Jodie and Marie

Entirelyme discusses the Jodie and Mary case study for an ethics class. It is a Gozo story that gripped the world media close to six years ago:

In August 2000, a young woman from Gozo, an island near Malta, discovered that she was carrying conjoined twins. Knowing that health-care on Gozo were inadequate to deal with the complications of such a birth, she and her husband came to St. Mary's Hospital in Manchester, England to have the babies delivered. The infants, known as Mary and Jodie, were joined at the lower abdomen. Their spines wer fused, and they had one heart and one set of lungs between them. Jodie, the stronger, was providing blood for her sister..

The parents, who are devout Catholics, refused permission for the operation on the grounds taht it would hasten Mary's death. " We believe taht nature should take its course, " said the parents. " If it's God's will that both our children should not survive then so be it." The hospital, believing it was obliged to do what it could to save at least one of the infants, asked the courts for permission to separeate them despite the parents' wishes. The courts granted permissiosn, and on Novenver 6 the operation was performed. As expected, Jodie lived and Mary died..

At the height of the controversy over this case, when the newspapers were full of stories about Jodie and Mary, the ladies Home Journal commissioned a poll to discover what Americans thought.The poll showed that 78% approved of the operation. People were obviously persuaded byt the idea taht we should save as manay as we can. Jodie and Mary's parents, however, believed there is an even stronger argument on the other side...

Jodie and Mary: The medical facts