessitating the use of the wheeled stool one uses.) Perhaps it it because they’re more easily identifiable as two distinct individuals.
IIRC, Eng and Chan were only joined by a small ‘bridge’ of flesh in the abdominal area, they could have easily been seperated. However, even when one was dying, the other refused to be split and succumbed shortly after his brother.
I was morbidly obsessed with watching these shows when I was preggers. You know, that pregnancy insanity thing.
Chang and Eng were joined by a band of cartilage at the sternum. After some time and lots of practice, they were able to stretch the band such that they could stand side by side.
However, the consensus of the doctors examining them after their deaths was that medicine (at that time) was not sufficiently advanced that they could have been separated and lived.
With the Irish twins they thought that seperation was possible and that both would survive, although they knew that together they wouldn’t. Unfortunately, one twin never recovered and did die several days after the surgery. Their names were Alish and Katie. They did they surgery when the girls were about five, I think. The surviving twin had a very hard time dealing with the loss of her other half. With the two girls in Iowa, their parents love them very much, Sue. I don’t think they would’ve aborted them. As for the two adult sisters, All I could think was “Gosh, I’d have a terminal stiff neck if I had to go around like that!”
Chang and Eng were married to sisters Adelaide and Sarah Ann Yates, and all lived together for awhile, but it didn’t work out. They then lived in two separate houses three miles apart, and would spend three days off and on in each. Chang had 12 children, Eng, 10. (In NC, I knew one of Eng’s great-granddaughters.)
From what I recall reading, they had developed an ability to tune out what the other was doing. I guess you’d have to be able to do that in that situation!
Their death was especially poignant. Chang had a stroke, and then became deaf- but only in the ear next to Eng! Chang would get drunk, but Eng was a teetotaler. Chang caught a cold, but insisted upon maintaining the routine of changing houses, so they set off in a drizzle in an open carriage.
Chang grew worse and Eng woke up to his brother dead beside him. He was-no wonder-in a panic. A doctor was summoned to perform an attempt at separation, but before he arrived, Eng basically died of fright. The autopsy found that Chang had died of a cerebral clot, but nothing was found wrong with Eng, whose health had been good.
“The Two” is a book about the Original Siamese Twins. (Sorry, the author escapes me- I gave my copy to Eng’s GGD’s paramour awhile back)
If one can/could block out what the other was doing ( like during sex) there isn’t a whole lot for her to do, like read a book or knit or something. I mean, her hands are feeling what her sister is doing…how weird is that?
If they had a child, would the child have two moms? Or an Aunt and a Mom? Would it be contingent on who the father was having sex with? And would the marriage, if both married two different guys, be considered bigamy because they have the same body?
Driver’s training with these two would be real interesting.
I didn’t say that the parents didn’t love their children. I said:
That is an opinion. Any parent worth their salt knows that the only thing you can do is love your child, regardless of how they come out.
Also, I certainly never said anything about aborting them. I merely said this:
It seems as if the doctor should have noticed something wrong with the pregnancy before the ‘I think we’re gonna have to do a C-section’ stage. Maybe you haven’t had children so you don’t realize all the warning signs (and tests, even the subtle ones) that can indicate a problem pregnancy.
In the future, I would appreciate you not reading so much into my posts, I’m not that fucking deep.
The oldest living conjoined twins (in their 30s, I believe), who live in FL have two SSN’s but only one passport.
They used to live in Gibsonton, on Tampa Bay, where a lot of circus sideshow performers past and present reside.
It was founded by *Al Tomaini (sp?) and his wife **Jeannie (sp?)>
*Al Tomaini was a giant, billed at 8’4", although he was IRL about a foot shorter.
**Jeannie was a “half woman.” Not half-woman/half-man–just half woman. She had no legs, her body ending with just a torso. She had Al had a couple of kids through adoption.
Back in the 50’s-60’s there was a show called “You Asked for It” They did a feature on this couple. Jeannie demonstrated her ability to swim, and do household chores, including dishes, which she used a stool to reach the sink.
They owned The Giant Cafe, which is still in operation today (or it was last time I was in Gibsonton).
I have known a few side show “freaks” In my life (by they way, to them this term was not derogatory for you PC folk out there) And they are some of the bravest, interesting, and down to earth people I’ve ever met. You have to have a sense of humor, to not be bitter and most in my personal experience were not.
As for sex, there are a lot of “normal” looking folks out there that do a lot more strange things sexually, than a two headed girl might. Also there are a lot of people who for physical or physiological reasons don’t have sex.
It’s a big world out there, lot’s of room for all of us.
One of the reasons “Gibtown” (as the carnies call it)Was started was to proved a place for special people to live their life without the stupidity ( either intentional or not) of the so called normal.
More reading on this subject is a book called “Freaks Like Us” I don’t remember who it’s by. There is an old B&W movie called “Freaks” That was well made, and did not get the response it should have when it was released because people thought it was exploytation. Some of my friends were in that movie, and they were quite proud of it.
I am not trying to be judemental here, please don’t take it that way. I first met these people when I was doing billboard art and signs for their booths. I was younger then, and uncomfortable. I made a lot of mistakes. I thought being polite ment pretending they were no different than I.
Oh! Freaks is a wonderful movie! Blueslady–which people did you know?
If you are interested in conjoined twins and sex, then Geek Love might be worth reading. I despised the book, but the bit about the conjoined sisters sure was interesting.
Oh, and there was a set of conjoined twins in Freaks too. Basically, each of them had a boyfriend. They introduced their boyfriends to each other–it went something like this:
“I’d like you to meet Jack. Jack, this is my sister Mary.”
“Hello Mary. Nice to meet you. I hope you come over and visit us sometime.”
It sounds ridiculous–but it was really quite lovely.
In fact, the whole point of the movie was that the “freaks” were far more normal than the “normal” people.
IIRC, they were indeed joined by a small bridge of flesh, but they shared a liver which passed through that band.
Cutting into a liver is dangerous and tricky even today, so I think it’s safe to say they couldn’t have been safely separated with 19th century technology.
There are some interesting stories about Eng and Chang…
They enjoyed being special and liked to play jokes on people.
One time the boarded a train. Chang had a ticket Eng refused to buy one. The conductor told them that unless Eng bought a ticket he would have to get off. Chang protested that Eng could not leave without him, and he had a ticket. This back and forth banter went on for a while. Finally they opened their coats to reveal they were the famous Siamese twins
