Academia Gone Wild: Identical Twins Separated for 35 Years by "Research" Group

Well... at least you tried.

Irrelevant. If it is acceptable to split up twins for adoption, it is acceptable to do so for science.

[quote3. i think it's unethical because i presume that having family relationship is better than not having it. certainly it can be screwed up. we screw up everything else. but we're also social creatures...and the connections between twins are beyond me. to deprive them of that, in my mind, simply so you can research how it turns out??? that reminds me of the studies the nazis did in leaving babies fed and cared for...but with no human interaction, cuddling or sense of love. the results aren't good. doing this for the sake of doing it is disgusting to me.[/QUOTE]

You're assuming that twins adopted seperately have no family relationships, which is obviously false (and something this study seems to be looking into). If you don't split up the twins, you might deprive them of a sibling they otherwise would have had in a prospective adopting family.

Also, I highly resent your reference to Nazi experiments. There is no comparison, and you should be ashamed of yourself for using such an emotional example that has nothing to do with the topic at hand.

 

if it happens during the adoption process because no one is willing/able to adopt twins, that's one thing.

to intentionally do it so you can see what happens is entirely another thing in my view. it's dehumanizing, in my view.

by the way....twins get adopted all the time. i'm not sure where everyone is getting the presupposition that they don't.

 

it has everything to do with the topic at hand. it's using human children as rats in an experiment.

 

we do that all the time - how do you think medicines are developed?

 

Emotional appeals and "it just is" are not valid arguments. Try again.

 

my understanding is you can't test drugs on otherwise healthy children. if a cancer patient's parent wish to experiment with new treatments, they can allow that.

but picking out twins and going, "let's see what happens when we separate them" is very different to me than that.

 

No it doesn't. The children were not deprived of any basic human needs as a requirement of the expirement. That you are defending this comparison is vile, and I, for one, am deeply offended.

 

Just a reminder--nobody has explained exactly how the twins were harmed by this study.

 

I didn't suggest they were deprived of a basic need. I never once said that. But they were deprived of knowing a sybling so that the researchers could find out what would happen.

I, for one, am deeply offended you would suggest I would suggest such a thing.

 

I agree that, if this happened the way the interview transcript states, it was unethical.

However, wrt Nazis, I mean... we should all be so lucky that they just wanted to do twin studies. Seriously, there is no comparison. A separated twin can have every expectation of having a healthy and happy and fulfilling life, even though ethically they should have the knowledge of their sibling.

 

Well, except of course for the twins, themselves:

"We always thought our lives had been orchestrated by these puppet masters who obviously put their research needs before the needs of us and the other twins and triplets."

 

I, for one, am deeply offended that you think that I think that a separated twin can't have every expectation of having a healthy and happy and fulfilling life, even though ethically they should have the knowledge of their sibling.

 

You made the comparison to Nazi experiments. Stop trying to change the subject.

 

The Nazi experiment comparison has been made by many articles discussing this study. (not the same scale -- obviously -- but some of the same concepts). I think I read that it's now illegal to separate twin infants in NY. (you are from NY, aren't you?). And the results are sealed until 2066 because of 'ethical issues.'

Pretty much everyone agrees this study could never be done today.

And you still think it's cool?

 

I made a comparison...I didn't say they were identical in all aspects. I stand by the comparision. That's what this makes me think of.

 

can you link us to some of these articles???

 

Actually, the twins don't explain exactly how they were harmed, either.

Then what's your point? If you don't think the twins were deprived of the means to a good life, why the outrage? For the sake of being outraged? This is why your Nazi comparison is so disgusting: you use one of the most horrific events in history to make a trivial point about an issue that matters very little, if at all. It is Holocaust trivialization at its worst, and I hope I'm not the only one offended by it.

 

My point is that it's manipulating peoples' lives for the sake of studying the effects of manipulating peoples' lives. For no other reason but that.

 

"We would have preferred the sanctity and security of the orphanage-adoption crapshoot rather than these vile puppet masters who interrupt the integrity of the random chance that is our lot in life!"