UK Couple Accept One Siamese Twin Must Die
Tina May, 23, discovered in November she was carrying twin girls joined at the abdomen and sharing one heart and liver, she told ***The Sun*** newspaper in Monday's editions.
With the twins' father, 33-year-old Dennis Smith, she decided against an abortion and named the girls Natasha and Courtney, knowing they faced a tragic separation after birth.
A cardiac specialist told the parents the location of the heart means that Natasha is keeping her unborn sister alive and might 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 siamese, or conjoined, twins will be born by caesarean section in April and then wait a month before they are strong enough for the operation to divide them.
The case follows the separation in November 2000 of Gracie Attard from her twin sister Rosie in an operation ordered by a British high court judge that ended her sister's life.
Michaelangelo and Rina Attard, both devout Roman Catholics from the Maltese Island of Gozo, fought a protracted legal battle to stop the surgery but later said they were glad the court had ruled in favor of the separation.
The pro-life alliance, a pressure group that went to court to fight the Attard separation, said it was too early to say if it would challenge the latest case.
A spokeswoman said she hoped doctors would strive to keep both children alive, perhaps by performing a heart transplant.
"The deliberate killing of an innocent child is always wrong," the pro-life spokeswoman said. "Neither the parents nor the doctors have the authority to make such a decision."
Conjoined twins occur when a single fertilized egg splits, but the separation is incomplete. Incidences are very rare, as low as one in every 200,000 live births.