Conjoined twins

Sculpture by Deborah Costandine. Photo by Jim Ziv.

Last week I heard from a woman who is in graduate school training to become an art therapist. She made the sculpture of cephalopagus conjoined twins above, which was purchased in 2007 by Northwestern University. For a look at the skeletal structure of a similar pair of twins, visit the Mütter Museum's virtual display of cephalothoracopagus twins. Human conjoined twins who share a head do not survive, as opposed to craniopagus twins - joined at the head - who can and do live well into adulthood, whether or not they are separated. Rarer are symmetrical dicephalus twins, who each have a head on a shared body. Separation for them would cause more disability than it would resolve and - if the twins have a single heart - is not even an option.