The View-Point

• "...Though she has two heads and two spines, there is only one pair of limbs and a set of internal organs. The parents named her Syafitri, insisting there is only one baby...."
  
  Ethical questions raised by this story:
  
  - Is this one person/soul or two?
  
  - Is it acceptable for the parents to give only one name to this child(ren?) and insist that there is only one baby/human/individual/soul in existence?
  
  - Assuming this baby (these babies?) survive, will they face any identity issues different from those issues faced by other conjoined twins?
  What effect would the parents' insistence on an individual baby have on the development of two separate personalities?
  
  - On what basis might we consider this baby to be two separate individuals? Two heads? Two brains? Is a shared set of limbs and internal organs compatible with the definition of a 'human'?
  
  - Does our (English) language even have ways of grasping the concept of the 'two-persons with one body'?
  

(Originally Posted: 8/15/2006 @ 11:24AM)

Labels: news

posted by Jason  # 1:31 PM