Conjoined twin babies share a single heart : photos

Birth defects like the Mermaid syndrome, a deformity where the legs are fused together, Craniopagus, a phenomenon where twins are joined at the head, and Dicephalic parapagus, a condition of having two heads, occur rarely but prove challenging to the medical world. Recently in Brazil, a baby was born with two heads; Jesus and Emanuel are in stable condition, but doctors are hesitant to perform surgery is such delicate conditions. More images on these rare congenital disorders.

A two-headed born baby is pictured in Anajas, northern Brazil December 21, 2011. Doctors in Brazil said on Wednesday said they are unsure whether they can operate on a baby born with two heads, although the newborn boy is in stable condition. The "twins", named Jesus and Emanuel, have two brains, two backbones and a single heart. REUTERS/JR Avelar/Handout

A two-headed born baby is pictured in Anajas, northern Brazil December 21, 2011. Doctors in Brazil said on Wednesday said they are unsure whether they can operate on a baby born with two heads, although the newborn boy is in stable condition. The "twins", named Jesus and Emanuel, have two brains, two backbones and a single heart. REUTERS/JR Avelar/Handout
The abandoned baby boy with the rare "mermaid syndrome", a defect in which the legs are born fused together, at the Hunan Provincial Children's Hospital in Changsha, central China's Hunan province 16 November 2006. Sirenomelia, or "mermaid syndrome", is a rare congenital defect occurring in one out of every 70,000 births, and the condition is almost always fatal within days of delivery due to serious defects in vital organs.

Maria de Guadalupe Angolo and Maria de Jesus Angolo, a two-headed infant is attended to by a nurse at the Hospital Infantil August 2, 1996, in Mexico City. She was born July 26, 1996, in Tijuna Mexico. The newborn is in critical but stable condition, and has only one thorax, a single heart, intestines and a single set of legs and arms. Doctors have said separation surgery is out of the question. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Housewife Radha Gupta holds her one month-old Siamese twins, Radha, left, and Krishna, in her in-laws' house on the outskirts of Bombay Monday Feb. 8, 1999. The parents, family elders and neighbors claim that the two-headed baby is a re-incarnation of Lord Vishnu, a Hindu mythological god, while medical doctors say that the survival and normal life of the child depends on a correction operation wherein one of the heads will be removed. Radha and her husband Vijay, have refused the operation. (AP Photo/Sherwin Crasto)

Undated handout photo released Sunday Sept.18, 2011 by British charity Facing the World of conjoined twins Rital and Ritag Gaboura (left to right not given) before they were successfully separated at London's Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children. Facing the World says Rital and Ritag Gaboura were born in Sudan with the tops of their heads stuck together. Twins born joined at the head _ known as craniopagus twins _ occur in about one in 2.5 million births and successful attempts to split them are rare. However, the condition can lead to serious medical problems and the charity said the twins' parents asked for help funding surgery to pull the two apart. The charity said Sunday the two were finally separated last month and appear to be healthy. (AP Photo / Facing the World, ho) EDITORIAL USE ONLY

Lakshmi looks on at the Sparsh Hospital in Bangalore, India, Monday, Nov. 5, 2007. Doctors began operating Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2007, on the two-year-old girl born with four arms and four legs, in an extensive surgery that they hope will leave the girl with a normal anatomy, a hospital official said.