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On the Separation of Conjoined Twins

2010-04-12 · John · watch on YouTube · Health · reflection essay

On tour in New York, John, a collector of books on conjoined twins, presents Alice Dreger's argument in One of Us that separating conjoined twins reflects our discomfort with unusual anatomy, links it to parents' obsession with normal, and asks whether twins should be separated at birth.

What is said

00:00:00 — Nerdfighters say good morning; New York City, still on the Will Grayson, Will Grayson tour; thanks for coming and for t-shirts (Jay Scribble)

  • ★★ John is in New York City, still on tour for Will Grayson, Will Grayson, and thanks the Nerdfighters who came out and those who gave him t-shirts. — 00:00:00 · New York City, Will Grayson, Will Grayson, Nerdfighteria
  • ★ Among his gift shirts is one featuring his 'rapping name' Jay Scribble and one reading 'ask me about conjoined twins'. (playful) — 00:00:00

00:00:29 — 'Ask me about conjoined twins' shirt; John's collection of conjoined-twin books; twins as a metaphor; the real question of separation; Dreger's One of Us

  • ★★ John says conjoined twins are one of his areas of expertise and that he collects books about them, playfully claiming one of the largest collections ever assembled. (playful) — 00:00:29
  • ★★ John says writers love conjoined twins as a convenient metaphor for identity, separation, where one person ends and another begins, and family you can never leave. — 00:00:29
  • ★★★ John thinks the truly fascinating thing about conjoined twins is not the metaphor but the question of whether and why we should separate them. (hedged) — 00:00:58
  • ★★ John calls Alice Dreger's book One of Us great. — 00:00:58
  • ★★★ John reports Dreger's argument: our obsession with separating conjoined twins whenever medically feasible, even when dangerous, reflects our discomfort with unusual anatomies. — 00:00:58

00:01:27 — Chang and Eng, the original Siamese twins: their lives, why they chose not to be separated, advantages and disadvantages of anatomies

  • ★★ John says Chang and Eng, two men from Thailand and the original Siamese twins, were the most famous conjoined twins in American history; they became successful circus performers, bought a plantation, married and had children. — 00:01:27
  • ★ John says one of Chang and Eng was an alcoholic and the other was not, even though they shared blood. — 00:01:27
  • ★★ John says that even in the 19th century Chang and Eng could possibly have been separated by a surgeon, but they did not want to be, since conjoinedness has advantages too. (hedged) — 00:01:52
  • ★★ John lists advantages of conjoinedness (going from poor in Thailand to rich in America, never being lonely) and notes ordinary human anatomy has disadvantages too, such as not flying. (playful) — 00:01:52 · United States

00:02:21 — Dreger: wait until twins can decide; parenthood and the obsession with normal; not normal is not bad; question of the day; sign-off

  • ★★★ John reports Dreger concludes that even when separation at birth is medically easy, we should wait until twins can decide for themselves; the problem is our failure to accept unusual anatomies. — 00:02:21
  • ★★ John says becoming a parent made him obsessed with normal: he called the pediatrician because a child of the brothers seemed to be peeing a lot; with babies everything is either normal or scary. — 00:02:21
  • ★★★ John thinks conjoined twins are a helpful extreme case: in a world that only celebrates normal, not being normal does not make something bad or scary. (hedged) — 00:02:21
  • ★★ As his non-rhetorical question of the day, which he does not think easy to answer, John asks whether we should separate conjoined twins at birth. — 00:02:58

Humor (significant)

  • John claims one of the largest collections of books about conjoined twins. — 00:00:29 > «In fact, I have more books about conjoined twins than there are conjoined twins.»
  • Chang and Eng married separate women and had kids; John wonders how that worked. — 00:01:27 > «Maybe one of them was like, are you done yet?»
  • An advantage of conjoinedness: someone is always in bed to warm your feet. — 00:01:52 > «there's also always someone with cold feet who's rubbing them against you.»
  • John says regular anatomies can't bench press more than 80 pounds, and is contradicted. — 00:02:21 > «Well, are you saying that I have a weird anatomy?»

Threads in this video

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