Editor's note. Please be sure to read Part Two, where I talk about Sen. Clinton's whiny response to criticism--and the response by former NARAL President Kate Michelman to that!

Sometimes it's best to simply lay out the details of a story and wait for you, our faithful readers, to reply. And it's always true that the collective responses will bring fresh insights and provide angles of vision that I would see on my own.

The headline on the Daily Mail story is, "We're Twinseparable! Happy with his brother, the boy who refused to die." I confess upfront I never expected what followed.

From the 10^th week of her pregnancy Mrs. Rebecca Jones knew she was carrying twins. "When they told us we were over the moon," she said.

But a scan at 20 weeks revealed that Gabriel was half the size of Ieuan (something about not getting enough nutrients) and that Gabriel's three-times-normal size heart meant it was "likely he would have a heart attack or a stroke in the womb."

Compounding the crushing diagnosis (according to the Daily Mail) was "They told us that if [Gabriel] died, it could be life threatening for his brother"--that "it would be better to end Gabriel's suffering sooner rather than later."

Mrs. Jones summed up her dilemma this way: "We had to decide whether to end his life and let his brother live, or risk them both." She then made a most revealing statement: "That made my mind up for me. I wanted the best thing for him." At the time of the planned abortion, the boys were 25 weeks old.

Birmingham Women's Hospital's game plan was to cut off Gabriel's blood supply by severing his umbilical cord. No luck, so to speak. The cord was too thick to cut through.

Someone else, apparently, had a different plan.

The back-up was to divide the placenta on the theory that Ieuan would be able to survive after Gabriel died. "I put my hands on my stomach thinking of Gabriel," Mrs. Jones told the newspaper. "It was devastating. I had said my goodbyes."

But the next day Gabriel had his own greeting: he kicked.

"When I felt him kicking madly the morning after the operation, I suddenly knew that he was going to hang on," Mrs. Jones said.

Against all odds Gabriel had not only survived ("No one could quite believe it"), he also gained weight. And his heart--three sizes too large--started to reduce.

Gabriel miraculously managed to hang on for five more weeks until he and his brother were delivered by caesarean section.

Gabriel and Ieuan are now healthy young boys with a strong bond between them.

"They are always holding hands and if one cries, the other reaches out to comfort him," Mrs. Jones told the Daily Mail. "Doctors tried to break their bond in the womb, but they just proved it couldn't be broken."

Please send your comments to Dave Andrusko at daveandrusko@hotmail.com.

Part Two