Warning: The link below goes to an MSNBC news article with a picture that is not gruesome, but may be distressing to some; if you think you might not like to see it, don’t click it.
Anyway… why is this described as a two-headed baby? If (they) survive long enough, both heads will develop distinct personalities and be different people, won’t they? It’s not a two-headed baby, it’s an extreme case of conjoined twins. Right?
"The newborn is an extremely rare form of conjoined twins called a dicephalus twin, which is a child born with two heads, two spinal columns, two arms and legs, but shared multiple internal organs. "
I guess “two-headed baby” makes a better headline than “dicephalus twin”…
That’s tough. One functioning body with one set of organs, and two heads. It’s not like doctors can flip a coin and lop off a head - what kind of surgery are these people even talking about?
It’s not a single person; that’s the point; this isn’t like one person with an extra head; it’s two people who happen to have the same body. Like these twins - in which there is a slightly greater degree of separation, but the principle is the same; you wouldn’t call Abigail and Brittany Hensel a 'two-headed girl*, would you?
I don’t know; I think the fact that they’re referring to this pair of twins as a single baby with two heads is perhaps an indicator that they are considering removing one of them.
Jeez foax, be fair. This critter has only been alive for 9 days–I doubt the parents have had an honest opportunity to consider the hand they’ve just been dealt. I would assume they were prepared to have a normal kid with the usual number of limbs. Give them time to think about it.
400 years ago we’d have burned the infant(s) and probably the mother as well, as witches.
I can completely understand that it must be difficult for the parents to take in and cope with, but what I’m reading here seems to suggest that the medical team are playing weird semantic games. Or it might just be crappy reporting.
I don’t understand how the doctors can even consider trying to separate them. How do they decide which one to kill? With only one set of internal organs, both can’t live if they separate them.
So, in other words, this is definately a different thing than that baby not too long ago who had an extra head? The extra head blinked and all but wasn’t as developed as the “primary” head - I remember surgery was performed but not what the outcome was. This is different, with two equally abled heads?
The article just says that the doctors are trying ti figure out how to “treat” the baby, no separate them. Interesingly, the article also uses the 3rd person singular to refer to the girl (not the girls). What a sad story…
She’ll die, but her sister could have a greater chance at life than if they weren’t seperated. It’s and ethical/moral/legal grey area. There was a case a few years ago in the UK where doctors seperated (against the will of the parents) a set of twins even though it meant death for one of them.
