Are conjoint twins prone to die at the same time?

Question

A couple of days ago, I saw a touching TV program about conjoint twins (Tyra Bnaks talk show).

Call me what you want, but I considered a mother of conjoint twins who went there selfish or naive at best.

She said she knew her twin children were going to be conjoint but she refused to have an abortion, and then she said she would only agree with a surgery if there were 100 % certainty that the children could be successfully separated.

However, the truth is that these children are doomed to have a poor quality of life, but my first thought is what will happen when of the twins die?

Will the other die shortly after? (And will that be a 'good death'?)

Answer 1

Well often one twin dies at birth if a separation is attempted. Living conjoined does often result in a painful quality of life for the twins. There is never a 100% certainty that the children can be successfully separated.

Answer 2

You are assuming a lot.  You can't assume they will have a poor quality of life.  A person's happiness and outlook is created by the individual.  What about those conjoined twins that have gone on to live happy lives and would choose not to be separated?  (Yes, historically there have been those who made that decision).  You are assuming that your beliefs are theirs.  It doesn't work that way.

It's unfair of you to call the mother selfish.  On the other hand, someone else might say that aborting the child would be a selfish decision.  That mother had to make the toughest choice any parent should have to make - whether or not her children should live or die. Can you imagine having to make a decision like that?  How could one know ahead of time whether or not the twins definitely could be or could not be separated?  I can't fathom how agonizing that must have been.  No one has the right to sit back and judge.    

Answer 3

A few things...

First, some people don't believe that a child should be aborted for any reason.  If God gave them the child, it was meant to be.  That's not selfish.  It's faith.

Now, for the quality of life, I have seen 2 girls that share 1/2 of a body, literally right down the middle.  One girl controlled one half while the other girl controlled the other.  These girls had wonderful lives.  They had friends, had good grades and truly loved life.  Just because it's not a life you would choose doesn't mean it's a life that's not worth living.

As for the death of one twin resulting in the death of the other...  Not always.  It would depend on what organs they shared, how their systems worked, etc.  If one died, there might be a chance the other one could have surgery to separate them.

I can understand not wanting to be the reason that one of your children is dead.  If you know that your children would live without the surgery but there is a significant chance that you could loose one or both of your children I could understand not wanting to do the surgery.  It's not selfish or naive at all.  One or both child would be dead or having two live children.  I would choose two live children.

Answer 4

No not necessarily, it depends on their individual lifestyles, if one smokes and drinks heavily they will die earlier. If one of them is hit by a bus and dies that doesn't mean the other one will die shortly after.