Separation of conjoined twins from the shari'ah and common law perspectives: the legal and ethical conundrum

The birth of conjoined twins is a comparatively rare event, constituting 1 in 100,000 births. Being a product of a single fertilised egg, these twins are believed to be the result of an incomplete division of embryo, which inhibits complete development of various organ systems. As a result, they usu...

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Main Authors:	Jahn Kassim, Puteri Nemie, Alias, Fadhlina
Format:	Conference or Workshop Item
Language:	English English
Published:	World Association for Medical Law (WAML) 2015
Subjects:	K Law (General)
Online Access:	http://irep.iium.edu.my/44437/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/44437/2/Separation_Conjoined_Twins.pdf http://irep.iium.edu.my/44437/6/44437.pdf

id	iium-44437
recordtype	eprints
spelling	iium-444372015-08-27T07:31:17Z http://irep.iium.edu.my/44437/ Separation of conjoined twins from the shari'ah and common law perspectives: the legal and ethical conundrum Jahn Kassim, Puteri Nemie Alias, Fadhlina K Law (General) The birth of conjoined twins is a comparatively rare event, constituting 1 in 100,000 births. Being a product of a single fertilised egg, these twins are believed to be the result of an incomplete division of embryo, which inhibits complete development of various organ systems. As a result, they usually suffer from physical malformation manifested in for instance, conjoined hearts, lungs, livers, limbs or even genito-urinary tracts. As such, their chronic medical condition tend to require surgical intervention. However, separating them has triggered a plethora of legal and ethical issues as separation means the possibility of sacrificing one twin if they are sharing organs. This inevitably creates a range of ethical dilemmas, particularly, in choosing between sanctity of life and quality of life as the survival of one twin threatens the survival of the other. In certain circumstances, separation may not lead to the demise of the other but may cause severe harm to the other or a possible hazard to at least one twin’s cognitive outcome. Nevertheless, in spite of their physical attachment, the twins are legally and morally distinct and are different individuals with competing needs and interests. Legal issues arising from their separation such as informed consent, parental consent, the determination of the “best interests” criterion and murder has been much debated in the court of law. Thus, this research paper seeks to discuss the legal as well as ethical issues and dilemmas arising from the separation of conjoined twins from the common law and shari’ah perspectives. World Association for Medical Law (WAML) 2015-08-05 Conference or Workshop Item NonPeerReviewed application/pdf en http://irep.iium.edu.my/44437/2/Separation_Conjoined_Twins.pdf application/pdf en http://irep.iium.edu.my/44437/6/44437.pdf Jahn Kassim, Puteri Nemie and Alias, Fadhlina (2015) Separation of conjoined twins from the shari'ah and common law perspectives: the legal and ethical conundrum. In: 21st Annual World Congress on Medical Law & the 4th International Conference on Islam and Bioethics, 2nd-6th August 2015, Coimbra, Portugal. (Unpublished)
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Local University
institution	International Islamic University Malaysia
building	IIUM Repository
collection	Online Access
language	English English
topic	K Law (General)
spellingShingle	K Law (General) Jahn Kassim, Puteri Nemie Alias, Fadhlina Separation of conjoined twins from the shari'ah and common law perspectives: the legal and ethical conundrum
description	The birth of conjoined twins is a comparatively rare event, constituting 1 in 100,000 births. Being a product of a single fertilised egg, these twins are believed to be the result of an incomplete division of embryo, which inhibits complete development of various organ systems. As a result, they usually suffer from physical malformation manifested in for instance, conjoined hearts, lungs, livers, limbs or even genito-urinary tracts. As such, their chronic medical condition tend to require surgical intervention. However, separating them has triggered a plethora of legal and ethical issues as separation means the possibility of sacrificing one twin if they are sharing organs. This inevitably creates a range of ethical dilemmas, particularly, in choosing between sanctity of life and quality of life as the survival of one twin threatens the survival of the other. In certain circumstances, separation may not lead to the demise of the other but may cause severe harm to the other or a possible hazard to at least one twin’s cognitive outcome. Nevertheless, in spite of their physical attachment, the twins are legally and morally distinct and are different individuals with competing needs and interests. Legal issues arising from their separation such as informed consent, parental consent, the determination of the “best interests” criterion and murder has been much debated in the court of law. Thus, this research paper seeks to discuss the legal as well as ethical issues and dilemmas arising from the separation of conjoined twins from the common law and shari’ah perspectives.
format	Conference or Workshop Item
author	Jahn Kassim, Puteri Nemie Alias, Fadhlina
author_facet	Jahn Kassim, Puteri Nemie Alias, Fadhlina
author_sort	Jahn Kassim, Puteri Nemie
title	Separation of conjoined twins from the shari'ah and common law perspectives: the legal and ethical conundrum
title_short	Separation of conjoined twins from the shari'ah and common law perspectives: the legal and ethical conundrum
title_full	Separation of conjoined twins from the shari'ah and common law perspectives: the legal and ethical conundrum
title_fullStr	Separation of conjoined twins from the shari'ah and common law perspectives: the legal and ethical conundrum
title_full_unstemmed	Separation of conjoined twins from the shari'ah and common law perspectives: the legal and ethical conundrum
title_sort	separation of conjoined twins from the shari'ah and common law perspectives: the legal and ethical conundrum
publisher	World Association for Medical Law (WAML)
publishDate	2015
url	http://irep.iium.edu.my/44437/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/44437/2/Separation_Conjoined_Twins.pdf http://irep.iium.edu.my/44437/6/44437.pdf
first_indexed	2023-09-18T21:03:10Z
last_indexed	2023-09-18T21:03:10Z
_version_	1777410759165214720

Separation of conjoined twins from the shari'ah and common law perspectives: the legal and ethical conundrum

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