Comments on: Twins Separated In The Name Of Science

Elyse Schein And Paula Bernstein Were Raised In Different Homes For An Experiment

[neophyter]

The Baby Scoop Era of adoption was even more cruel than adoption can be today. Thousands of babies taken from their mothers because they were unmarried... and are now victimized again by the adoption business because of what their children were told about them. Their mothers are now considered not good enough to know. Cruel.

[wkeevers96]

I''m unacquainted with anyone adopted, so I don''t can''t judge whether people in this unfortunate situation would want to be told of their twins. However, I was shocked at the knee-jerk citation of privacy interests in not informing the other twins, by adoption worker Ronny Diamond. The Social Services sector has a poor record of dealing with the vital interests of children. They are unaware of their intrinsic conflict of interest in building up the power of bureaucracy in opposition to the natural balance of families. The way they get funding & control is by processing the cases of children on the edge so that they as social scientists (the same people who conducted these ''experiments'') make recommendations to the courts, as to whether the nearest biological relatives are ''fit'' to be parents. It''s likely that some of the twins sacrificed to the interests of the lordly scientists who conducted this study, had natural relatives who would have loved them, if their families (the negligible unit of society discounted by the system) had been given relief from state & NGO interference. Ronny Diamond & her colleagues should be urged to review their college training in view of the vast, dismal landscape of social wreckage over which they have presided, not just in the minority of easy infant adoptions, but the legions of older kids who are thrown out of the system at 18 to fend for themselves without family aid. Whose privacy is really at stake, the clients or the professionals?

[wkeevers96]

I''m unacquainted with anyone adopted, so I don''t can''t judge whether people in this unfortunate situation would want to be told of their twins. However, I was shocked at the knee-jerk citation of privacy interests in not informing the other twins, by adoption worker Ronny Diamond. The Social Services sector has a poor record of dealing with the vital interests of children. They are unaware of their intrinsic conflict of interest in building up the power of bureaucracy in opposition to the natural balance of families. The way they get funding & control is by processing the cases of children on the edge so that they as social scientists (the same people who conducted these ''experiments'') make recommendations to the courts, as to whether the nearest biological relatives are ''fit'' to be parents. It''s likely that some of the twins sacrificed to the interests of the lordly scientists who conducted this study, had natural relatives who would have loved them, if their families (the negligible unit of society discounted by the system) had been given relief from state & NGO interference. Ronny Diamond & her colleagues should be urged to review their college training in view of the vast, dismal landscape of social wreckage over which they have presided, not just in the minority of easy infant adoptions, but the legions of older kids who are thrown out of the system at 18 to fend for themselves without family aid. Whose privacy is really at stake, the clients or the professionals?

[neophyter]

The Baby Scoop Era of adoption was even more cruel than adoption can be today. Thousands of babies taken from their mothers because they were unmarried... and are now victimized again by the adoption business because of what their children were told about them. Their mothers are now considered not good enough to know. Cruel.

[neophyter]

The Baby Scoop Era of adoption was even more cruel than adoption can be today. Thousands of babies taken from their mothers because they were unmarried... and are now victimized again by the adoption business because of what their children were told about them. Their mothers are now considered not good enough to know. Cruel.

[shoes2007]

First I would like to say that mt heart BREAKS to hear this story. I am an identical twin 33 years old and can not imagine life away from my sister. I think that the people behind this study meaning the agency, Dr.''s and everyone else involved in this "experiment" should be in jail. Who gave them the right to change others lives forever... This is not a joke and being separated from an identical twin is like loosing half of yourself. It really should be criminal to play God with children. Being a twin requires special attention and should truly be treated as a special needs issue. If you were to harm a special needs individual you would be punished so why not in this case? The funny thing to me is that of all the "identical twin studies" not one to my knowledge was ever done by an "identical twin". This is because it is unthinkable to play with lives you know nothing about and the twins would NEVER place another set of twins into a study and harm them. Funny don''t you think.As for Ronny Diamond KNOWING of at lease one set of twins that do not know. SHAME ON YOU!!! As you said "well I do not know if I have the right to tell them" you are holding a key to save lives. For all the twins out there I wish you all love, blessings and the wisdom to know each other at any cost and do not let others tell you what you should be doing or if you should be separated or not! This is not a question it is lives you are effecting.

[shoes2007]

First I would like to say that mt heart BREAKS to hear this story. I am an identical twin 33 years old and can not imagine life away from my sister. I think that the people behind this study meaning the agency, Dr.''s and everyone else involved in this "experiment" should be in jail. Who gave them the right to change others lives forever... This is not a joke and being separated from an identical twin is like loosing half of yourself. It really should be criminal to play God with children. Being a twin requires special attention and should truly be treated as a special needs issue. If you were to harm a special needs individual you would be punished so why not in this case? The funny thing to me is that of all the "identical twin studies" not one to my knowledge was ever done by an "identical twin". This is because it is unthinkable to play with lives you know nothing about and the twins would NEVER place another set of twins into a study and harm them. Funny don''t you think.As for Ronny Diamond KNOWING of at lease one set of twins that do not know. SHAME ON YOU!!! As you said "well I do not know if I have the right to tell them" you are holding a key to save lives. For all the twins out there I wish you all love, blessings and the wisdom to know each other at any cost and do not let others tell you what you should be doing or if you should be separated or not! This is not a question it is lives you are effecting.

[safarim1]

Does anyone have additional info about the actual study/and or the adoption agency? I hope those involved proceed with a class action lawsuit. Any twins involved have a right to know as little or as much info as they want.

[ruitercg]

The Loise Wise agency has been in the news in the past for questionable adoption situations. I wonder why they did not present this on the show. I am sure they were always looking for the $$ first and not for the best interest of the families involved - birth families as well as the adopted families. How awful for the adoptees.

[safarim1]

I will bring this story to my social work class to raise consciousness. Unfortunately, the psychiatrists involved in the study, as well as any people who have knowledge of the twins who were seperated, follow in the footsteps of the people involve in the Tuskeegee syphilis research study, abused black people in the name of scientific research. There was medication, penicillin, to give to these people and they did not give it to them. In the name of science, which is really now about money, poor people, uneducated people still are used a guinea pigs. They are looked upon the way the Nazi''s looked at Jews- as animals-not human beings. The drug companies and their ties to goverment also condone enethical research-it''s the capitalist way, that promotes profits over human life.Mazal and brocha to Elsyse and Paula!

[mediabrat60]

This is just sick. Tip of the iceberg.

[s6hermans]

This story touched my heart because it is also my story. Born in 1960, adopted from Louise Wise, in 1999 I requested my medical info. Having lost my adopted parents to cancer I needed to know my biological history. I did not receive a letter, I received a phone call, and a request to come to their offices. It was there I was told I was a twin. My search for my sister was an incredible journey, Louise Wise was unable to tell me who she was. I finally found her family only to find her deceased. As I began to research I learned their were many more than the 5 sets of twins you mentioned. For those families who were not part of the twin study the motivation for the agency was money. Louise Wise collected a percentage of annual income from each family who received a child or children. By separating the children they were able to collect double the money. The best they could offer me was an apology. In the process I also found my birth mother who carried a picture of her twins in her wallet all these years. She claims to have been promised we would be kept together. Louise Wise gave her their word but not much more. It was difficult for her to understand that we were not together and then to hear that my sister had taken her life at the young age of 28. Not all these stories end happy, and I believe there are hundreds of twins out there that have no idea.

[syale]

Twins Separated In Name Of Science.

There was some piano music playing during the segment. Can anyone tell me what it was?