Enjoy the gift of life

Editorial Staff

I followed with anxiety the story of the two Central African conjoined twins who were joined at the back of the neck and successfully separated at the Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital in Rome. The final operation which ended with the successful separation was performed last year in June and took 18 hours to carry out and more than 30 doctors and nurses were involved. Ervina and Prefina who are now two years old and are well, were baptised by Pope Francis in August 2020. I was very sad to read the criticism which appeared in some newspapers: instead of rejoicing for the possibility to give the twins a normal life there were complaints about the amount of money spent (who will pay?) and it was asked if the money could not have been better spent on our health system maybe helping “our” sick children. Is our heart so hardened? As a nurse I wonder: if the operation could have saved only one of their lives (in the case the conjoined twins had shared an organ) how would that choice have been made? And would such a choice have been ethic? M.S. As a nurse you know better than I that…