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Amazingly normal: Sisters with 1 body, 2 heads live it up
Emirates 24/7 ^ | Saturday, August 11, 2012

Posted on 08/12/2012 2:16:44 PM PDT by nickcarraway

Abigail and Brittany Hensel to get their own TV show now

As the London Olympics 2012 drench us in stories of great inspiration and heart-rending stories of triumph this one is right up there with a gold medal effort. And maybe more.

These sisters share a body and are the rarest form of conjoined twins,In fact, they were never expected to survive beyond a few days.

Abigail and Brittany Hensel have not only survived, they have gone on to live as normal lives as is possible and went from darling children, to plucky teenagers and, now, beautiful young women.

They have two spines (which join at the pelvis), two hearts, two oesophagi, two stomachs, three kidneys, two gall bladders, four lungs (two of which are joined),one liver, one ribcage, a shared circulatory system and partially shared nervous systems.

From the waist down, all organs, including the intestine, bladder and reproductive organs, are shared.

The 22-year-olds, who share one body fused at the torso, will soon be starring in their own reality TV show.

The girls first captivated the world in 1996 when they appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show and the cover of Life Magazine.

The show takes you from their graduation from Bethel University in Minnesota, their post-grad job search and their travels through Europe with friends.

The broadcaster has now given them their own show called 'Abby and Brittany' which will premiere on August 28.

Their parents Patty, 46 and Mike, 47, never once considered having the twins separated, through fear that one or both might die or be left with such severe disabilities their quality of life would be compromised and could no longer enjoy all the activities they love.

For the visual story of their lives watch this video:


TOPICS: Health/Medicine; Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS: henseltwins
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To: fwdude
But these girls are severely limited and always will be - short of some supernatural miracle. Let's not pretend otherwise.

Yes,they're certainly "limited".Probably in more than a few ways.But to treat them as "handicapped" (if that's what you're suggesting) might not be necessary...or in their best interests.

21 posted on 08/12/2012 2:54:11 PM PDT by Gay State Conservative (The Word Is Out,Harry Reid's Into Child Porn.Release All Your Photos,Harry!)
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To: fwdude
I haven't had the money or time to travel to Europe for vacation in the past 6 years.

BOOM - they just "one-upped" me!

Seriously, please rethink your philosophy. Pray on it!

22 posted on 08/12/2012 2:57:25 PM PDT by Yossarian ("All the charm of Nixon. All the competency of Carter." - SF Chronicle comment post on Obama)
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To: Gay State Conservative
Yes, they are most definitely handicapped. I'll say it again, in case you think I was mistaken.... THEY ARE HANDICAPPED.

And this is from someone who had a totally blind father all of his life.

Cut it out with this pernicious PC. I would expect a conservative site like Jim's to be free of it.

23 posted on 08/12/2012 2:58:29 PM PDT by fwdude ( You cannot compromise with that which you must defeat.)
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To: Yossarian
I'll try to explain this carefully to you again. These girls are undeniably amazing, and deserving in every way of our praise and admiration. But they are deserving exactly BECAUSE they are so abnormal and have overcome much of the implications that have arisen from it. Otherwise, we wouldn't be talking about them, would we?

But, the fact is that these girls will never successfully marry, they will never have a "normal" job, they will always have severe limitations that most other people won't experience.

24 posted on 08/12/2012 3:03:17 PM PDT by fwdude ( You cannot compromise with that which you must defeat.)
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To: al baby
[Well would you ?] Photobucket
25 posted on 08/12/2012 3:03:55 PM PDT by RetSignman
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To: thecodont
If legally the twins are two people, legally they can marry two guys.

Regardless of how many guys they marry that marriage would be weird beyond belief.So weird,in fact,that except for them possibly marrying conjoined guys I don't see how a marriage could possibly succeed.

26 posted on 08/12/2012 3:12:48 PM PDT by Gay State Conservative (The Word Is Out,Harry Reid's Into Child Porn.Release All Your Photos,Harry!)
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To: fwdude
these girls will never successfully marry

Not directly comparable because of differences in the way they're joined, but the original Siamese twins bought a plantation in the prewar South, purchased slaves and both got married.

One of the marriages had 10 children, the other 11. Which of course brings up some pretty interesting "logistical" speculations.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chang_and_Eng_Bunker

they will never have a "normal" job

They appear to certainly be capable of holding many jobs, although normal human reaction to them might make it pretty difficult.

27 posted on 08/12/2012 3:14:53 PM PDT by Sherman Logan
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To: nickcarraway

Didn’t the liberals shut down all the circus freak shows because it was presumably exploiting the situation? How is this any different?


28 posted on 08/12/2012 3:15:39 PM PDT by Flavious_Maximus
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To: Telepathic Intruder

“Who can say what’s “normal”?”

For any given metric, being within +/-2 standard deviations from the mean is considered normal. Being conjoined is not normal, but their life to date is pretty close to normal from what I can tell. Certainly some aspects of their life as adults will never be normal.


29 posted on 08/12/2012 3:15:45 PM PDT by Kirkwood (Zombie Hunter)
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To: mplsconservative

Ahh. Watched the video and it appears each sister controls one side of the body.

What a truly weird existence, but I guess it is perfectly normal to them. Quite a triumph of the human experience.


30 posted on 08/12/2012 3:19:01 PM PDT by Sherman Logan
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To: nickcarraway

BTTP


31 posted on 08/12/2012 3:19:12 PM PDT by nevergore ("It could be that the purpose of my life is simply to serve as a warning to others.")
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To: fwdude

You are quite correct, they are handicapped, indeed very severely handicapped.

Given that handicap, they are amazingly normal. Which is what the headline states.


32 posted on 08/12/2012 3:30:53 PM PDT by Sherman Logan
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To: Kirkwood
within +/-2 standard deviations from the mean is considered normal

It's an arbitrary standard of course, and one which could apply to anyone by looking closely enough at them. The other guy was talking about political correctness. Does that mean there is a public standard defining what everyone must think even of themselves? No one should live their lives according to what others think of them.
33 posted on 08/12/2012 3:36:59 PM PDT by Telepathic Intruder (The right thing is not always the popular thing)
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To: fwdude; Yossarian

Their physical condition is NOT NORMAL. On the other hand, their adaptation to it and their every day behaviour is very normal and very human.

They have normal reactions to everyday things. Fwdude is pointing out that they do have physical limitations that CANNOT be ignored. Yos, is focusing on their adaptation and conduct of every day life.

Apples and oranges in my book.


34 posted on 08/12/2012 3:54:06 PM PDT by ConradofMontferrat (According to mudslimze, my handle is a Hate Crime. Hope they don't like it.)
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To: Gay State Conservative

Actually, I remember somewhere (I’m old, don’t eff with me)that conjoined pairs did in fact marry and bear children.

I have to go back to my way back machine to find it, or Time or Look magazines, but in one such case the interviewer asked the two how they managed. The one loved the guy, the other “so so”. The twins knew what the reporter wanted to ask, so they just offered it up. I’m paraphrasing, but it was something like, “when they (the other twin and the guy) where into it, I just went to sleep. Then the two laughed about it.

I don’t believe its as uncommon as most think.


35 posted on 08/12/2012 4:01:29 PM PDT by ConradofMontferrat (According to mudslimze, my handle is a Hate Crime. Hope they don't like it.)
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To: Gay State Conservative

Since they share one set of genitals, wouldn’t anyone marrying one technically be committing adultery as well as having sex with his wife?


36 posted on 08/12/2012 4:18:42 PM PDT by sinsofsolarempirefan
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To: ConradofMontferrat

See #27. They have around 1500 descendants today.

I find it quite interesting that these two weird guys from Siam could move to the prewar South, marry white women and apparently be accepted as planters.

Gives a different perspective to a culture we perhaps too often assume was racist and backward.


37 posted on 08/12/2012 4:43:42 PM PDT by Sherman Logan
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To: sinsofsolarempirefan
Since they share one set of genitals, wouldn’t anyone marrying one technically be committing adultery as well as having sex with his wife?

LOL, interesting point. I got an e-mail from a friend. There was a picture of Einstein saying if you run around a tree at 185,999 miles per second, you may be "having sex with yourself", which would be the same as voting for Obama.

38 posted on 08/12/2012 4:44:06 PM PDT by BerryDingle (I know how to deal with communists, I still wear their scars on my back from Hollywood-Ronald Reagan)
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To: sinsofsolarempirefan

I would think God would make allowances for the situation.


39 posted on 08/12/2012 4:44:46 PM PDT by Sherman Logan
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To: Sherman Logan
I find it quite interesting that these two weird guys from Siam could move to the prewar South, marry white women and apparently be accepted as planters.

They did get a little static from Mr. Yates when they proposed to marry his girls, and it was because they were Asian, not because they were conjoined.

Turned out not to be that much of a problem in the end.

40 posted on 08/12/2012 5:06:43 PM PDT by thulldud (Is it "alter or abolish" time yet?)
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