really not sure what to think of this, I mean will the baby live?

[Saint2shoes]

here

ahh just read this in the Telegraph

"Doctors at St Mary's Hospital in Portsmouth, where Lisa is being monitored, say that they will not know how many organs the twins share until the twentieth week of pregnancy. They have only detected a single heartbeat so far, but it is possible that another one may emerge."

So they won't know which organs they share until the 12th week. Another heartbeat could appear any time between now and then - given that at most she's 8 weeks pg it is possible that the other heart hasn't yet developed "beating" stage.

sorry "organs" at 20th week. But heartbeat could emerge anytime soon I guess

Looking at the scan it doesn't look as though she only conceived in December - that looks like at least a 9 or 10 week scan picture to me, though I'm only guessing.

Termination at this stage therefore won't be a walk in the park.

If the babies are safe and not distressed at the moment, I think she is thoroughly right to leave them be, and let her body decide whether it can care for them or not.

Once they are born they may not be in pain - obviously there is unlikely to be intervention to separate, as there is just one little body.

I know I would not want to abort any child of mine and I would imagine the decision as to their mortality might very quickly be taken away from her anyway.

I am desperately sorry for her.

I was brought up RC, but I say this as a human being, not a RC.

I could NEVER contemplate aborting another human life, regardless of the length of the pregnancy as far as i'm concerned it's a baby from day one.

That said, EVERYONE has a right to their own views and this woman has taken the decision to continue with her pregnancy to give the children a chance. I don't think she is solely doing it on religious grounds.

The twins in the states, as someone else has already pointed out, lead normal lives. They go to college, movies, shopping, drive a car etc etc just like kids with one head do.

It is a sad fact that society might cause problems for them in the future if they were to survive for a good number of years, but, thats societys problem People can be so ignorant. There but for the grace of god..... springs to mind.

I wish her and her babies all the best

tmmj - I agree with you - there's no such thing as certainty. We do what we do - not what we think we will do

Ok MMJ I stand corrected. That is the one reason where I would abort.
If I went ahead with a very high risk pregnancy and my kids could end up motherless then yes I probably would with great sadness, let the baby go.

This woman has no children so is in a different position.

Only read the first page and looked at the link.

I think that I would want to have more scan information before deciding what to do but I would certainly consider a termination.

Has anyone read "The Girls"? I remember reading that and thinking what a really unique life the characters had led rather than a terrible one.

I agree with magicofchristmas and I speak from experience. When the consultant said to me at a scan at 22 weeks, "I'm sorry I have some bad news for you" I looked at DH and felt an overwhelming feeling of calmness that no matter what he said, we would cope. I had seen DS2 at previous scans, felt him kick and nothing would have made me want to terminate; excepting mmj's point about leaving DS1 motherless.
As it was DS2 had died inutero so it was academic.
I know many others would take a differnt point of view, to which they are entitled, but the no termination on any grounds is a perfectly valid point of view. I believe in the disabled's right to life as much as anyone else's.

UFM so sorry that you found yourself in this position.

I would terminate as the short life of pain seems a selfish decision to me. Can't imagine how horrendous that decision must be to make though although it did also cross my mind that giving interviews is a bit of an odd decision.

Also seems rather strange that a 'staunch catholic' is having sex outside marriage - I thought that was also a huge no-no?

sorry mmj - skimmed the thread and missed that (did you mean the bit about sex outside marriage or the interviews thing - I did see that)

however, "living in sin" is a lesser sin that ending a life.

Thanks, mofc, it was 10yrs ago this year. Time is a great healer, as was DS1 and the safe arrival of DD.
I am confident if I was in this poor lady's position I would make the same choice.

I an RC and whilst my personal views on abortion have been previously expressed, I had lots of sex outside marriage!

SPICE the babies wont neccesary live a life of pain tho. The girls in the states lead normal lives.

Every situation is different tho and yes if these babies were to be suffering then that changes the situation.

Agree re: interviews this early..... bit risky seeing as it is she is only about 12weeks or so.

I think it raises some moral questions.

It is one thing to continue a pregnancy regardless of disability because you feel that that child will have a quality of life regardless of their disability. For me personally there are very few disabilities for which I would terminate a pregnancy.

But it seems a lot of the reasoning here points not to the disability, but to the fact that she has been ttc for 7 years and wants to have the chance to be pregnant and have a baby.

Is it right to bring a baby(s) into the world, knowing that they are likely to die, purely because you want to go through a pregnancy and have a baby? I'm not sure that it is.

No not necessarily moc. But I'm haunted by those conjoined twins that had exactly what the medics predicted just before xmas. Had a very short life full of operations and cost the NHS 40k and a load of doctors and nurses endless stress and heartbreak. I'm not sure I'd want that on my conscience.

Sorry - I meant to say 'exactly the life the medics predicted'. Doh. I wish you could edit posts on MN

LOL