Separated after birth

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.