Extremely rare birth defects

Birth defects like the Mermaid syndrome, a deformity where the legs are fused together, Craniopagus, a phenomenon where twins are joined at the head, and Dicephalic parapagus, a condition of having two heads, occur rarely but prove challenging to the medical world.From Pakistan to Brazil to more recently India- conjoined twins radhana and Stuti will be operated in the same hospital they were born and abandoned by their parents.

Housewife Radha Gupta holds her one month-old Siamese twins, Radha, left, and Krishna, in her in-laws' house on the outskirts of Bombay Monday Feb. 8, 1999. The parents, family elders and neighbors claim that the two-headed baby is a re-incarnation of Lord Vishnu, a Hindu mythological god, while medical doctors say that the survival and normal life of the child depends on a correction operation wherein one of the heads will be removed. Radha and her husband Vijay, have refused the operation. (AP Photo/Sherwin Crasto) less

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Fri, Dec 23, 2011 4:20 PM SGT