Abigail and brittany hensel: Twins who share a body

I found this story and i thought it was really interesting so I want to know what you think

Abigail Loraine Hensel and Brittany Lee Hensel (born March 7, 1990) are dicephalic parapagus twins, meaning that they are conjoined twins, each of whom has a separate head, but whose bodies are joined. They are highly symmetric, giving the appearance of having just a single body with little variation from normal proportion. In fact, several vital organs are doubled up; each twin has a separate heart, stomach, spine, and spinal cord.
Each twin controls her half of their body, operating one of the arms and one of the legs. This means that as infants, the initial learning of physical processes that required bodily coordination, such as clapping, crawling, and walking required the cooperation of both children. While each is able to eat and write separately and simultaneously, activities such as running and swimming must be coordinated and alternate symmetrically. Other activities as diverse as brushing hair and driving a car require that each twin perform a sequence of separate actions that coordinate with the other.The Hensel twins have a single body with separate heads and necks, a chest that is wider than normal, two arms and two legs. At birth, they had a rudimentary arm attached to a shoulder blade at the back. The arm was removed, leaving the shoulder blade.

Abigail's head tilts laterally outward about 5 degrees to the right, while Brittany's tilts laterally at about 15 degrees to the left, causing her to appear shorter even when seated. Brittany's leg is in fact nearly two inches shorter than Abigail's leg; and Brittany tends to stand and walk on tip-toe which has given her a significantly larger calf muscle than Abigail.[2] The continued growth of Abigail's spine was surgically halted after Brittany prematurely stopped growing.[3] At age 12, they underwent surgery at Gillette Children's Specialty Healthcare to correct scoliosis and to expand their chest cavity to prevent future difficulties with breathing.[4]

Each of the twins manages one side of their conjoined body. The sense of touch of each is restricted to her body half; this shades off at the midsagittal plane such that there is a small amount of overlap at the midline. Stomach aches however are felt only by the twin on the opposite side.[2] They are effective in cooperatively using their limbs when both hands or both legs are required. By coordinating their efforts, they are able to walk, run, swim, and ride a bicycle normally—all tasks that they learned at a normal speed. Together, they can type on a computer keyboard at a normal speed and drive a car. However, their disparate heights led to difficulty in balancing a Segway, as shown in their 2012 reality series

en.wikipedia.org... Read the whole thing here if you want.

Theres also a video about their lives etc:www.youtube.com...
This is part 2 because I cant seem to find part one, please tell me what you think~

Thanks.

reply to post by LinneaCapri


I am honored to give a witch her/his first flag and star. Witches are my weakness and my strength.

There is/was a television show in the U.S. about the Hensel's. Cameras would follow them around all day, and just show them being the same as everyone else. They have friends, can drive a car, go places. Nobody who doesn't live like that can imagine what it's like, and they can't imagine what it's not like, not to any degree of total understanding.

There may be other threads on this, yet you have given a good presentation. Videos can be embedded in the post itself (just hit "quote" on a post with a video and you can see the code it would take. I'll see if I can embed yours.

Originally posted by Aleister
reply to post by LinneaCapri

 

I am honored to give a witch her/his first flag and star. Witches are my weakness and my strength.

There is/was a television show in the U.S. about the Hensel's. Cameras would follow them around all day, and just show them being the same as everyone else. They have friends, can drive a car, go places. Nobody who doesn't live like that can imagine what it's like, and they can't imagine what it's not like, not to any degree of total understanding.

There may be other threads on this, yet you have given a good presentation. Videos can be embedded in the post itself (just hit "quote" on a post with a video and you can see the code it would take. I'll see if I can embed yours.

edit on 20-2-2013 by Aleister because: (no reason given)

edit on 20-2-2013 by Aleister because: (no reason given)

Oh im sorry if i have repeated a thread, and thank you for the star They really amaze me so i just wanted to share it just incase anyone hasn't heard of the story. and thank you for embedding it for me.

reply to post by LinneaCapri


You're very welcome. I found another thread about the twins, www.abovetopsecret.com...

not a very long one though, just a few posts, and they are a topic which should be talked of more. It would be nice if one or both of them would join as members here, and we could ask them questions directly. They must have been very used to their lives quite early, even before forming memories, and their brains would adapt to their situation with a totally unique form of neuon wiring connection. Hundreds of questions arise, but we'd have to be speaking with them to have them answered. How did you get an interest in the twins?

reply to post by Aleister


Well I was watching various things on youtube, but mostly a show called extrodinary people, and i came across the twins and became really interested, and thought i should share it.
I will look at that thread.

I will say what many people probably wonder about, and try to say it in a family friendly way. They have one set of reproductive organs, so anything to do with physical touch regarding reproduction would be transmitted to both their brains via shared nerve endings. So when they are enjoying time with a friend, or they are alone and are bored and look for something to do, it must be quite a feeling and an interesting scene. I slightly envy their friends in that, and some of the questions I would ask them would be in relationship to what occurs.

In the TV show, and I watched it twice, everyone they know treats them fine, and they all hang out together. The episode I saw they went to Chicago (the twins live in Minnesota I believe) and went out on a transparant panel at the observation deck of the Sears Tower. One of them was happy to go onto it, and the other was afraid. So they have two very distinct personality structures. I wonder if they ever have arguments about their food choices. What if one was a vegan and the other still ate meat - which would mean the vegan one wasn't vegan at all! But I'd assume they have a way to mediate these kind of questions between themselves.

reply to post by Aleister

They would have a way to solve those sorts of problems since they probably encounter them alot, but it really is amazing they are both individual and have their own personality yet share a body and work together to do things we'd do daily.

I've seen these two before.

One thing I always wondered was if 'they' are legally considered one or two people? And if they are legally considered two people and were to get married to some guy, wouldn't that be illegal? You can't marry two people. Either way I'm sure they'd be able to find a few candidates for marriage. It's a big world out there. Somebody must have a fetish for this kind of thing

Originally posted by Xaphan
I've seen these two before.

One thing I always wondered was if 'they' are legally considered one or two people? And if they are legally considered two people and were to get married to some guy, wouldn't that be illegal? You can't marry two people. Either way I'm sure they'd be able to find a few candidates for marriage. It's a big world out there. Somebody must have a fetish for this kind of thing

edit on 20-2-2013 by Xaphan because: (no reason given)

That's a very interesting, extremely good question. They only have one set of reproductive organs so they would have to marry one person, whether they are gay or straight (more questions! What if....). And legally they would have to be considered two people (voting rights at least. they do have driver's licenses too, so is it one or two licenses?). So if they have a partner, marriage or otherwise, do both have to agree? Or if one likes a guy and the other hates him, and the one wants to be with him, is it rape? Of course it would be, and he would be jailed, and the other would bail him out. And what if they fall in love with two different people, and marry both? Legally this all makes sense, and would set precedents. Wish I could really talk to them now to see how they've discussed these topics.

I remember watching a doco on them years ago, I actually thought it was a hoax, they just seemed to well adjusted mentally and too well coordinated physically.

It was amazing the way they cooperated and got stuff done, if I recall correctly they were quite good at volleyball too.

I wonder what happens when they get or if theyll ever get boyfriend/s?
At the risk of being crass do they both have feelings.... ummm... down there?
What about when they need to go to the toilet, is it just one of them who feels it or do they both?

It would be very interesting to sit down with them and have a no holds barred convo.

S&F

reply to post by Aleister


They had to take the driving test twice so maybe they are considered 2 people? I'm not sure.

Originally posted by LinneaCapri
reply to post by Aleister

 

They had to take the driving test twice so maybe they are considered 2 people? I'm not sure.

And if they got pregnant (if they can biologically) the baby would literally have two mothers. In every sense of the word. Two moms. Wild. I hope they stretch societies limits and get married and have a child if they can, that would be very interesting. Legally, morally, and it would blow people's minds.

reply to post by Aleister

That would be indeed mind blowing if they could pull that off

These girls are fascinating. I can't help but feel a bit sorry for them, as they seem like such normal little girls, yet are faced with a completely abnormal life. Their parents won't let them be studied, but when the girls are older, making their own decisions, they could probably make a living letting scientists study their anatomy. I hope they have as normal a life as possible, they seem to take it all in stride and are happy.

reply to post by DAVID64

Thank you for posting, and yes they seem to get along without any trouble it is really amazing.