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New Delhi, July 20 (IANS) The union government Friday told the Supreme Court that it has set up a panel of three doctors to examine the possibility of surgically separating the conjoined twin sisters from Bihar.
The apex court bench of Justice K.S. Radhakrishnan and Justice Dipak Misra was told that the three-member panel, comprising of Dr. A.K. Bishoi and Dr. Minu Vajpayee from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and Dr. Mukul Verma from Apollo Hospital, will visit the 16-year-old conjoined twins, Saba and Farah, in Bihar and give its opinion on the possibility of separating them surgically.
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While directing the listing of the matter July 30, the apex court directed the Bihar government to extend full support to the doctors' panel.
The Supreme Court had July 16 directed the union health ministry to set up a panel of doctors from the AIIMS and Apollo to examine the possibility of surgically separating the conjoined girls.
Attorney General G. Vahanvati is assisting the court in the matter.
The court's direction came on a public interest litigation by Aarushi Dhasmana, a student of Symbiosis Law School in Pune, who said she wanted to help Saba and Farah by exploring the possibility of separating them surgically.
An earlier report by the doctors said the girls would have to undergo a series of surgeries before two could be separated.
However, the report said that in any case only one the two conjoined sisters would survive.
Dhasmana in her petition has said she came to know about the pain and agony of the twins and their parents via internet.
Parents of Saba and Farah have made "fervent appeals" for "mercy killing of their daughters if all options to separate them fail at all levels."
However, Dhasmana's petition has said that in case surgical procedures were not possible for separating the twins, the state be directed to "permit the twins to exercise their natural right to die with the consent of their parents with utmost safeguard of obtaining prior permission of the president of India."
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