- Conjoined twins are rare - with less than a dozen adult
pairs living in the world today.
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- Only a few hundred pairs of conjoined twins are born
across the globe each year - appearing about once in every 100,000 births.
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- They face a dilemma - whether to opt for a life-threatening
operation to separate them or to stay together.
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- Conjoined twin sisters Lori and Reba Schappell have chosen
the latter and against all odds, lead independent and fulfilling lives.
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- The American twins' unusual lifestyle is documented in
the BBC Radio 4 programme "Still Joined".
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- The programme makers say that on seeing the twins you
are "immediately conscious of their physical difference" and
"feel sorry for them".
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- This is not a reaction they appreciate.
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- The twins, aged 42, are joined at the head, but still
manage to lead independent lives.
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- They share 30% of their brain tissue and their non functional
left eye.
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- Reba has spina bifida and is unable to walk.
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- They face in opposite directions and have never seen
each other's faces without the aid of a mirror.
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- Although their brains are joined, they insist they have
separate thoughts, emotions and personalities.
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- The twins, from Pennsylvania, enjoy being together and
cannot contemplate living separately. They do not want to live apart.
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- They said: "We're happy as we are.
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- "Why should we risk our lives just to conform to
what society wants.
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- "If we're separated the chances are one or both
of us will die.
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- "Even if the operation is successful, we won't suddenly
become normal, we'll be severely physically disabled. "
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- 'Separate' lives
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- The twins hate being labelled.
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- Lori said: "My name is not 'Conjoined Twin Schappell!'
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- "My name is Lori Lynn Schappell. I am a human being.
Like, I'm a person. I am a PERSON.
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- "I have a soul. I have a heart. I'm one body.
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- "I have my legs, my arms. I am not this thing called
a conjoined twin. I am attached to another person because an egg, the eggs
did not separate, the two eggs did not separate.
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- They are fiercely independent.
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- They said: "We don't need any group to help us with
anything because we have no problems.
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- "There is nothing that we can't handle ourselves,
and that we have to go find out from another set of conjoined twins: 'What
should I do here? And what should I do there?'
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- "Because it's different with every conjoined set
of twins. You know, it's not like people with cancer.
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- "People who have breast cancer they all really have
the same kind of breast cancer. Breast cancer is breast cancer."
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- Reba is a country singer who won the LA music award for
Best New Country Artists in 1997, she has performed across the USA and
in Germany and Japan.
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- Lori works part-time in a hospital laundry, taking positions
that allow her to take time off for her sister's concert dates.
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- Reba said: "I live my life as I, as it comes. Because
if you would dwell on it doesn't mean it's going to change it.
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- "You make your life. And if there's something that
doesn't go right you fix it or you try to fix it.
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- "I like my life as I see it now. It's great! I'm
healthy, that's what's the most important. I believe in "You make
your own hell, or you make your own heaven."
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- Lori is the sister who makes the decisions.
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- She said: "I've always been the bossiest. She just
does everything I say, you know, I'm like Mum, in this you know.
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- "She's like a kid, you know, Mothers tell their
kids what to do, and they don't give up until the kid does whatever she's
supposed to do, well you know, she's my kid so I tell her what to do."
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- © BBC MMIV http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3674453.stm
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