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Date:01 October 2000 08:33
Subject:Re: Parents end legal fight over Siamese twins

The vampiristic language that has been applied to 'Mary' vis. 'Jodie' ('parasitic,' 'sucking her [=Jodie's] life blood') implies that not a cell of hemoglobin originated from Mary, etc. The rhetorical strategies involved should not so easily be adopted without further comment. I have yet to see comment on this point. As the decision was consolidated, increasingly radical characterizations were made (and repeated) - revealing perhaps more concerning the needs of the speakers than concerning the physiology of the children.

Kirk C. Allison
Program in Human Rights and Medicine
University of Minnesota


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