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Girl With Eight Limbs


MRSannie

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When I saw the story, and heard she got a kidney from her twin, I started thinking about the ethics of her surgery. If abortion is wrong, at even the microscopic level, isnt' killing a parasitic twin wrong? Comments?

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not sure what you meant by that last reply.

As a mom, I totally would have done the same thing--don't get me wrong!

It just occured to me, as a RC with the ethics I believe in for a)the unborn, all the way to a one-celled unborn and the b)infirmed- no matter what their function, with this pro-life stance, where does an embedded parasitic twin fit in to the pro-life stance?

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here is the link

[url="http://www.comcast.net/providers/fan/popup.html?v=594006627&pl=594004747.xml&launchpoint=Cover&cid=fancover&attr=default_headline&config=/config/common/fan/default.xml"]http://www.comcast.net/providers/fan/popup...fan/default.xml[/url]

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Thy Geekdom Come

As far as I understand the biology (with my embryology limited to only one course), the "parasitic" twin died in the womb and essentially would have been miscarried, but the other twin absorbed the limbs.

I could be wrong, though. In any event, the principle of double effect probably applies here, so long as the intention itself was not evil.

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cmotherofpirl

[quote name='MRSannie' post='1418774' date='Nov 13 2007, 04:21 PM']here is the link

[url="http://www.comcast.net/providers/fan/popup.html?v=594006627&pl=594004747.xml&launchpoint=Cover&cid=fancover&attr=default_headline&config=/config/common/fan/default.xml"]http://www.comcast.net/providers/fan/popup...fan/default.xml[/url][/quote]
link doesn 't work.

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sorry about the link-- it is from my comcast video thing, maybe only works on my home page.

I will try to find the story...

try this [url="http://news.aol.com/story/_a/eight-limbed-girl-has-successful-surgery/20071106081709990001"]http://news.aol.com/story/_a/eight-limbed-...106081709990001[/url]

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PapaHilarious

[quote name='Raphael' post='1418790' date='Nov 13 2007, 01:36 PM']As far as I understand the biology (with my embryology limited to only one course), the "parasitic" twin died in the womb and essentially would have been miscarried, but the other twin absorbed the limbs.[/quote]

this is my understanding of the story, too. the fact that the one baby absorbed the other body parts shows that the second child had died.

quite sad. but it'll be very interesting to see the followup now after the surgery.

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Yes, she is a beautiful little girl, too. How scary for that family to face such a risky surgery. I hope her rehab goes smoothly...

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littleflower+JMJ

I dont see how this could be abortion? I thought the twin had died naturally in the womb and became a part of the girll and never fullly developed. Andwhen they say they are using tissues from the twin, it is what was already given/grown on the girl already.

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Ok, I am just being difficult here, but how is the parasitic twin any different than a person who is on life support, does not interact, but is not terminal?


Please understand, I am just probing the ethics here, not being critical of what was done, and truly have compassion for the family and the little girl.

But the residual twin's body was alive, and although she wasn't communicative, wasn't she THERE?

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[quote name='MRSannie' post='1418756' date='Nov 13 2007, 04:02 PM']When I saw the story, and heard she got a kidney from her twin, I started thinking about the ethics of her surgery. If abortion is wrong, at even the microscopic level, isnt' killing a parasitic twin wrong? Comments?[/quote]

The parasitic twin already was dead--no head was formed. Thus the "extra limbs" on little Lakshmi. No killing involved.

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