ANALYSIS

The Risk That Failed
By William Safire
Op-ed columnist, New York Times
Thursday, July 10, 2003 Posted: 9:16 AM EDT (1316 GMT)


We no longer call them "Siamese twins," after Chang and Eng, the congenitally united brothers exhibited by P. T. Barnum in the 19th century.

The twins now called "conjoined" are treated not as circus freaks but as infants deserving an attempt at surgical separation or -- far riskier -- as adults with the right to risk their lives in a quest for physical individuality.

In the 19th century, Chang and Eng had no such choice, and lived out ......