Male conjoined twins are more likely to be stillborn, are more likely to die at birth, and have a higher fatality rate through early life. That doesn’t mean none survive, just that the odds seemed to be stacked even more heavily against them than against the girls. If I recall, 3/4 of surviving-to-adult conjoined twins are girls.
Ladan and Laleh Bijani were adult female conjoined twins from Iran. They both held law degrees.
Their connection was at the head and they were both unhappy with their situation. After being refused by several surgeons they finally found one willing to separate them and both died.
I think it’s the right of adults to make and informed choice about their medical care. My understanding is that the two women knew it was very risky surgery but elected to go ahead anyway.
They were the exception, by the way - most adult conjoined twins do not opt for attempted separation.
That one really was a heartbreaker. They’d waited and waited for the technology to arrive to make it possible to separate. I really was hoping they’d be able to pull through.
AFAIK, there has never been a separation of twins conjoined at the head where both survived neurologically intact.
It’s the premise of the novel *Cutting for Stone, *and since the author is a medical doctor, I’d be curious what he based it on. Assuming for our purposes that “weird but still able to become a medical professional” is sufficiently neurologically intact.
Actually, their Wikipedia article mentions that their livers were fused, which could probably be easily handled now, but maybe not so much in the mid-1800s.
It’s also not uncommon for one twin to be doing most, if not all, of the kidney work, and possibly that of some other organs. If heart function is unequal enough, it can result in the death of one or both babies.
On top of it, they lived most of their lives in the pre-anesthetic era.
Their liver was preserved and is on display at a medical museum.
:dubious:
Merely by not giving the kids rhyming or alliterative names, the Stancombe parents are already waaaaaaaaaay ahead of the curve. 
In seriousness, though, from the reports, I don’t think the parents have any really great options. If I were the parent, I guess I’d go with the least interventionist option on the menu, as they seem to be.
The Schappell twins had rhyming names until one of them changed to “George”.
Abby and Brittany Hensel rhyme, but somehow that’s not as obnoxious as some of the other combos parents have handed out.
Except that Abby is short for Abigail, which I’m pretty sure doesn’t rhyme with Brittany (not that Abby really does either, IMO). 
Keep in mind, that while WE may think it would be an awful way to live, this is really their only experience. (I believe that’s how the Hensel twins have put it, when people asked them about their situation)
It’s possible some may think OUR lives would be a lesser way to live.
There was a case some years ago (20 or so) of conjoined twins who had a bad prognosis if no surgery was done. The thought was they would not live long in that condition. Also, if they were separated, one would certainly die, and the other stood a good chance of dying. They were separated, and both ended up dying.
Then later the father made headlines for being busted for drugs. Anyone remember this case or the names? It was in the US somewhere.
The Lakeburg twins. I specifically remember this about that set of conjoined twins:
StG
Thank you.
This thread popped up when I started that thread about the now-late Galyon brothers. The Stancombe twins died at 2 1/2 months of age, at home. Regarding their names: Each baby has two middle names, in reverse order.
Re Chang and Eng
First, it wasn’t a cute attempt to make rhyming names. The names mean right and left.
Second, their livers were indeed joined. They are preserved and can be viewed at the Mutter Museum here in Philly.
Finally, according to the head curator of the Mutter Museum (she gave a talk at the Phily SciFi Society) Chang and Eng could today be seperated in an outpatient procedure.
I highly recommend the Mutter Museum.
I just googled the Hensel twins for an update. I found a video about them finding a jobs as elementary school math teachers. Their bubbly new-teacher excitement is so adorable. (I hope they don’t get jaded TOO fast.)
The video very briefly touched on the HR issues. As of the video, the job was part-time. They had 2 separate contracts but each was receiving half-pay. I wasn’t sure the the pay thing was really fair. I hoped they were able to negotiate something better after they’d proven themselves.
I found an update from Feb of this year:
The twins work as fifth-grade teachers, guiding the next generation down a path of knowledge. Though they are each separate, unique individuals, they receive one pay. This is something they would “like to negotiate a little bit,” Brittany says. This, she feels, makes the most sense. “One can be teaching and one can be monitoring and answering questions. So in that sense, we can do more than one person.”
I don’t know what the right answer is in terms of pay, although I think they should get more than half-pay. They are team teachers, not one teacher, albeit without the flexibility of a typical set of team teachers.
Anyway, I’m glad they’re doing so well.
Their parents also raised them as two children; among other things, they slept in a double bed even though they could have fit into a single (I almost typed twin but realized that really wasn’t appropriate) and when they were attending a private elementary school, their parents insisted on paying tuition for two.