In More News From Britain...

An 18 year old girl is due to give birth to conjoined twins in the next few weeks.

Do news sources know that the preferred term for conjoined twins IS conjoined twins, NOT Siamese twins? Just wondering.

They are already planning on separating the babies. However, they do not yet know how the babies are conjoined. Generally, twins are only separated if both can survive without the other (excepting parasitic twins), meaning they each have the organs and capacity to live without the other. Abigail and Brittany Hensel cannot be separated; they share multiple organs and organ systems. They each have an arm to control and they have two legs. In certain cases, an organ transplant can allow a twin that had less organs than the other to survive, such as the Herrin twins case. Kendra and Maliyah were separated, requiring Maliyah to get a donated kidney from her mother.

There is the well-known case of "Mary" and "Jodie" Attard. Their parents took them to Britain to seek medical advice. Doctors wished to separate the girls because Mary was much less developed; they viewed her more as a parasitic twin who was straining the more developed twin and would eventually lead to Jodie's death. This is what the courts agreed with. The parents, due to religious reasons, wished the girls to remain together as they were born. Mary died after she was removed from her sister; Jodie is healthy.

I will be following this new conjoined twins case closely, and am hoping for the best possible outcome for the mother and the babies.

Cheers,
Alison