Bijani Twins

I know this is quite an old topic, but after receiving a few article on this topic by our AAT teacher and asked to write a personal response on the matter, I decided I might as well post my personal response here for everyone to see. Feel free to argue and debate with me, I'm not always correct. As a matter of fact, I'm mostly wrong. This way, I can improve on my not-very-good personal response.

After I had read through all the 6 articles on the Bijani twins, I feel that all 6 of them have one main issue revolving around all of them – Was what the doctors did justified? The controversy mainly revolves around the fact that the doctors had taken on this operation knowing that there was only a 50% chance of them being saved and successfully separated. Some people feel that taking on the operation was a violation of part of the Hippocratic Oath, a violation of medical ethics in an attempt to push the boundaries of medical achievement. Others feel that what they did was justified, and that they did not violate medical ethics in the process. Here is what I thought about this incident and my opinions.

Personally, I feel that the doctors did no wrong and should not have been held accountable for what happened to the twins. They did what they were supposed to do; they tried their best in a marathon surgery more than 20 hours long. And it was by no means the doctor’s fault that the operation failed. The twins had full knowledge of the risks involved in such a surgery and they had agreed to it. With the patient’s consent, is it the doctor’s fault? If the doctors were to be held responsible for every single operation with a risk that failed, then no more operation would have been taken. What operation doesn’t carry a significant amount of risk? Take a brain surgery for example. There may be only 10% chance of the person’s survival, but do you not go through the operation, knowing the fact that its confirmed that you’ll die if you don’t? With the patient’s consent, the doctor’s should not be held responsible, as that was what the patients wanted and agreed to undertake. If you were to say this goes against the Hippocratic Oath, are you going to not do any operation with risks, even if the patient wants you to? So, on the issue of the Hippocratic Oath, I feel that it is outdated in the modern society. It should be changed to doctors should TRY THEIR BEST, instead of must.

Now onto the topic of violating medical ethics to push the boundaries of medical achievement. Ignoring whether what the doctor’s was ethical or not, would anything ever have been accomplished if we were to stick to the norms and never venture beyond what was considered acceptable? As the saying goes, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Many medical accomplishments would never have been possible if we did not dare to take these risks. What the doctor did may have resulted in the death of the Bijani twins, but I’m sure the doctors gained much valuable knowledge in this operation, and this may result in the saving of thousands more people in the future.

Thus, I feel that what the doctors did was entirely justified, and that what they did may save many more lives in the future.

And that concludes this blog post.