Allow them to die, pleads father of Siamese twins

Indian Siamese twins - Saba and Fahar Shakeel - of late have been suffering severe joint pain, blinding headaches and increasingly slurred speech as their bodies have grown. Their father, Mohammed, has pleaded for help or for them to be allowed to die, reports 'The Telegraph'.

Five years earlier, the father had rejected the offer of surgery from General Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, because he feared losing one of the girls.

But today he is pleading with the Indian government to allow them to carry out a mercy killing to release the 15-year-old twins from their increasing physical agony. The exact cause of their pain is not known because the family cannot afford medical check-ups.

Earlier, they were examined by Apollo Hospital in New Delhi, where specialists found the twins shared a vital blood vessel in the brain, and that Farah had two kidneys whie Saba had none. The separation would have required five or six operations over nine months, but each stage held a one in five chance that either of the girls might die.

The girls' father, who works in a tea stall and supports a family of eight, had said then that he could not take the risk of losing either daughter, even though doctors warned they might live for only another 10 to 15 years. But now he is of the opinion that their lives were already unbearable and that without government help to ease their pain, they should be allowed to end their suffering.