Some years ago, "Saturday Night Live" stopped doing parodies of news shows because such parodies were no longer fresh. Today, the SNL staff has a better reason for not doing them: The news shows themselves are parodies of real journalism.

This morning, CNN reported the case of the two 29-year-old Iranian women who are joined at the head and who, in July, will have surgery to separate them. The twins requested the surgery in 1994, but they were turned down because the chances of survival were so low. Today, with computer technology, survival chances are higher, but not much.

Still, it was nothing short of outrageous to hear the CNN anchor ask the talking head doctor why the women wanted the surgery when "they have lived like this for so long."

Just as outrageous was the doctor's reply: "Well, that's a fair question."

Oh, sure. They should be used to it by now. There should be no need for either of them to want any kind of life that would pass as normal. It has become perfectly acceptable for them to live what is generally considered to be the biggest freak-of-nature existence in the world.

There was more to come. Toward the end of his statement, the doctor talked about what "these girls" will have to endure. They are not girls--they are adult women. Of course, in our culture, women are continually infantilized and referred to as children, but I didn't expect to hear that from somone on a TV news show. Then I remembered--the women are also physically handicapped, and we can't resist infantilizing the disabled.