Contestable bodies: Law, medicine, and the case of conjoined twins

Modern society is ordered on normative presumptions of the body, including the presumption of individuality inherent in singular bodies. Law and medicine in particular rely on the concept of individuality in order to articulate a coherent discourse of bodily autonomy and individual rights. The case of Mary and Jodie illustrates how conjoined twins contest these discourses, rendering them incomprehensible at the very point at which the discourses connect. The bodies of conjoined twins thus become sites of control where medical ethics and legal reasoning reproduce the cultural imperative of embodied individuality, literally and figuratively severing both their interests and their bodies. A critical reading of the case illustrates the degree to which the dominant discourses are rendered incomprehensible in the face of conjoined twins: conjoined twins can thus be taken as a starting point for contesting the discourses that insist on individualizing us all.