An Australian couple are refusing to abort their conjoined baby girls who have one heart and one body but two faces.
The babies have an extremely rare condition called diprosopus – only 35 cases have ever been recorded worldwide and none of those children are still alive.
During the pregnancy, the parents described how doctors told them that they should abort their children, because the public would consider the babies ‘freakish’. But they said ‘no’ – based on moral reasons.
Beautiful
Renee Young, the girls’ mother, said even if she only got “two days” with the children, that would be worth having.
Young is currently around 19 weeks pregnant, with the babies due in July.
Speaking to an Australian news programme, Young described the heartbeat as “beautiful”, and the brain activity – in both brains – as good.
Rare
The condition was discovered after a routine ultrasound showed that the babies have one body and one heart but two faces and two brains.
A medical specialist in the area, Greg Kesby, said the situation was very unusual.
“It’s probably the rarest of all the conjoined twins, you’d be thinking numbers of one in a million to one in two million for this kind of anomaly”, he commented.
Love
The couple say their close-knit family – they have seven other children – will provide support.
The pair’s teenage daughters were positive about their sisters, with one saying they will love their siblings, “no matter what”.
Earlier this month in the UK the parents of a baby girl who was born with part of her brain outside her head spoke out after they refused an abortion.
Home
Their daughter – called Faith – is now home and well.
Mum Jessica Williams said: “We came home and she’s been fine and she’s been doing everything at three months that she should be doing and she will lead a totally normal life.”