Indian girl born with two faces

[JI7]

Source: The Standard

The parents of an Indian girl born with two faces say she is eating and breathing normally despite having two pairs of eyes and lips and two noses.

"I had never seen something like this in my life so naturally I was a little scared when I first saw her," her father said. But the girl, born three weeks ago, has found easy acceptance in the family, who have no plans to consult doctors to check if the girl can get treatment or corrective surgery.

"The doctor said everything was normal when she was born. So where's the need to get medical help?" the father said. "She's fed through one mouth and sucks her thumb with the other. We use whichever mouth is free to feed her."

Doctors said it was a rare case, with the girl having two skulls joined together, and that separating them was out of the question.

Read more: http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=17&art_id=63958&sid=18380483&con_type=1

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the father is a factory worker so that's probably how this may have happened. there is a huge lack of health and safety standards there.

the stupid religious types are always viewing the kids born with these problems as being some God. in this case the parents also.

[balantz]

1. At least they see her as a divine being.

Here we might just call her an unfortunate abnormal monstrosity that should be fixed to become whole, normal and acceptable.

She is a unique human being and is regarded as special. Could be worse?

[JI7]

2. the problem is there are obvious reasons for this happening

such as lack of health standards. and rather than doing anything about that they will just keep viewing these babies being born with these problems as some God.

and they will probably be treated like crap as they get older if they even survive.

[balantz]

4. I don't know the cause of this,

you may be right.

But it appears that she is held in high regard.

I can't say how she will be treated in the future.

[elleng]

8. You're a specialist in the Indian environment and culture?

"Since the heads are fused, separating them is not possible," pediatrician DK Gupta of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences said, adding the child's oral and nasal cavity and other passages should be checked.

The case comes just months after Indian doctors removed the extra limbs of two-year-old Lakshmi Tatma, a girl born with four arms and legs. This year, Lakshmi started taking her first steps with the help of a baby walker."

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

13. I do think you are off the mark, however, in thinking the father

was the cause of the problem. In my research on co-joined twins, the problem appears to be one that is caused by a faulty separation of identical twins in the womb of the mother. And no one knows for sure why it happens. Environmental factors may be a cause, but no one knows for sure. Perhaps if we start seeing a larger percentage of co-joined twins being born in India, we can better speculate that environmental factors may be a cause.

In Hindu society, the threat to this girl is one of being exploited by someone trying to cash in on her appearance--much like the fate of many co-joined twins from the West in the last century.

[BearSquirrel2]

18. The question is ...

The question is ... is this just one girl or profoundly conjoined twins.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

23. I believe doctors would say this is a condition

of two eggs that didn't separate and one didn't fully develop. I know that there is a specific term for it, but I'm not where I can research it now (at work taking a break). However, the resulting condition happens for the same reason that conjoined twins happen-a malfunction of eggs in the womb.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

24. What about the cojoined twins here in the US?

There are a couple of lovely girls from the Midwest who are joined from the chest up--they each have one arm, and share the lower body. Their parents have other children, born before and after them, who are "normal". There was a special about them on TLC years ago, when they were 12-I think they are around 20 now. Anyway, the point is that no one exactly knows why cojoined twins and parasitic twins happen. There are many birth defects that can be attributed to lack of health standards, but I don't think copoined twins is one of them.

[sandnsea]

3. Will she be treated well?

Or shunned?

[balantz]

5. Who can say?

Compassion and cruelty exist in all cultures.

It appears she is presently regarded as special.

Hopefully she won't be used to make money as an incarnation of a goddess.

But what do we know? That could also be a blessing to a poor family.

No two stories are alike.

[JI7]

6. she wont be shunned

since they view her as a GOd. people are bringing her money and gifts. and i guess if you are going to be born like this it's probably better if you were living there than many other places.

but i think it would still be better if they enforced health and safety standards so these things are unlikely to happen in the first place.

[sandnsea]

7. Yep, better than the alternative

I've read a lot about the problems in India and the birth defects. Americans really are just immorally selfish to ignore all of this stuff going on around the planet. It's got to be happening in China too, it's just as polluted. When I think of all of it, God Damn America is exactly right.

[comtec]

9. Is it our fault India has crap standards?

Not to sound mean, but they are a separate, sovereign country. Their crap standards are their business. God knows they are a rich enough country, taking all our jobs n all that.

At this point any poor standards are literally on their heads.

While I often agree with the "usa sucks, go fuck yourselves" attitude, I really can't see how this is OUR fault?!

[TheMadMonk]

26. Two words. Union Carbide.

The seeds of much of India's prosperity came from Western businesss. Western business who encouraged, extorted and taught crap environmental practices as the only viable path to said prosperity.

[BearSquirrel2]

19. Lets just remember ...

Lets just remember that birth defects are a statistical process. The presence of certain chemicals will only make the odds go up. India is a country with 2 billion in population. So you would EXPECT these things to happen more often there than in the United States.

We have profoundly conjoined twins in this country as well. This story reminds me of the image of Janus. What do you want to bet that was inspired by conjoined twins.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

14. Likely to be treated well

if she is believed to be a living reincarnation of one of the many Hindu gods. The Indian girl born with an extra lower body (who has had surgery to remove the extra limbs) was revered as a goddess, and many objected to the parents allowing the surgery to go on. The real threat would be if the child is bought by those who would exhibit her for money and not give her any.

[Catch22Dem]

10. LBN?

A co-worker sent this to me about 3 weeks ago.

[RantinRavin]

11. I know this is twisted, but my first thought was

When will she be entering politics ?

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

12. better that they see her as a Goddess

than that she must be killed. In many cultures this would be the case. And if she lives, she will likely be supported by those "stupid religious types", given an education, etc.

It would be wise, however, if the Indian government would look carefully at their health and safety standards. Since co-joined twins are generally a result of a problem in the womb, I'd be looking carefully at the circumstances of the mother during time of gestation.

[Ian David]

15. She'll be able to pull down TWO paychecks doing telephone tech support! n/t

[indio55555]

20. Two more jobs you will cry about right?

[dropkickpa]

16. Seems to be a case of conjoined twins

Which happen for no known reason other than failure of the embryos to completely separate. The later the separation, the more joined the two are. Southwest Asia and Africa have a higher incidence, and roughly 70% are female. There is no way to prevent conjoined twins.

[Red Zelda]

17. We've got that here, too

Two-faced Hillary.

[leftchick]

21. Her Photo.....

An Indian girl, born with four eyes, two noses and two mouths is watched by another child as she rests on a cot at the Saini Village of Noida, some 55 kms from New Delhi, on April 5. The parents of the girl say that the toddler is doing well and that they have no plans for a surgery.
(AFP/Manan Vatsyayana)

[Javaman]

22. Well, she should become a politician

this way she can speak out of both sides of her face.

Okay reeeeally bad joke.

[coriolis]

25. That's not rare...Republicans have been like that for decades.

:shrug: