conjoined twins

Physicians have told a British couple expecting conjoined twins that one must die if the other is to survive.

Tina May, 23, discovered in November she was carrying twin girls joined at the abdomen and sharing one heart and liver, the Sun newspaper reported Monday.

Tina and the twins' father, 33-year-old Dennis Smith, decided against an abortion and named the girls Natasha and Courtney, knowing they faced separation after birth.

A cardiac specialist told the parents the single heart is inside Natasha, meaning she is keeping her unborn sister alive and could survive an operation to separate them.

``We were told the chances of the stronger girl surviving were still very slim but at least there was some hope,'' May told the paper. ``I will have to let one die so the other can live.''

The twins will be born by caesarian section in April at the 37th week of her pregnancy.

The children will be transferred to London's Great Ormond Street children's hospital, where they will remain for a month before they are strong enough for the operation to divide them.

Their case follows the separation in November 2000 of Gracie Attard from her twin sister Rosie in an operation ordered by a High Court judge that ended her sister's life.

Michaelangelo and Rina Attard, both devout Roman Catholics from the Maltese island of Gozo, had fought a protracted legal battle to stop the operation, but later said they were glad the court had ruled in favor of the separation.

I find the last part of this interesting. It seems like a really bad things for courts to rule against the wishes of the parents in cases like this, but on the other hand it means the parents don't have to make the decision themselves. It therefore gives them a feeling of not having decided to take the life of their child. having something like this happen to you must be a nightmare.

I don't think I could carry conjoined twins to term... the'yre always going to be at a disadvantage..

Yeah, it's a big decision to make isn't it. I imagine these moral issues are going to become even greater once we can get more genetic information about the condition of babies before they are born (inherited disease etc).

Yeah, well.. you know my less-than-compassionate views on natural selection!

I know them and agree with them wholeheartedly.

Although using the term 'heart' in conjuction with those views is some form of paradox, or oxymoron or contradiction or something.

Must be hard having to make the choice to make one of your daughters die. hopefully the other one does survive so they are not left with nothing. My sister was supposed to be a twin but mum miscarried the other one and my sister said she has always felt a bit of an emptiness like somethings missing. Would be really empty if you were once a conjoined twin

I just think that it's really sad that a parent has to decide on which twin should die.