Indian toddler born with eight limbs..

[Ason]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=491757&in_page_id=1770

A toddler born with eight limbs and believed by some to be the reincarnation of the multi-limbed Hindu goddess Vishnu, is set to undergo a 40-hour operation to remove half of her limbs. Lakshmi Tatma was born joined to a 'parasitic twin' and will go under the knife at the hands of 30 surgeons to remove two of her useless arms and legs. Her mother Poonam Tatma said she believed her daughter was "a miracle, a reincarnation" of Vishnu. Dr Sharan Patil, who will be leading the surgery at the country's Narayana Health City, in Bangalore, said: "Fortunately, Lakshmi has one complete body with a near perfect set of organs. Her skeletal system involves two bodies which are fused together at the level of the pelvis. The operation itself, although presents several challenges, is not the most complex in the world. What is highly unusual in Lakshmi's case is precisely how her bodies are fused, almost mirroring each other."

[Emily]

woah! i was just going to post this in the picture thread under "also true":

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-1291655,00.html

[Jason]

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[Shaggy 2 Grote]

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,

[Ason]

happy ending.
looks like the surgery was a success

[erika]

 

.

,

[Sarah]

You know, after learning of her existence on Tuesday and taking a moment to to wish her well, even though I disapprove of spending enormous sums of money on one child that could be used to help so many more, I forgot about her entirely.  I feel quite shallow and quite guilty right now.

[Stan]

You know, after learning of her existence on Tuesday and taking a moment to to wish her well, even though I disapprove of spending enormous sums of money on one child that could be used to help so many more, I forgot about her entirely.  I feel quite shallow and quite guilty right now.

 Oh, stop it.

[erika]

You know, after learning of her existence on Tuesday and taking a moment to to wish her well, even though I disapprove of spending enormous sums of money on one child that could be used to help so many more, I forgot about her entirely.  I feel quite shallow and quite guilty right now.

She could die and they could learn a lot from performing that operation on her, and they shouldn't do it because it costs a lot of money? There are plenty of things where the money isn't well spent, but I don't think this surgery was one of em.

[Sarah]

I'm a greater good kind of gal, erika. 

[Ason]

I'm a greater good kind of gal, erika. 

You think too much...
FEEL

[Sarah]

What, you want me to kill myself, Ason?  At least with thinking comes distance. 
If I didn't suppress what I feel about 2G1C, Lakshmi, the $25,000 sundae, etc., and what these say about the world, I'd jump off a bridge.

[erika]

I just think that medical advances are worth the money spent in many cases. This bein one of them.

The $25,000 sundae is a blight on humanity, however. I'd like to know where they got the gold dust that these people are ingesting...

[buffcoat]

Everybody's talking about killing themselves these days.  Killing yourself is sooooo 1994.

[Sarah]

What precisely are the advances?  I'm not trying to be argumentative here; I just honestly don't see what there is to be learned from this surgery that is not available from thousands of more mundane procedures.