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Critics' Opinion:
Readers' Opinion:
First Published:
May 2006, 352 pages
Paperback:
Apr 2007, 368 pages
Book Reviewed by:
BookBrowse Review Team
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This article relates to The Girls
Conjoined twins
occur in about
40,000 births
but only about
once in every
200,000 live
births. Craniopagus-twins
occur in only
about one in
every 10 million
live births.
Did you
know?
Medical advances
have led to the
discovery of
another type of
twin, known as
tetragametic
chimeras,
where the
embryos of two
non-identical
twins fuse
together in the
womb to make one
person.
Just last month
it was reported
that a pair of
unnamed American
toddlers have
become the first
known
semi-identical
twins.
They came to the
attention of
doctors because
one is a
hermaphrodite
(with both male
and female
genitals);
genetic tests
revealed that
both babies are
"chimeras",
having some
cells that are
female and some
male. The
most likely
explanation is
that the twins
were conceived
when two sperm
from their
father
fertilized the
same egg (a very rare situation).
As a result in
the embryonic
stage they were
briefly equipped
with three sets
of chromosomes.
During gestation
the embryos
somehow shed one
set of male
chromosomes on a
cell by cell
basis, leaving
them with
identical genes
from their
mother but a mix
of different
genes from their
father.
Scientists knew
that
semi-identical
twins were
theoretically
possible but,
until now, had
believed they
could not
survive until
birth.
More Interesting Links
A 2005 New York
Metro article
about
craniopagus-twins Carl and Clarence Aguirre, and follow-up photos of their progress since they were separated.
This "beyond the book article" relates to The Girls. It originally ran in May 2006 and has been updated for the
April 2007 paperback edition.
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