Quote:

Conjoined twins not expected to live

By Andy Gammill
andy.gammill@indystar.com
January 21, 2004


Conjoined twins born Tuesday at St. Vincent Hospital in Indianapolis were still in critical condition this morning and aren't expected to survive much longer, one of their doctors said.

The girls' parents, Fort Wayne teen-agers, directed doctors not to provide aggressive care, said Dr. Robert Jansen, a neonatologist who was there for the birth.

Their breathing was labored, and they had difficulty circulating blood but had not been placed on machines to aid them, he said.

"We think their prognosis is poor," Jansen said. "We don't think they'll survive."

The parents, April and Rocky McCray of Fort Wayne, spent time with the girls in the neonatal intensive care unit and later in a private room Tuesday, Jansen said.

The twins, named Stephanie Nicole and Rebecca Marie, were born joined at the torso but have separate heads. Each has a heart, but they share all other organs, Jansen said. That makes it surgically impossible to separate them.

Together they weigh 8 pounds and 5 ounces.

"It's hard being able to hold something as precious as Stephanie and Rebecca, and to know their time might be short," said John Boyanowski, the girls' maternal grandfather.

Marsha Boyanowski said her daughter was excited to see the babies.

"All she could say was, 'Aren't they beautiful?' "

The parents did not attend a news briefing on the girls' birth.

"It's already more than we hoped for," Marsha Boyanowski said.

Between one in every 50,000 and 80,000 pregnancies results in the rare birth defect of twins whose bodies are fused together. Three sets were born in Indiana in 2002, the only year for which statistics were available.

The way in which the McCray twins were conjoined is even more rare, happening in about one in 500,000 pregnancies, Jansen said.

Most conjoined twins don't survive childbirth, and those who do don't often live much longer.

The McCrays were spared the difficult question of whether to separate the twins, a question that medical workers and ethicists wrestle with. When they are separated, one often dies so the other one can live.

In 1993, a Jasper County couple, Reitha and Ken Lakeberg, chose to separate their twin daughters, Angela and Amy. Some hospital staff members at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Ill., said they would not participate in an operation that killed one child.

Eventually, a Philadelphia hospital agreed to the surgery, during which Amy died. Angela died within a year.

In July, two of Iranian women died while surgeons tried to separate them.







Found this on Fark. Had a "Sad" tag on it. All I could think was "What's the sad part?"

Assuming the children had a snowball's chance in hell of living, what kind of life would it be? In a circus sideshow? As objects of pity, or disgust? And, if they were able to separate the two, who would get to play God, and decide which one lived and which one died? Doctors? The idiot fuck teenagers who spawned the kid(s)? And exactly what kind of fucked up mental state would the survivor have knowing her sister had to fucking die just so she could live? Ultimate in survivor's guilt if ya ask me.

Which brings up the abortion issue... did these idiot teenagers not know of the existance of sonograms and ultrasounds and the like? Didn't they know from at least the third month that their child would be born a... well to put it bluntly, a hideously deformed freak with little to no chance of surviving? And if so, why did they let it happen? Some misplaced belief in the old religious credo "All Life is Sacred"? Or did they just want to see their two headed child pop out of Mommy, so they could have a nice giggle in their old age? Remember, these are the fucked up, warped teenagers of today... don't put it past 'em. An abortion would've ultimately caused much less pain towards everyone around. I know. I had a nephew die 4 days after it was born. The only reason it's death caused so much pain was because people had a chance to see it, and grow attached. Killing it while it was just a mass of cells would've caused much less of a hassle, and less pain for all involved. Because at the point that you know a child is going to be born a freak, with little to no chance of survival, it's just cruelty to let it be born. It's cruel to the child, and to everyone around you.

Fuckers.

Oh, and on a lighter note... what happened to ugly children? Don't mothers have the right these days to look at what just popped out of 'em and scream "Jesus, Mary, and Joseph! I've Birthed A Mongoloid!!!" Not everyone is beautiful. The sooner everyone in the world can admit that, maybe we'll all be better off.

...

..And yes, I do have the word "Bastard" in my username for a reason.

First National Bastard -Enormous, Sexually Voracious Lecher... who wants to claim your immortal soul!!!. Every time you masturbate, God Kills a kitten! Please... think of the Kittens. RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE!!!!!