According to Wikipedia[1], one of them did survive (but was "profoundly disabled" and "never learned to speak or feed himself") but yeesh, it doesn't seem like

According to Wikipedia[1], one of them did survive (but was "profoundly disabled" and "never learned to speak or feed himself") but yeesh, it doesn't seem like a huge success, and their mother regrets electing for the surgery - which makes it seem like the doctors believed they would have survived and lived a reasonably normal life (under the circumstances) without the surgery. If that's the case, then it seems like a total ethical violation to even offer the surgery. But maybe that isn't so and it's her trauma talking there, I don't really know. Carson's Wikipedia article [2] mentions several other sets of twins, one operation resulting in a "normal neurological state," 2 resulting in the death of both twins, and another resulting in one dying and the other being "legally blind and [struggling] to walk." I don't know what to make of all that, but you're right, that is more murky than the narrative I've heard previously. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_and_Benjamin_Binder https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_and_Benjamin_Binder [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Carson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Carson