Science News Review

The Hindu Goddess Baby

Apr 9 at 11:11pm by Aileen

For something different and profound, consider the case of a baby girl named Lali born near New Delhi, India on March 11. She has a rare birth defect called diprosopus that gave her two faces on one head. ABC News reported that the resident medical officer of the Saifi Hospital where Lali was born has thus far been unsuccessful in his attempts to convince the parents to allow CT scans or MRI to determine whether there are duplicated internal organs or invisible, life threatening deformities that might be corrected by surgery.

Most babies with this condition are stillborn or die shortly after birth, but Lali so far has shown no breathing or digestion difficulties, both mouths are being fed. She was born normally and left the hospital with her mother 8 hours after birth.

This condition is not technically a case of cojoined twinning, where a single embryo duplicates and does not completely separate. Rather, it is due to malfunctioning in the developing embryo of a single protein called Sonic hedgehog homolog [SHH]. SHH protein governs the width of the face and features, and governs proper development of the brain and spinal cord via a signaling cascade.

Very few two-faced animals (including humans) have survived, usually due to abnormalities of brain or internal organs. The most famous - until now - was a pig named Ditto who finally died from not being able to coordinate his breathing and swallowing.

As interesting as the specific cause and spectacular physical results are, the socio-cultural issue is just as phenomenal. It could be argued that the parents (poor villagers and farm workers) should be forced to allow the medical tests that would determine the extent of deformities not apparent on the outside, but in their situation one might as easily ask “what for?” So long as the baby is in no distress, why interfere?

In her home country Lali is considered to be a reincarnated goddess, one of Ganesh’s manifestations. Hindus from all over the country and world are making pilgrimages to touch her feet, and giving offerings toward her tender care and blessings. Worship is simply not the same sort of thing as a carnival freak show.

Also consider that in India the practice of female infanticide is rampant because couples want sons, not daughters. In this particular case, the girl-child is a great blessing from heaven, with an entire village to protect and defend her! That may be the best way to live a life (no matter how long or short), given what the child has been given.

While it would be great if medical researchers and biologists could trace the specifics of the abnormality, if we could know if Lali has two brains, and whether some environmental toxin in the parents’ rural farming region may have caused the situation, it’s okay for the people in this child’s life to treat her like a goddess.

Links:

Baby with 2 faces born
Baby With Two Faces Doing Well
Will Baby Survive?