Jodie and Mary

Jodie and Mary were born on 8 August 2000 at St Mary's Hospital in Manchester, joined together at the lower abdomen. They each had their own head, arms, legs, brain, heart, lungs, kidneys and liver. The only shared organ was a bladder. There were severe ano-urogenital abnormalities and serious problems arising from the fusion of pelvic bones and the tips of their spines. Jodie seemed to have normal brain development, and her main organs were all working well. Mary had primitive brain function, her heart barely functioned, and her lungs did not function at all. She was surviving only as a result of Jodie's heart pumping blood around her body. This effort was expected to weaken Jodie quite quickly and lead to her death, and thus that of Mary too, in about three to six months.

When the parents came to Britain seeking medical aid, doctors at St Mary's Hospital proposed an operation to separate the twins. The operation would cause Mary's immediate death, but Jodie was expected to have a good chance of surviving, and a reasonable chance, after further operations, of a full, healthy life with the ability to walk, control her bladder and bowels and have normal sexual function. The worst case scenario was that she might be wheelchair-bound with continence and sexual function problems. source

What decision would you have made if you were the girls' parents?

This was one of the questions that was posed to us during Ed Psyc class today. I guess many of us will probably come to the decision (after much debate on your conscience) of going ahead with the operation to save Jodie. Why? One die better than two die, is it? While some of you may agree with this decision, there will be several other who will jump out and rebuff with the question, "What makes you think you have the right to take away Mary's life like that?"

Some girl in class did just that, and it was rather annoying. Sure, I might have made the decision of saving one and losing another, but do you think it was that easy coming to this decision? Am I not hoping for some miracle to happen so that both of them will be fine? It's always so easy to judge people when you're not in their shoes.

"They're wrong, it can't be!"

"How can you do something like that?"

"How selfish can they get? These people have no conscience!"

But how sure are you that you won't make the same decision when the same thing happens to you?

Anyway, the parents decided not to let the girls undergo the operation and just let nature take its course (ultimately leading to their deaths) due to religious beliefs (don't judge, cause it must have probably caused them much heartache too). There was legal intervention when the parents made this decision and the court gave the go-ahead sign for the operation to take place. Mary, as predicted, died immediately during the operation. What ensues? A helluva controversy, what else.

The point of the this discussion was probably for us to come to conclusion that we need to be less judgemental when we look at things from an outsider's perspective. This is definitely a habit I need to break; I tend to stereotype people (but sometimes they just prove that I'm right!) a lot. Just because they don't dress the way I expect them to, eat the same kind of food that I think is tasty, or enjoy listening to the same genre of music as me doesn't make them scary or weird.

ps. If there really is someone almighty up there who exists, I have a big WHY to ask. Why did the parents have to go through that? Why were they brought out to the world to suffer? Why?