There were the Iranian women a few years ago who insisted on the attempt to separate them, after stern warnings. IIRC, they both died on the table.
They had a story like that on (probably) TLC. One of those gruesome freakshows they call documentaries. God I wish I hadn’t watched it. Serves me right though. It was HORRIBLE. And warning, I’m doing you no favors by retelling the story.
Anyway it was somewhere in the Middle East, I forget which country. The baby was born with two heads, but joined at the crown, so that when the baby with the body was held upright the other head was completely upside down. The head-baby had no connection to any other organs, lungs, etc, but survived solely on the blood supply from the first head. Therefore it couldn’t eat, couldn’t breathe, and so on.
They consistently referred to it a single baby, and the second as the “parasitic” - or something like that - head, although this was obviously a second baby with a personality, who was conscious, interacted etc. They mentioned one nurse who liked to comofort and console the head-baby and IIRC gave it a name, but it sounded like pretty much everyone else acted acted like it was basically a tumor. The head-baby couldn’t cry without lungs but would make movements as if it were. Eventually they removed the head -baby after 1 or 2 years if IIRC. After discussion with the local cleric, who decided the head-baby was a separate person, they named the head and buried it with a funeral. A discussion they had a little late, if you ask me. The other baby survived the surgery but was severely brain-damaged.
So my guess is, if they’re talking one baby, it’s the same deal, one head’s going to go. Yet more proof of a kind and loving God.
This does remind me of the Hensel twins, who are the dicephalic teenagers mentioned above. They’re two girls joined at the pelvis who share arms and legs but have most of their upper organs (above the waist) separate. They have unique personalities, just like other siblings, and really should never be referred to as a “two-headed girl.”
Speaking of the twins in the OP: even if the second head belongs to a parasitic twin (i.e. one that’s unviable due to incomplete formation, with no working brain or organs), it’s still not correct to call this one girl with two heads. It’s lazy and insensitive reportage to do so.
BTW, bit of trivia: all conjoined twins are identical, as they’re formed by the same egg failing to split completely into two. So forget that goofy Stuck on You film, not that one would go to a Farrelly brothers movie for accuracy! (Also, most conjoined twins are female.)
Conjoined (not called “Siamese” anymore) triplets are extremely rare, to the point of their existence being highly disputed. However, from the unfortunately named but otherwise respectful Phreeque site:
Lots of great info at that site.
I’m wondering if this absolutely has to be the case; I’m pretty sure there are mosaic chimaeras where two independently-fertilised eggs fuse at a very early stage and develop into a single foetus, so isn’t it at least possible for conjoined chimaeric twins to exist?
Even if that’s a “joke”, I have to take issue with that. You do know that the people who tell you God is controlling everything at all times and is responsible for shootings and all that crap that happened to you as a kid, those people are just wrong. Right? (Sorry for the bad grammar.) And I say this knowing that some very popular pastors say this sort of thing, which I find just astonishingly facile. Apparently these people haven’t had something honestly bad happen to them.
I know I’m an atheist. And I don’t care about theology. I think it’s all idiotic.
But this isn’t something bad happening to someone. It’s a baby who spends two uncomprehending years treated as a tumor. Unable to cry, breathe, move, swallow or do anything but silently mug, until after a year or two she’s mercifully chopped off. It almost makes me wish I did believe so I could have something to lose faith in.
Yah, even as an Athiest, I find that to be a gratuitous jab. Y’know, theologans (something I am not and I don’t pretend to understand these matters) do have a rationale for all this tragedy. It may not be to your taste or mine, but a little respect? I mean seeing as this is GQ and the decorum must be maintained, ortherwise you have FARK. (Not that FARK is a bad thing, but we already have that…)
And here we have the crux. The faith is so you can deal with this kind of thing. If you believe, then the baby is in baby heaven. If you don’t… Believe me, I wish I believed too, not so I could lose faith, but so I could deal with the pain of loss and the fear of death, the primary unique benefits of religion. This is something forever denied me and I can never claim. Being an athiest is rough, especially as you get older.
I don’t want to go all junior mod or anything, but this hijack is a jarring departure from the topic - please can it continue elsewhere? (if it needs to continue at all).
No, I appreciate the junior modding. This is stupid.
If you are talking about theology, I think it is germain to the OP, in that your religious orientation could very well effect how you view this issue, and the language you use to talk about it. For example:
Abortion/Murder
Pro Life/Pro Choice/Pro Abortion
These are terms that are used based primarily on people’s religious convictions, although there are exceptions, myself being one, because I am an athiest who thinks abortion stinks (but should reamain legal).
In this instance, the language one uses to describe the child(ren)? may well spring from a particular agenda, religious or otherwise. In fact, I bet if you tune to CBS, then over to The 700 Club, they are already using different terms in connection with this story.
MSNBC: Surgery
700 Club: Decapitation
And Pat will use the cute girls linked earlier in the story. If he hasn’t already.
/watches 700 Club
//Mainly for the comedy
///But hopes Pat will heal my liver through the TV someday
////Must stop importing FARK slashie meme
Earlier in the thread. D’oh!
I agree, in a limited sense; “Do both heads have souls?” is a valid (if perhaps not GQ) question in this thread. “How can religious people be so crass and stupid as to believe in God when things like this happen?” is not.
If they just left them (her?) alone we could find out once and for all if two heads truly are better than one.
seriously. we could.
And I agree with you on this! I didn’t start it, I joined you in criticizing it. Just trying to steer us back on course, Captain! But it is germain.
And I was using my Nostrodamus Hat ™ when I said Pat & Company will term it “decapitation”. I don’t have cable right now, but I’ve got a fiver that says he’s gonna do that.
If this was in the United States, this would be the next Terry Shaivo. Pat will probably have some quack on The Club that will contradict majority medical opinion, etc.
Not that the other side doesn’t do the same damn thing. Both sides lie with language.
/uses the term “abortion” myself
//seems less politicized
///The problem with slashies is that they are best with sentence fragments, and sometimes you want to write a sentence, so the question becomes do you use a period or other puctuation at the end of the sentence, because, after all, a fragment looks stupid with a period or question mark, but a complete and properly constructed sentence looks wrong without some kind of terminating punctuation mark.
////Almost had you thinking I was going to use a question mark in the last slashie, didn’t I?
/////How’s that for a threadjack?
Has he even mentioned it? If not, are you sure he won’t just pretend it isn’t happening? - seems like a real can of worms for a religious spokesperson (exactly what kind of healing would you pray for in this case?)
Welcome to the "Hell Bound Train ". You can have the window seat. :eek:
Like I said, I can’t tell. I don’t have cable right now, and his rants are one of things I miss. If this is a notable story, he darn will mention it. This is meat for his table, and he is one hungry dog. Of course he will exploit it. Think Shaivo.
<Pat Robertson>Y’Know friends? Back in the old days, freaks were treated like royalty! They toured Europe, met Kings and Queens, the thin man married the fat lady! Things were great! It’s all part of God’s creation! (closes eyes as if going into trance) Now, I am sensing a viewer out there that is having trouble with their spleen…</Pat Robertson>
/on the train already