there are perhaps 40 live cases each year ordinary identical twins are 400 times as common.
Conjoined twins are always identical: the product of a single egg that for some unknown reason failed to divide fully into separate twins during the first three weeks of gestation. They occur about once in every 50,000 births, but 40% are stillborn, and, curiously, 70% are female. Their smiling faces and apparent good health seem a rebuke to the current medical trend of trying to separate, via surgery, ever more complexly conjoined twins-a trend that often means sacrificing one child so the other can live "normally." And their tale of lives unpunctuated by solitude has much to teach all of us about the real meaning of individuality and the limitless power of human cooperation.Ĭonjoined twins are a rare event in the world's delivery rooms. Their touching story, which appears on the cover of Life's April issue, has made them instant celebrities.īut the girls are more than curiosities. But until recently when their parents opened their doors and hearts to a Life magazine reporter and photographer, the twins have been shielded from media attention. (The family does not want the town to be identified.) They go shopping with their parents and younger brother and sister, attend school and even play in Little League T-ball games. In medical terms, they are known as "conjoined twins." In human terms, though, they are two very different people, with separate opinions, tastes and dreams.įor six years the Hensel twins have lived a quiet existence in a tiny Midwestern town where everyone knows them. Although they have separate necks and heads, separate hearts, stomachs and spinal cords, they share a bloodstream and all organs below the waist. Abby controls the right limbs, Britty the left. The two hands that meet in a high five, offer fingers for counting and clasp their adored parents in an embrace belong to a single body. A puckish sense of humor is one of their best tools for contending with all the other sharing they must do day in and day out-a sharing of a more profound and intimate nature than most of us can imagine.
They reach up and slap a celebratory high five. Then the clearly ancient guest asks, "Guess how old I am." Britty can't resist the chance to tease: "900,000!" she shrieks. They count fingers and toes with all the accuracy their six-year-old minds can muster. Abby helpfully lays down her hand on the table.
ABBY AND BRITTANY HENSEL WHO CONTROLS THE BODY PLUS
Abigail and Brittany Hensel are at the Play-Doh table, when a visitor asks, How much is 10 plus 10? Britty starts counting on her fingers.
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