Babies Pregnant With Their Own Twin's?

I watched a fascinating documentary on Discovery Health last night. It was called "Vanishing Twins". It discussed a startling case that happened in Kazakhstan in 2003. A seven-year-old boy suffered from a swollen abdomen; the parents didn't take the boy to the doctor thinking he suffered from rickets. When the boy started complaining about severe pain, he was rushed to the hospital. After surgery the doctors were amazed by what they found, they found a mass of hair, bones, limbs, something that resembled a pelvic region and skin. It was a fetus that connected to the child in utero feeding off the boy's own nutrients in his system, it continued to grow and feed of his system for 7 years making it a parasite! This is a rare occurrence and in 200 years only 90 cases have been found.

The only credible link I could find on this issue (currently searching for more...)

Boy Pregnant With His Own Brother

I couldn't find the picture of the parasite (the other brother) on the net, but they showed it on the documentary last night...it was pretty disturbing to say the least.

This very odd occurrence can easily be confused with Teratomas, which are tumors that can consist of hair and teeth. Teratoma is much more common than the topic above.


[edit on 11/23/2004 by Lecky]

It's not the first time it has happened.

8 month old pregnant with twin brother

Got this link from the BBC..

says pretty much what you describe, but worth a look.

news.bbc.co.uk...

That's weird...luckily my twin made it out.

Form what I understand, twinning in general is not particularly rare, but what usuually happens is that one of the twins is absorbed by the other. So many people posting here right now were probably at one point twins. Of course, having the twin living in this 'parasitic' form is unusual.


Just to throw some gasoline and light a match, anyone think that removing these parasites is murder??

Originally posted by Nygdan
Just to throw some gasoline and light a match, anyone think that removing these parasites is murder??

Good point, this "parasite" was actually the boy's 7 year old twin brother living inside of him. Of course the brother lacked a brain stem but a life is a life right?

I'm not sure I understand the particulars of the process, but I think the question would be, does the "twin" have the potential for independent life. I would think that the fact that the mass of tissue could never be viable independently and that it's existence is life-threatening to the other "twin," then it is not murder any more than a siamese twin is the victim of murder, if it fails to survive a surgical attempt at separation.

It is rare but not exceedingly rare, there is a medical term for it but I can't remember how to spell it well enough to get google to find it. Parasitic Tereta or something like that. There was a fascinating case history from the 1800's where a man had the face of his twin sister on the back of his head. The head was incapable of speaking but they said that she always had a sadistic looking leer on her face and was apparently cognizent. If that wasn't creepy enough the poor guy claimed he could 'hear' her thoughts in his head which was always particularly malevolent evil thoughts and it eventually drove him mad and he committed suicide. I wish I could remember the name of that guy, it was the creepiest damn thing I had ever read.

Edit: Oh yeah adn she drooled all the time as she leered...

[edit on 24-11-2004 by twitchy]

Twichy that sounds like something out of a Harry Potter book, but waaay scarier!! If anyone can find more on that it would be appreciated...

Brrr.... scary thought...

In fact, this kind of thing, is similar to genetic chimeras. Instead of the twin being esthetically completely absorbed, it is only mostly absorbed and the twin is lodged inside or on the body in some manor.

Creepy yes, tragic yes. Is it murder to remove said twin, I'll leave that up to you?

-ADHDsux4me

Murder...not in the least. It is a parasite and without a brain to think it could never be truly human. People say fish don't feel so they're killed so easily. Well the unformed baby more than likely wouldnt feel anything cept drain the others resources. May seem inhuman, but not everyone is as sensitive to this issue as u are.

An individual living inside of another individual feeding off of it is a parasite by definition. However, that "parasite" is a living human only physically different. I find it odd that so many can call that person a parasite with such ease. That could have been you in there, you know.

Though it is a human in essence, I would expect that the quality of life to be dramatically low. To remove the person living inside another and risking its death is acceptable. The entity probably doesn't wish to live anyhow if it is concious. An aware human functioning as an internal parasite must be suicidal to say the least.

It would be immoral and just MEAN to leave the poor parasitic human inside another human. If you're willing to put your dog to sleep because it is paralyzed, then why even consider letting a human suffer so greatly.

In reference to the person with two faces, that is a bit creepy. Did those two share the same brain or did the other face not have any awareness? Perhaps the functioning person just imagined the thoughts of the 2nd face. I'm not sure if it's more creepy than it is sad or more sad than it is creepy.

Yeah I'd like to hear some more about that evil twin face thing to.

Notice, the face is supposed to be that of a woman, so these are not identical twins, rather 'fraternal'.

When I read the description of the fetus in 1st post in this thread, I immediately thought of a hydatidiform mole. It is an ovum without a nucleus that is fertilised and doesn't develop properly. In rare forms it can invade the wall of the uterus, so perhaps in the case cited, in invaded the twin instead. I believe it can be precancerous and can invade other tissues in the body.

I am sure its no accident there is not a photo of the boy's 'twin'. I have seen a hydatidiform mole, and its not something anyone would wish to have a photo of as a souvenir!

This link gives more information.

link

Originally posted by ADHDsux4me
In fact, this kind of thing, is similar to genetic chimeras. Instead of the twin being esthetically completely absorbed, it is only mostly absorbed and the twin is lodged inside or on the body in some manor.

I was thinking the same thing. An article on human chimeras/mosaics:

Human chimeras & mosaics
Miscegenation taken to the extreme -- and it may be more common that anyone realized:

Eight years ago in Britain, a boy was born who, genetically, was two people. He was formed when two eggs, fertilized by two different sperm, fused into one embryo inside his mother's womb.

He was an unremarkable baby. But as a toddler, doctors discovered that he was a hermaphrodite - what was originally diagnosed as an undescended testis turned out to be an ovary, a fallopian tube and part of a uterus. Further investigation revealed that some parts of his body were genetically female but the rest, which contained a different combination of his parents' genes, was male.

The boy, who was otherwise healthy, is one of only a handful of known true human chimaeras - people carrying tissues that originated in two separate embryos. More common are mosaics, who have patches of tissue that differ genetically from the rest of their body, thanks to a mutation or chromosomal anomaly that arose early in embryological development.

B.

Try reading Stephen King's "The Dark Half". It takes this idea to a whole nother level.

Originally posted by Lecky

Originally posted by Nygdan
Just to throw some gasoline and light a match, anyone think that removing these parasites is murder??

Good point, this "parasite" was actually the boy's 7 year old twin brother living inside of him. Of course the brother lacked a brain stem but a life is a life right?

Well, I'd have to say that is debatable. Surely without a brain stem, the parastic twin isn't sentient. Therefore it lacks the fundamental quality which makes us human.
This may sound callous but logical no ?

Wow!!! This brings back the memory of the"Predator" Do you think this could be some kind of weird implant? Sounds like it to me. It could be just as simple as a class 5 free roaming vapor or may it really be that "they" are here and just got caught with their with "their parisitic baby" in the 'ole incubator? Jut a thought

Okay that is freaky.
I have heard about that happening before, but it is still freaky.IT KIND A gives me cold chills.

reply to post by Lecky


Wow,a parasitic twin,that's really wild.