Conjoined Twins: An Overview

Paper Summary:

Examines life & death decisions involving medical interventions to separate conjoined twins. Focus in the ethical problem of who has the final right to decide whether a patient shall live. Medical, judicial and parental involvement. Discusses a legal case in Great Britain. Right of choice. Who has final decision: parents or doctor.

From the Paper:

"Conjoined Twins: The Ethical Dilemma


In the Old Testament there is the story of Solomon, judging two women, both of whom claimed a baby was hers. When Solomon offered to cut the baby in two and give each mother half, one woman cried ?No. Let her have the baby!? Thus, Solomon knew that the real mother was willing to give up her child, in order that it could live. We now move forward to the year 2000, when, in Britain, it was up to a judge to decide which of conjoined twins should live. The case proceeded to court when the parents refused to have doctors separate the twins, in order to save one, saying that it was the will of God, not modern medicine, to decide.


?The case illustrates the difficulty of applying legal principles to unprecedented life-and-death decisions involving proposed..."

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