Conjoined Twins Doing Great After Surviving Separation Surgery, Mom Refused to Abort Them

International   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   May 9, 2017   |   12:15PM   |   Washington, DC

Doctors in China successfully separated conjoined twins this week, giving their mother reassurance and hope after she refused to abort them.

On Monday, doctors spent several hours operating on the 3-month-old twin girls who were conjoined at the stomach, the Daily Mail reports. The twins are believed to be doing well after the surgery.

ECNS news in China reports about half of all conjoined twins die before they are born, and still more die shortly after birth. Because the odds of the twin girls’ survival were slim, doctors near the family’s home in the Jiangsu Province suggested that their mother, Liu, abort them.

She was about 20 weeks pregnant at the time, and abortions are legal through all nine months of pregnancy in China, according to the report. Liu could have aborted the twins, but she and her husband decided to give them a chance at life.

The family sought a second opinion, and traveled to a hospital in Shanghai that has performed several separation surgeries on conjoined twins, the report states. There, doctors gave the expecting parents hope that their twins likely would survive and be able to be separated.

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On Feb. 9, Liu gave birth to the twins, who weighed a little more than 10 pounds together, according to the report. After three months, the doctors decided that the girls were ready for the separation surgery.

Here’s more from the Mail:

The operation begun in the morning and the siblings were separated at 11:16am.

With the help of 3-D imaging technology, doctors find and cut the abnormal blood vessel which connected the two babies by the liver.

Dr Zheng said to Jiefang Daily the doctors managed to prevent a haemorrhage and the dysfunction of the livers, which were the difficulties of the surgery.

LifeNews has reported many other stories of conjoined twins who are living and thriving today because their parents rejected abortion.

Conjoined twin sisters Callie and Carter were born in January in Idaho, and doctors said they also are doing well.

“I’m so happy I didn’t terminate Callie and Carter, they are amazing,” their mother told the Mail. “I knew termination would not happen and I’m glad that little speck of thought I did have, I pushed away.”

Research from the University of Maryland indicates that between 40 percent and 60 percent of conjoined twins are stillborn.

Too often, parents are pressured to abort their unborn babies because of a disability or a short lifespan. However, the length of a child’s life inside or outside the womb should not justify killing them. No matter what their expected life span is or their abilities are, every baby is a valuable person who deserves to live.

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