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Conjoined Twins
- In the last shiur we looked at the issue of fetal reduction and saw the main sources dealing with the status of the fetus in halacha.
- It is clear that the fetus may (perhaps must) be killed to save the life of the mother. The main explanation for this position is that the fetus, whilst alive to some degree, and certainly a potential life, is not fully categorized as a ‘nefesh’. Additionally, the fetus is a quasi-rodef, in that it is actively endangering the life of the mother.
- In this shiur, we will take these same issues to the next stage - that of conjoined twins.
- Conjoined twins are a natural, but very rare phenomenon which has been recorded from antiquity. Approximately half are stillborn, and an additional one-third die within 24 hours. Most live births (3:1) are female. As such, the likelihood of an adult pair of conjoined twins is vanishingly small.
- As we will see below, they figure in the writings of Chazal