Secure Verified
| Title | : | Horizon |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | : | Documentary |
| Air Date | : | 2000-10-19 |
| Season Number | : | 37 |
| Episodes Number | : | 11 |
| Overview | : | Conjoined twins are among the rarest of human beings. There are probably fewer than a dozen adult pairs living in the world today. Only a few hundred pairs of conjoined twins are born in the whole world each year - they appear about once in every 100,000 births - but more than half of them are stillborn, and one in three live for only a few days. Of those who survive, a very small number will be selected for separation surgery. But as there are few hospitals with the skills and experience to perform this kind of surgery, separation is still a very unusual event. The harrowing decisions which surgeons have to make when faced with conjoined twins have been highlighted by the recent case in Manchester, England. Separating conjoined twins is not only technically challenging; it can involves life and death decisions about whether one twin should be sacrificed in the hope of saving the other. But "sacrifice surgery" has a poor record of success, and the Manchester case is the latest round in an international debate about the value of separation operations. The confidence of the surgeons, who believe that separation is essential, is challenged by medical historian, Dr Alice Dreger of Michigan State University. She argues that twins themselves might take a different view - if they were ever given a chance to express it. Horizon interviews two pairs of adult conjoined twins - Lori and Reba Schappell in Pennsylvania and Masha and Dasha Krivoshlyapova in Moscow. Lori and Reba are joined at the head; Masha and Dasha are joined in their lower body. They say that they prefer their conjoined lives, despite the problems and challenges, rather than face the risks of separation surgery. Lori and Reba live independent lives in their own apartment in Pennsylvania; Lori enjoys working with computers and Reba is developing a career as a country singer. Masha and Dasha had a difficult childhood; they were subjected to medical experimentation when they were very young and hidden away from the public. Since the end of the communist era they have been able to tell their story. Their autobiography is being written by a British journalist, Juliet Butler. Horizon also follows surgeons at the Red Cross Children's Hospital in Cape Town, Africa as they plan to separate eight month old twins, Stella and Esther Alphonce. The baby girls are joined at the hip, and the surgeons have little doubt that they can and should be separated, even though the operation carries risks of disability for the twins. Historically conjoined twins who were not, or could not be separated have lived successful lives, even if this involved putting themselves on public display. The original Siamese twins, Chang and Eng Bunker, were joined by a narrow strip of flesh and could easily be separated today. Like Millie and Christine McCoy, who also lived in the USA in the middle of the last century, they earned fame and fortune touring the world. But life for conjoined twins has never been easy, Millie and Christine were kidnapped and sold several times in their childhood. The British conjoined twin sisters, Violet and Daisy Hilton, provoked a scandal in the USA when one of them tried to get married. They did eventually marry, but they were never separated. The tragedy for conjoined twins who spend their lives together is that they inevitably die together too. When one twin dies, the heart of the other twin keeps pumping until he or she is drained of blood. Is this another reason why twins should be separated when they are young? There are no simple answers, because every pair of twins is unique. |
| Stars | : |
February 03, 1964
Season 1
9 Episodes
January 06, 1965
Season 2
24 Episodes
January 02, 1966
Season 3
23 Episodes
January 17, 1967
Season 4
23 Episodes
January 02, 1968
Season 5
24 Episodes
January 02, 1969
Season 6
37 Episodes
January 05, 1970
Season 7
37 Episodes
January 04, 1971
Season 8
32 Episodes
January 03, 1972
Season 9
33 Episodes
January 04, 1973
Season 10
32 Episodes
January 07, 1974
Season 11
33 Episodes
January 20, 1975
Season 12
26 Episodes
January 05, 1976
Season 13
30 Episodes
January 07, 1977
Season 14
23 Episodes
January 06, 1978
Season 15
24 Episodes
February 26, 1979
Season 16
25 Episodes
January 14, 1980
Season 17
25 Episodes
January 05, 1981
Season 18
27 Episodes
January 11, 1982
Season 19
22 Episodes
January 10, 1983
Season 20
24 Episodes
January 09, 1984
Season 21
22 Episodes
January 07, 1985
Season 22
16 Episodes
January 06, 1986
Season 23
22 Episodes
January 05, 1987
Season 24
22 Episodes
January 04, 1988
Season 25
25 Episodes
January 09, 1989
Season 26
20 Episodes
January 08, 1990
Season 27
20 Episodes
January 07, 1991
Season 28
23 Episodes
January 06, 1992
Season 29
19 Episodes
January 04, 1993
Season 30
21 Episodes
January 10, 1994
Season 31
21 Episodes
January 09, 1995
Season 32
20 Episodes
January 08, 1996
Season 33
16 Episodes
February 27, 1997
Season 34
15 Episodes
February 19, 1998
Season 35
18 Episodes
January 28, 1999
Season 36
14 Episodes
January 12, 2000
Season 37
19 Episodes
January 25, 2001
Season 38
11 Episodes
January 10, 2002
Season 39
18 Episodes
January 09, 2003
Season 40
19 Episodes
January 08, 2004
Season 41
18 Episodes
January 13, 2005
Season 42
20 Episodes
January 12, 2006
Season 43
19 Episodes
March 13, 2007
Season 44
9 Episodes
January 15, 2008
Season 45
17 Episodes
January 26, 2009
Season 46
11 Episodes
October 13, 2009
Season 47
14 Episodes
September 26, 2010
Season 48
15 Episodes
August 08, 2011
Season 49
13 Episodes
July 23, 2012
Season 50
16 Episodes
August 12, 2013
Season 51
11 Episodes
August 17, 2014
Season 52
18 Episodes
March 16, 2016
Season 53
16 Episodes
January 19, 2017
Season 54
15 Episodes
February 05, 2018
Season 55
13 Episodes
January 23, 2019
Season 56
6 Episodes
January 16, 2020
Season 57
8 Episodes
January 04, 2021
Season 58
4 Episodes
March 31, 2022
Season 59
4 Episodes
