During Chapter One of our textbook, Rachels (the author, not my wife) discusses the case of two conjoined twins - Jodie and Mary - whose parents objected to an operation that would separate them at the risk of killing one or both of their daughters.
Please discuss this example. Include a discussion of all those whose interests are at stake, and what those interests are. Discuss your understanding of the Lord Justice's reasoning (as presented by Rachels); in your view does this reasoning adequately address the objections of the parents?
Below is what I plan to hand in on Wednesday. Feel free to comment and/or offer corrections!
Jodie and Mary: Conjoined Twins
Jodie and Mary were born as conjoined twins that were joined at the lower abdomen. “Their spines were fused, and they had one heart and one pair of lungs between them. Jodie, the stronger one, was providing blood for her sister.” (Rachels 5-6) It was believed that the twins would not survive very long but if they did separate them Jodie might live. The parents of the twins wanted to let nature take its course while the doctors in the hospital wanted to perform surgery to separate the twins, knowing that the weaker of the twins, Mary, would most certainly die. The case made its way to court where Lord Justice Robert Walker made a decision on the case.
As the parents of the twins, they had a great interest in this matter. Our textbook says that the parents were Roman Catholics and refused to let the operation take place. They believed that it would be a sin for them to kill one of their own children. I don't know their exact reasoning, but their justification for this could have been because only God, as the author life, has the right to give it and end it (I Samuel 2:6). He says in Exodus 20:13, “You shall not murder.” Job also says, “The number of [a man's] days is determined, and You control the number of his months, and set a limit beyond which he can't go” (Job 14:5). Because God is perfectly good (Genesis 18:25), His actions are true and He has a morally sufficient reason letting all things come to pass, whether it be death or life.
The twins also had some interests in this situation as well. Their lives were at stake. True, Mary's life was shortening Jodie's life and Mary's life would end soon after a possible surgery, but at any time before the surgery she still had life. It is easy to think of life qualitatively, but I believe that God has a quantitative view of it. Either you have life or you don't.
According to the book the hospital was hoping to save at least one of the infants (Rachels 6) and petitioned the courts to go against the parents objections so they could perform the surgery. A hospital's purpose is to help people get well and while they couldn't do anything for Mary they could at least help Jodie survive. Any reason beyond wanting to save Jodie's life would be speculation because the book does not give us any more information.
We are told that Lord Justice Robert Walker decided that the hospital should go ahead with the surgery. However, he didn't exactly agree with the hospital's argument. Even though the court noted "every instinct of the medical team has been to save life where it can be saved... [S]incere professionals could not allay a collective medical conscience and see children in their care die when they know one was capable of being saved,” (Kaczor) they said it wouldn't be the surgery that killed Mary. Rather it would be because “her own body cannot sustain her life.” (Rachels 7) He argued a very fine line, but nevertheless it was claimed that the morality of the killing would be irrelevant.
So did the court's decision adequately address the objections of the parents? To defend their choice to not go through with the surgery the parents said, “If it's God's will that both our children should not survive, then so be it.” (Rachels 6) and I do not see how the court's decision answered this. Ultimately God allowed the court to make the decision. Sad as it was for the parents, they could have baptized both children and been comforted with the knowledge that their daughter Mary would be in heaven sooner rather than later.
Works Cited
Kaczor, Christopher, Ph.D. “The Tragic Case of Jodie and Mary: Questions about Separating Conjoined Twins” found at the following address: http://myweb.lmu.edu/ckaczor/jodiemary.pdf Last accessed March 8, 2010.
Rachels, James. The Elements of Moral Philosophy”, McGraw Hill Higher Education, New York. 2006.
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