Baby with two heads: Does the second head have a right to life?

[ecstatic]

I am not trying to make light of this tragedy in any way whatsoever.

I think this story raises certain ethical questions about what exactly the "right to life" really means and who it should apply to.

The "second head" is a partially formed girl who has brain activity. The malformed twin is an infant of 7 weeks, add the time spent in the womb and we have two 10+ month old beings.

According to "right-to-lifers," women should be forced to cede control to a zygote that cannot survive outside the woman's body. Yet in a case like this, "right-to-lifers" can't deny that the fully formed twin's rights trump the rights of the partially formed twin (who cannot survive on her own). Why doesn't the Pro-Life community apply this same rationale to pregnant women?

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040206/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/dominican_two_heads_1

[Sapphocrat]

1. One question answers it for me:

Can it survive as a fully functioning being on its own?

[Scairp]

2. The picture almost made me ill

I'm just glad that she will never remember having an extra head as an infant, and that the science exists to remove it and give her a shot at a normal life.

[kcwayne]

4. Since Freepers are not fully functioning

does this mean they can be retroactively aborted?

[onebigbadwulf]

3. Obligate parasites are always at the mercy of the host

This is my argument as to why 1 week old fetuses are different than 3rd trimester babies.

[DemBones DemBones]

7. But parasites are not members of the same species,

as a mother and fetus are.

[benburch]

5. Hard choice in this case.

When both heads are actually really functional, and obviously self-aware, it is different.

There is one case of a couple of little girls... They tell people "We are not a girl with two heads. We are two girls with one body!" They rock.

[DemBones DemBones]

6. Because the partially formed twin is not an entire

person. If she were fully formed, she'd have a normal brain like the fully formed twin does. For some reason, the embryo in this case divided incompletely, creating conjoined twins instead of identical twins. We're used to thinking of Chang and Eng and other examples of two complete humans joined by some physical connection, but not all conjoined twins are such distinct persons.

I saw some conjoined twins on television once who looked like one girl with two normal looking heads. As I remember, their torsos were basically fused into one torso with an arm on each side and four legs. The heads were definitely two different people. The girls were about 8-10 years old as I recall and I seem to remember them running, riding a horse, and swimming. Their parents were trying to raise them as normally as possible. I don't remember what surgery had been discussed but the parents had decided against it because it was too risky. In that case, there were two different persons, I think, because there were two separate brains, yet you could say they have one life that they're sharing.

Edit: These are the twins benburch mentioned above! I remember them saying "We're two girls with one body."

Anyway, you're contrasting the rights of an abnormally formed person with no prospects for normalcy or even for a separate life, against the rights of her normal twin, who has the usual prospects for a normal life. Perhaps the abnormal twin has a partial life but the normal twin has more rights, I think, because the abnormal one will never be viable. In abortion, the pro-choice argument is that the mother's rights trump the fetus's, at least until viability. The pro-life argument is that the fetus has as much right to live as the mother does because a developing fetus is like a blueprint constructing itself. The fetus is dependent on the uterine environment until viability but if dependence takes away its rights, then children who are dependent on others could also be said to have no right to life. Peter Singer argues that it is morally permissible to kill young children but I don't think most people agree with him,. Even if it's an interesting proposal to discuss in a class, not many of us would really support infanticide and I don't even know a word for the killing of toddlers.

It's possible some pro-life people would oppose this surgery but it's not the same as cases where surgeons separate conjoined twins, selecting one to live and one to die, when both could live as long as they are left as they are. Those are very troubling, especially a case in England where the parents didn't want their twins separated, knowing one would be sacrificed, but the government ruled that the surgery must be done.

[rocktivity]

15. Abigail and Brittany Hensel are the two-headed, one-torsoed twins.

They are now in their mid-teens, live in Minnesota, go to regular school, and enjoy horseback riding!



More Info

[bleedingheart]

8. Every case is unique.

To paint everyone's decision with a broad brush is unreasonable.

In this particular case I think the decision is correct. I just hope the baby survives.

[cryofan]

9. It should be cryopreserved

It cannot survive now, but likely will be able to do so in the distant future. THus, it should be cryopreserved.

[Az]

10. Biology is not concerned about legal or moral issues

They are impositions brought about by our society and laws. In an ideal universe (that somehow has this tradgedy) we would be able to seperate them and preserve both minds. We are faced with an unpalatable delema. The second head almost certainly will lead to the death of the both of them. It cannot survive on its own. The lesser of the two evils is to remove it.

[mainer]

11. I thought the same thing!

Some here have argued: well, the head is not a fully functioning separate entity.

Neither is a fetus.

Some have argued: well, it can never have a normal life.

which is true, also, for fetuses who are anencephalic or have multiple chromosomal abnormalities. But the right-to-lifers would deny a woman's right to abort THOSE horribly deformed fetuses in the third trimester.

So your point is well taken.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

12. Being against abortion for anencephalic fetuses is THE idiocy...

...that pushes me over the edge.
THERE'S NO "THERE" THERE!!!

[kskiska]

13. Back in the old days (pre-1950s)

These babies would be destroyed at birth as "monsters," by doctors, sometimes without even informing parents of the circumstances, which would serve to "comfort" the parents. Perhaps they were written off as "stillborn." Of course, this was back when even cancer patients weren't told their illness were terminal, though the families usually were.

[rocktivity]

14. The article makes it clear that the head is in reality a parasite

Parasitic twins...occur when one stops developing, leaving a smaller, partially formed twin dependent on the other.

...(T)he second head('s)...mouth moves when Rebeca is being breast-fed...

Rebeca is the eighth documented case in the world of craniopagus parasiticus...All the other documented infants died before birth...

Since the head is dependent on the baby, it cannot be defined as a second human being, but a threat to the baby's right to life.


rocknation

[ecstatic]

16. fetuses can pose a threat to a mother's right to life also

<Since the head is dependent on the baby, it cannot be defined as a second human being, but a threat to the baby's right to life. >

Over 670,000 women die per year due to pregnancy.