The conjoined twins, pictured above, were recently separated by doctors at the Mayo Clinic. While such stories usually do make the news, I was moved in reading this one for the peek into the sheer bravery and near god-like powers of the surgeons who perform these miracles. Aside from simply cutting them apart, the docters spent their time rebuilding these tiny girls. The story describes making sure the girls' respective organs are placed carefully into their abdomens and then rebuilding their chest walls to close them up. The idea that medical technology and know-how has progressed to the point of saving human lives as easily as bolting and unbolting parts in an automobile catches my breath even as I shed a tear of shared joy with the parents of these beauties for a pair of lives saved. The same could not be said even a few decades ago.
Yes, we still have much to learn in saving lives and what limits medicine has for us. Yet, in the wake of news reports containing so much death and destruction in recent memory, such as a story as this gives me real hope that humanity is not entirely lost in decay. The same hands that can fire a gun or send a missile to kill thousands can hold a tiny heart and liver and ensure at least two of the most fragile members of our species get a chance to grow up and live.
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