Of these, 90% need another operation, or die.

ECONOMIST: Too clever by half

Without a valve replacement operation, half of these patients die within two years, yet many are too weak to have one.

NPR: Heart Repair Breakthroughs Replace Surgeon's Knife

If the operation goes ahead to separate them, Mary will die.

BBC: Parents to fight Siamese girls ruling

Run-off water from the fire-fighting operation reduced oxygen levels in the canal, causing the fish to die.

BBC: Fire-hit Erewash canal set to be restocked with fish

In the first ruling of its kind in the UK, Mr Justice Johnson said he made his decision to approve the operation on the grounds that if the girls were not separated, both would die within months.

BBC: Parents to fight Siamese girls ruling

But, I really would hate to think that these answers would be left to the free-market where the rich get to live longer because they can afford a heart bypass operation that works over 95% of the time while the poor are left to die because they cannot afford the identical, life-saving surgery.

FORBES: Why Ideological Free-Marketers Will Never Understand Health Care