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Morning News

British Courts Wrestling with Life and Death Conjoined Twins Case

Aired September 13, 2000 - 9:21 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Three-month-old Liberian twins who were born conjoined are sleeping in separate cribs for the first time in their lives. The girls were born -- they were joined connecting at the base of their spines.

On Monday, doctors at Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio performed eight hours of surgery to separate them. They are listed in stable condition this morning.

Different story, same type of situation though, British courts are wrestling with a life and death case involving another case of conjoined twins. Separating them would mean life for one, but certain death for the other.

As CNN's Walter Rodgers now reports, the case touches on medical and ethical issues, but it centers on the agonizing decision made by the parents.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WALTER RODGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Inside this English hospital lie two sisters, twins. Outsides, a moral dilemma. A team of hospital doctors says, unless separated, both twins will die within a matter of months. If separated, the doctors say, only one can live.

"Jodie" and "Mary," court-sanctioned pseudonyms to preserve their anonymity, are joined at the lower abdomen. Jodie has a healthy heart and good circulation. If separated, doctors believe she can be assured of life.

Mary, the weaker twin, has an enlarged heart that does not function. She relies on her sister's heart to pump her blood. Mary also has no lungs and doctors say she is not a viable being.

Backed by the Roman Catholic Church, Jodie and Mary's South European parents oppose the operation. They want to let the twins die a natural death together, this rather than kill one so the other may live. They have the support of their church.

CORMAC MURPHY O'CONNOR, CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP OF WESTMINSTER: It is never permissible to do a wrong action, that good make come of it.

RODGERS: Experts on medical ethics see it differently.

PIERS BENN, MEDICAL ETHICS LECTURER, IMPERIAL COLLEGE: If the operation goes ahead, then one of the twins will live, and will live possibly a fruitful and long life.

RODGERS: Lord Justice Ward wants to be sure the children have only a few months to live, if left together. The court already stated the parents' wishes can be overruled in the interest of the twins. Attorneys for the parents argued separating the twins would constitute one child's unlawful death.

SIMON TAYLOR, PARENT'S SOLICITOR: The grounds of appeal are that it's not in the best interest of either of the children for there to be an operation to separate them. And in any event, if it were in their best interest, then to order an operation to separate the children would be unlawful according to the laws that presently stand.

RODGERS: A medical view.

BENN: It is, fundamentally, I think, a matter of saving the most number of lives possible.

RODGERS (on camera): Still, even if this court supports the doctor's decision to separate the twins, the parents can continue their appeal in a case that could ultimately be decided in the British House of Lords.

Walter Rodgers, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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