For some reason this case fascinates me. True dicephallic twins, with two heads and two spines, but a normal number of other parts. (I presume that the esophagus, arteries and other such bits branch off to connect each head to its proper organs) This set appears to actually be healthy and so far exibit no significant problems other than the need to be on a ventilator to aid in the body’s need to supply more oxygen than it’s probably capable of doing on its own. But they’re contemplating surgery, presumably to split the two. Now, I have to wonder – how? It seems like an irrevocable situation. This isn’t your usual “siamese twins” situation where they each have their own organs but share tissue, or maybe a limb or two, nor is it like the Indian child a year or so ago who was born with a parasitic, partial “twin” attached near the crown of the head. This is two heads, one body. They share everything. The only way to separate one is to kill the other – and even then you’re left with a kid who has an off-centered head with an angled spine. Not the end of the world and probably better than living on a ventilator, but problematic in and of itself.
It brings up some interesting questions though – chiefly, what it would be like to be born quite literally with two heads. How would that work? Would they take turns eating? What if one didn’t like what the other wanted to eat? What would the one experience while the other ate? Or thought? Which head controls the limbs? If both, who decides what to move when and how?
What’s fascinating to me is that the article – not to mention the parents – refer to the baby in the singular. This is one baby with two heads, not two babies with one body. Only one name has been given, etc. That strikes me as weird, and makes me wonder if this surgery would have the expected outcome of killing one of the twins and leaving the other with the right number of limbs and organs.
If I recall correctly, there was a story a year or two ago about a set of dicephalic twins here in the US, complete with footage. Their family gave them two names, and by now they’re probably preteens. The girls had distinct personalities and seemed to do fine as they were.
That’s rather interesting, though the Hensel Twins have their own organs from the waist up, with the exception of having only one liver, so they’re a little more “separate” in that for all intents and purposes they’re more or less two separate people internally. Not that this makes it any less fascinating, but dicephalic twins that share absolutely everything from the shoulders down bring up a few extra questions that don’t think even the Hensel Twins could answer.
It is interesting to ponder because if the child has two heads and two brains one would naturally think that each head is independant, conscious and cognizant, a separate being in that it can think independantly of the other head.
If allowed to mature wouldn’t each head have its own thoughts and feelings? Wouldn’t each head be its own “person”. If that is indeed the case, how does one decide which to keep?
I keep wondering which head will control the legs. Can Left Side get up and walk around, even though Right Side wants to stay put?
There was a Tales From the Crypt episode about a pair of conjoined twins (both with complete bodies, however) with very divergent personalities. I’m probably going to Hell, but that’s what this story keeps making me think of.
Those are the sort of questions I was wondering about. With the Hensel Twins, each head controlled its own side of the body, so the two had to coordinate their efforts in order to walk. But they had separate organs (again, except for the one liver) and the central nervous system was sort of split between the two, thus requiring each to control their own side. This set here appears to be one body with two heads. One set of limbs, one set of organs. There was no mention as to where the spines join, so it is unclear if they share the same central nervous system. This part is probably key to determining which head controls what, or if they can both control everything. Being infants right now it’s probably impossible to tell without being able to scan each brain for activity to figure out which one is active when various types of stimulii are presented.
As for the potential for surgery – I think there are probably a whole host of moral and ethical issues to consider here. By all accounts the baby/babies is/are perfectly healthy and normal – y’know, except for the having two heads part – so I presume both are conscious and self-aware and individuals in their own right, inasmuch as they can be individuals while being attached to the same body. Any surgery that proposes to try and separate one from the other could only be considered if it is determined that failure to do so could put the baby’s life in jeopardy. Apart from being on a ventilator to provide enough oxygen to both brains, this does not presently appear to be the case, so does the prospect of being on a ventilator for the rest of its life constitute sufficient cause to perform the surgery?
I don’t know how they could consider surgery for the girls, unless the surgery is planned to kill one of the twins. This is not one child with two heads, this is two children with one body. Two brains means two people, should be a simple concept. And even if they kill one of the twins, would that leave the surviving twin hemiplegic? From the precedent of the Hensel case it seems likely.
The Hensel twins could have survived as completely separate entities (albeit being wheelchair-bound) because they had their own organs with which to sustain themselves. (One would have to either do without a liver or somehow have one implanted) The same cannot be said for these twins. I suspect the “separation” would be more on the order of an excision: The second head and spinal column being removed, leaving the rest intact. (It’s probably not even remotely as easy as that, but that’s probably the general idea) If both heads are their own beings however, inasmuch as they can think independently and they are both healthy with a reasonable expectation of normal development then I don’t see how they can even contemplate it.
Ok, the irony of this is too odd. I had posted a couple of days ago in the “Things no other poster had seen,” or some similiar title the fact that I had seen the twins at the county fair. I was being very Minnesota by not revealing names, nor locations, trying to give a little privacy, discretion. And they have a fucking Wiki page? And been on Oprah? Wow.
There have been instances of surgical separation of conjoined twins whose conjunction was much less “involved”, but where it was a given that one of the twins would not survive the surgery. I have vague recollections of a pair of American twins like this. I think one of them was named Amy. The other may have been named Angel. The father was later accused of mis-use of funds donated for the suriving twin’s care. The surviving twin did not survive for very long. Then there was a European case that the Catholic church became involved in.
I wonder if the dicephalic twinning case from the OP has been given only one name to help quell some outrage if/when one of the twins is excised. There might be a cultural difference that would conceptualize this situation differently than we would, or where singular naming might help with different conceptualization.
If I remember correctly in that case (and I don’t remember the names, either) what was reported at the time was that with no surgery, the twins would definitely die at a very young age. With separation, one would definitely die, and the other would still only have about a 10% chance for survival. That was a matter of two bad choices. The dad also got into some kind of drug-related trouble.