Conjoined twins are twins whose bodies are joined together at birth. This happens where the zygote of identical twins fails to completely separate. Conjoined twins occur in an estimated one in 200,000 births, with approximately half being stillborn. The overall survival rate for conjoined twins is between 5% and 25%. Conjoined twins are more likely to be female (70-75%).

Conjoined twins in history

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The term Siamese Twins comes from what are probably the most famous pair, Chang and Eng Bunker (1811–1874), Chinese brothers born in Siam, now Thailand. The term is frequently used as a synonym for conjoined twins. Chang and Eng were joined by a band of cartilage at the chest (xiphopagus). In modern times, they could be easily separated. For many years they traveled with the Barnum Circus. In the 1840s they married sisters Sarah and Adelaide Yates of North Carolina and purchased two adjoining farm properties just west of Mount Airy, North Carolina. Together they fathered between 20 and 23 children (accounts vary, and in any case, many of the children died in early childhood). The twins would spend three days at one farm then three days at the second farm. They owned slaves and during the American Civil War many of their descendants fought for the Confederacy. In January of 1874, Chang, who was a heavy drinker and had fallen ill with pneumonia, died during the night. Eng also died within a few hours, surrounded by his and his brother's families. Many of their descendants still live in the Mount Airy area.

The earliest known case of conjoined twins dates from the year 945, when a pair of conjoined twin brothers from Armenia were brought to Constantinople for medical evaluation. The English twin sisters Mary and Eliza Chulkhurst, who were conjoined at the back (pygopagus), lived from 1100 to 1134 and were perhaps the best-known early example of conjoined twins. Other early conjoined twins to attain notoriety were the "Scottish brothers", allegedly twins of the dicephalus type (1460–1488; although the dates vary); Helen and Judith of Szony, Hungary (1701–1723), who were pygopagus twins and enjoyed a brief career in music before being sent to live in a convent; and Ritta and Christina Parodi of Sardinia, born in 1829. Ritta and Christina were dicephalus tetrabrachius twins and although they died at only eight months of age, they gained much attention as a curiosity when their parents exhibited them in Paris.

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