The Extent of Affect and Susceptibility of the Special Status of Siamese Twins in Islamic Lex talionis Punishment

Murder or injury to the peoples’ physical entirety is considered among crimes which have been attracted the attention of human lawmakers, and consequently, the most severe punishments have been leveled against such crimes. The Islamic lawmaker has considered lex talionis as the penalty for murder. Such a crime punishment turns to be so complicated in cases it is associated with people with special physical conditions such as Siamese Twins which needs to be investigated. The findings of this paper report that Siamese Twins reflect either independent or joint personalities. Thus, this issue is effective in the related sentences passed for them. Regarding the murder sentence, if one of the twines commits murder, due to the death of the other because of the lex talionis, this sentence would be cancelled, otherwise one of them could be separated from the other, and if the twins are intentionally murdered, due to the multiplicity of crimes, punishments are also multiplied. However, if one of the twins is killed intentionally and the other dies consequently, regarding to the first one, the murderer is sentenced to lex talionis and with respect to the other, given the murder is intentional or unintentional, the related sentence is passed.