title: Separated after birth.
abstract: Bioethics has developed against a backdrop of increased concern for human and civil rights, including the rights of patients to decide about their own treatment. The recent case of Laleh and Ladan Bijani, the twenty-nine-year old Iranian conjoined twins who died in a Singapore hospital on Jul 8, after more than fifty hours of surgery aimed at separating them, highlights the tensions between respect for patient autonomy and professional medical judgment.
authors.affiliation: Program on Biotechnology, Religion, and Ethics, Rice-Baylor College of Medicine, Rice University, USA.
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lustig
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001675:Bioethics; D003657:Decision Making / Q000941:ethics; D017809:Fatal Outcome; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007492:Iran; D018447:Medical Futility; D028701:Patient Rights; D026684:Personal Autonomy; D017009:Professional Autonomy; D016079:Refusal to Treat / Q000941:ethics; D012846:Singapore; D013514:Surgical Procedures, Operative / Q000941:ethics*; D014428:Twins, Conjoined / Q000601:surgery*