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14. The Boys’ Parents Put Them On Exhibition Soon After Their Birth
Nowadays, people tend to frown upon parents who put their children on display for whatever reason. For example, their kids become celebrities very early in life like Macaulay Culkin and Dakota Fanning. In other cases, the parents want to show off their home life like Jon and Kate or the Duggar family on TLC. The last scenario involves offspring who have some abnormality and exploiting it for financial gain. Child services would probably be contacted in the latter. The situation will be considered much worse if the children are denied medical care.
The boys’ parents soon had them touring Europe in various freak shows and were hesitant to have doctors examine them, as doing so could inhibit the cash cow that they saw the twins as being. In fact, one of their doctors said in 1892, “The parents seem to be impressed with an idea that there is danger in a physical examination, whereby the hope of their gains might be destroyed” (Conjoined Twins: An Historical, Biological, and Ethical Encyclopedia by Christine Quigley, page 169). In Turin, Italy, their exhibition attracted the attention of medical doctors, particularly Dr. Fubini and Dr. Mosso, who examined them and concluded that their lives would be short. As they continued to tour, doctors wanted to study them, and they were determined to be healthy and expected to have an average lifespan.