What happens when one siamese twin dies?

[Nimsay]

I was recently reading about a woman who gave birth to three babies at once; two of them girls connected and cannot be seperated, and a boy who was not joined with them. So, let’s say one of these girls die…what happens to the other twin?!

[Duckster]

In the end, the twins were autopsied – with no payment made to the family – and buried.

The autopsy made three points on the separation question: Separation as children might have been wise; no such operation would have been worth the risk later in life; and the operation should have been performed immediately upon Chang’s death. In 1897, the American Medical Association weighed in for a final judgment: Given advances in the use of antiseptics, had the twins lived at that time, they could have been successfully separated.

Source: The original Siamese Twins

Of course, each conjoined twin, and their individual deaths, are unique. I doubt you will find a standard answer.

[greyseal]

I think it depends mostly on how many systems are interdependent in the twins’ bodies.

If it’s mostly superficial attachment, I think it’s not too difficult to detach them, even if one dies. Without medical treatment, however, I think one dying usually results in both.