# Parents Opt to Keep Conjoined Twins Together **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 26, 2014, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-opt-to-keep-conjoined-twins-together/687012 "2014-04-26T02:10:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2020, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-opt-to-keep-conjoined-twins-together/687012/41 "2020-07-13T09:00:30Z")
Another reply I wish I could just upvote. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2024, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-opt-to-keep-conjoined-twins-together/687012/42 "2024-04-13T21:51:13Z")
I heard recently, albeit not from conventional media, that one of the Hensel twins got married last year. This does raise all kinds of questions I’d rather not think about, but if it’s true, I wish all of them the best. The oldest known still-conjoined twins, Lori and Dori/Reba/George Schappell, died earlier this month at age 62. They had stopped making public appearances in recent years, and a cause of death was not disclosed. RIP. [https://www.wqad.com/article/news/nation-world/worlds-oldest-conjoined-twins-schappell-twins-dead/507-5beb8360-02aa-4f2e-847e-8c39b0525b35?utm\_campaign=snd-autopilot&fbclid=IwAR3bMWBEjUFQ5zp75clmErujwkKMzSHrFkb2E4plw\_aj1VSf\_gDhigeRhT4](https://www.wqad.com/article/news/nation-world/worlds-oldest-conjoined-twins-schappell-twins-dead/507-5beb8360-02aa-4f2e-847e-8c39b0525b35?utm_campaign=snd-autopilot&fbclid=IwAR3bMWBEjUFQ5zp75clmErujwkKMzSHrFkb2E4plw_aj1VSf_gDhigeRhT4) ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2024, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-opt-to-keep-conjoined-twins-together/687012/43 "2024-04-13T22:33:59Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > I heard recently, albeit not from conventional media, that one of the Hensel twins got married last year. This does raise all kinds of questions I’d rather not think about, but if it’s true, I wish all of them the best. Altough the marriage was a couple of years ago and not private, it went viral a week ago. Obiously it’s none of our business but it’s clear that they are both equally in the marriage but our system isn’t set up for them so he could only be legally married to one of them. They share everything below the sternum so one womb and each feel exactly half of the shared body down the exact center. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2024, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-opt-to-keep-conjoined-twins-together/687012/44 "2024-04-13T22:46:24Z")
I have followed the story of Callie and Carter Torres, from Idaho, who have two upper bodies and one lower. The parents went into the delivery room not expecting to take them home, but take them home they did - which took 6 weeks, because that’s how long it took to FINALLY get a custom-made car seat that met modern safety guidelines. One girl has an undeveloped ear and is legally deaf in the other one, but they walk with assistance and go to regular school, although the deaf one has an IEP. They’re now about 7 years old. They are both healthy, and their parents see no reason to separate them. I also learned via [Newspapers.com](http://Newspapers.com) about the Alsleben twins of Minnesota, girls who were conjoined in a manner similar to Chang and Eng, born in 1927 and separated several months later by a country doctor who recognized that one of them had “a weak heart” and they would both die if they were not separated. Elda did indeed have a heart defect that was inoperable at the time and died when she was 9, and Selda lived into her 80s. Selda was married but didn’t have any children. Her side of the gravestone actually says “Wife & Siamese Twin.” ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2024, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-opt-to-keep-conjoined-twins-together/687012/45 "2024-04-13T22:58:35Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > I heard recently, albeit not from conventional media, that one of the Hensel twins got married last year. This does raise all kinds of questions I’d rather not think about, but if it’s true, I wish all of them the best. I think it’s best to let those involved sort out any complications and the rest of us should just mind our own business. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2024, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-opt-to-keep-conjoined-twins-together/687012/46 "2024-04-14T00:42:08Z")
I agree. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2024, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-opt-to-keep-conjoined-twins-together/687012/47 "2024-04-19T22:46:35Z")
We’ve been discussing this on another website, and this link from 2007, when Krista and Tatiana Hogan were born in Canada, appeared in a Canadian medical journal. TL : DR - this doctor thought they would be little more than a waste of scarce resources, and should not have been born. I wonder if he would say the same thing, now that they are teenagers who do have some disabilities, the main one being a seizure disorder, but they go to school - and share some of their senses! Also, one girl controls a leg and three arms, and the other controls three legs and one arm, although not completely. > **[The tragedy that should never have happened](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1930177/)** > **[Krista and Tatiana Hogan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krista_and_Tatiana_Hogan)** > > Krista and Tatiana Hogan (born October 25, 2006) are Canadians who are conjoined craniopagus twins. They are joined at the head and share a skull and a brain. They were born in Vancouver, British Columbia,\[citation needed\] and are the only unseparated conjoined twins of that type currently alive in Canada.\[citation needed\] They live with their mother, Felicia Simms, in Vernon, British Columbia, have two sisters and a brother and often travel to Vancouver for care at BC Children's Hospital and Sun... ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2024, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-opt-to-keep-conjoined-twins-together/687012/48 "2024-04-20T11:19:09Z")
Dr. Walker’s opinion piece is refreshingly frank. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2024, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-opt-to-keep-conjoined-twins-together/687012/49 "2024-04-20T13:17:52Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > Dr. Walker’s opinion piece is refreshingly frank. ⁢ Not for me. I think this type of frankness has worn out its welcome. You don’t have to be awful. You don’t have to to dehumanize the babies as a “cruel abnormality of nature.” You don’t have to attack other doctors for adhering to basic medical ethics rather than attacking their patient’s decision. You can actually show compassion when you’re making arguments that sometimes compassion goes too far. And, FFS, if you’re going to argue about medical costs and needing to ration them out to do the most good, you shouldn’t be pitting hip surgeries and having a single doctor for all your basic health care versus the medical care needed to keep a child alive. There are some actual arguments buried in there for discussion, but I find his awfulness only gets in the way of those arguments. It honestly reads like he wants people to get mad at him. (And I’m avoiding going into every single problem I have with his article because it would make my post even longer). ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2024, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-opt-to-keep-conjoined-twins-together/687012/50 "2024-04-20T13:19:32Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > You don’t have to to dehumanize the babies as a “cruel abnormality of nature.” I agree with you that that part made me cringe. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2024, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-opt-to-keep-conjoined-twins-together/687012/51 "2024-04-20T14:00:16Z")
Nature can be cruel. But that doesn’t mean that we should be. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2024, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-opt-to-keep-conjoined-twins-together/687012/52 "2024-04-20T14:09:06Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > I think it’s best to let those involved sort out any complications and the rest of us should just mind our own business. Absolutely. This is an incredibly difficult decision for anyone to make. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-opt-to-keep-conjoined-twins-together/687012.md?page=2)