Medicine: Surgeons Remove Baby's Second Head
What an intriguing article. It kind of pisses me off that the name for this condition is craniopagus parasiticus....and they repeatedly refer to the second head as a parasite...as in "We had to study how the blood supply of the parasite is working..."
Regardless, second heads like this are capable of smiling and blinking! Its terrible to think that such a thing is a parasite, although for most of us future medical professionals, the technical definition of a parasite is fitting in this situation. However, other human beings may not agree on the terminology.
2 comments:
Hey, I'm typically comfortable calling fetuses "parasites." They're tenants not paying rent, even if they're honored guests!
On a more serious note, I'd imagine the use of the "parasite" terminology in this case is specifically designed to dehumanize the unformed twin. If the head, blinking and smiling, is anything but a parasite, then removing it would be akin to murder. It becomes an ethical conundrum. And one of my biggest problems with "ethics" is problems like this become legalistic rather than pragmatic. Legalism allows human priorities to be lost in fine print. Obviously, this kid needs this extra head removed for any number of reasons (although South Park has taught us that you can function happily as a school nurse with a fetus attached to your head), and I imagine most of those reasons are not simply cosmetic.
Which isn't to say that the "parasite" term doesn't hit me sort of funny in the stomach; it does. But that's what happens when you let surgeons name things :) Let a PC future psychiatrist like me name it, and I'd name it "Fred your unformed friend" or something lame like that.
Post a Comment