Two Headed Baby Poses Many Questions
Two-headed boy born in Bangladesh
Well this is going to drive people crazy.
"The boy, named Kiron and weighing 12 lbs 1 oz, was born by Cesarean section on Monday at a clinic in Keshobpur, 85 miles from the capital, Dhaka.
But an estimated 150,000 people from the region descended on the clinic to try to catch sight of the boy so he was moved to a larger hospital. Police are now mounting a round-the-clock operation to protect him and his family from intrusion.
Dr Mohamad Abdul Bari, his mother's gynaecologist, said: "He has one stomach and he is eating normally with his two mouths. He has one genital organ and a full set of limbs.
"He was born from one embryo but there was a developmental anomaly."
The clinic had been unable to determine whether the baby had one or two sets of vital organs, Dr Bari said.
Kiron's life was not in immediate danger but he and his 22-year-old mother were moved to the hospital in the nearby city of Jessore city because of the large crowds that had gathered at the clinic, the doctor said."
This birth really opens a can of worms. If this infant survives it's very existence is going to upset a lot of apple carts in how we view a human being.
The article says that the baby is eating with both mouths so one of the heads isn't just a vestigial structure, although we don't know how developed everything is. If the infant in fact does have two functioning brains and lives to adulthood, the ethical, moral, legal, medical issues will be enormous. This isn't a calf or an amphibian, this is a human being, or two, that we'll have to deal with somehow.
Probably the biggest question is how one body can have two brains. How will the organism receive and understand muscular commands from two independent cerebrums? I think the answer would be that during development the brains would automatically learn to work in tandem with no wires crossed. It would have to learn to do that to survive, to move around in a coordinated manner. Can you imagine how close the two brains would become from that? And what would happen then to one of them if after development and growth the other one became sick and died and was removed? This is far different than simple conjoined twins sharing some flesh, the integration here is complete.
Is the body one entity, or two seperate people? If he/they sued someone would it be a class action suit? Vote once, or twice? Could the heads ever say, play chess, or would they be so close that they could read the opponent's moves while the other was thinking about them?
Religionists will have a very hard time with this phenomena, except maybe some who think physical abnormalities are a manifestation of godlike entities. Say the heads can be at odds over picking up a gun and shooting someone, but it happens. Are both guilty of a crime, and sin? But how can one head ever be absolved of guilt if there's only one body that commited a transgression? If christian, can one head go to heaven and the other straight to hell? If you believe in reincarnation is this a case of two souls incarnated in one body or could it be possible that one soul is experiencing two incarnations at the same time? One head muslim and the other a jew? It's mind boggling.
Think of the psychological mysteries that could be plumbed talking with this/these person/persons. How do they think? What do they think of each other? Do they cosider each other to be another person or just a more independent and animated portion of their own self, like a talking wart? Unfortunately I think the human organism isn't set up for this and the child won't have much chance, but what do I know? Humans have shown unbelievable capacity to survive and prosper under most unusual circumstances.
Well this is going to drive people crazy.
"The boy, named Kiron and weighing 12 lbs 1 oz, was born by Cesarean section on Monday at a clinic in Keshobpur, 85 miles from the capital, Dhaka.
But an estimated 150,000 people from the region descended on the clinic to try to catch sight of the boy so he was moved to a larger hospital. Police are now mounting a round-the-clock operation to protect him and his family from intrusion.
Dr Mohamad Abdul Bari, his mother's gynaecologist, said: "He has one stomach and he is eating normally with his two mouths. He has one genital organ and a full set of limbs.
"He was born from one embryo but there was a developmental anomaly."
The clinic had been unable to determine whether the baby had one or two sets of vital organs, Dr Bari said.
Kiron's life was not in immediate danger but he and his 22-year-old mother were moved to the hospital in the nearby city of Jessore city because of the large crowds that had gathered at the clinic, the doctor said."
This birth really opens a can of worms. If this infant survives it's very existence is going to upset a lot of apple carts in how we view a human being.
The article says that the baby is eating with both mouths so one of the heads isn't just a vestigial structure, although we don't know how developed everything is. If the infant in fact does have two functioning brains and lives to adulthood, the ethical, moral, legal, medical issues will be enormous. This isn't a calf or an amphibian, this is a human being, or two, that we'll have to deal with somehow.
Probably the biggest question is how one body can have two brains. How will the organism receive and understand muscular commands from two independent cerebrums? I think the answer would be that during development the brains would automatically learn to work in tandem with no wires crossed. It would have to learn to do that to survive, to move around in a coordinated manner. Can you imagine how close the two brains would become from that? And what would happen then to one of them if after development and growth the other one became sick and died and was removed? This is far different than simple conjoined twins sharing some flesh, the integration here is complete.
Is the body one entity, or two seperate people? If he/they sued someone would it be a class action suit? Vote once, or twice? Could the heads ever say, play chess, or would they be so close that they could read the opponent's moves while the other was thinking about them?
Religionists will have a very hard time with this phenomena, except maybe some who think physical abnormalities are a manifestation of godlike entities. Say the heads can be at odds over picking up a gun and shooting someone, but it happens. Are both guilty of a crime, and sin? But how can one head ever be absolved of guilt if there's only one body that commited a transgression? If christian, can one head go to heaven and the other straight to hell? If you believe in reincarnation is this a case of two souls incarnated in one body or could it be possible that one soul is experiencing two incarnations at the same time? One head muslim and the other a jew? It's mind boggling.
Think of the psychological mysteries that could be plumbed talking with this/these person/persons. How do they think? What do they think of each other? Do they cosider each other to be another person or just a more independent and animated portion of their own self, like a talking wart? Unfortunately I think the human organism isn't set up for this and the child won't have much chance, but what do I know? Humans have shown unbelievable capacity to survive and prosper under most unusual circumstances.
posted by nolocontendere at 11:41 PM
4 Comments:
This book's two-headed boy is really a pair of conjoined twins named Lazarus and Joannes Baptista Colloredo, who were born in 1617. The two were joined by a cartilaginous band by their ribcages. Where Lazarus was a tall, handsome young man, his poor brother Joannes was malformed, with a single leg and an inability to speak or move much. The two toured Europe, were received by none other than King Charles I of England, and even escaped a sentence of death when Lazarus struck a man on the head, killing him--it was determined that to kill Lazarus would be unfair to Joannes, who was innocent of the crime!
From-->
http://www.epinions.com/review/The_Two_Headed_Boy_and_Other_Medical_Marvels_by_Jan_Bondeson/content_74122169988
I have been sad the whole day thinking about the death of these two little guys. I think being a mother, I can feel the pain of Kiron's mother. My heart aches for her.
Check out 16 year olds Abby and Britty Hensel of Minnesota. Two heads, one body.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkKWApOAG2g
I must say there's something strange about this. A media sensation one day and dead the next because of unavoidable penury. That's not how things work in the world these days.
Holy shit anon, thank you for that vid about the conjoined 16 year olds. I hadn't seen it and the subject is fascinating to the max. I had to watch it several times to catch the nuances, like how they walked together as one and how their mother referred to them as one entity - Abnbrit.
Maybe our singular souls/spirits are part of a larger over-soul, making for this sort of anomaly okay in the cosmic stream of things.
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