The birth of a freak. Parasitic craniopagus. People with the most shocking physical abnormalities

As a rule, in most cases, healthy babies. But it also happens that a child is born with pathologies, which causes concern and anxiety among parents. We will figure out what the most common pathologies of newborns are.

There are a variety of fetal developmental anomalies, which are almost impossible to list. But there are pathologies that are more common than others, and we will tell you about them.

Inguinal and inguinal hernias

The frequency of detection of dysplasia in newborns is quite high.

If a baby is born with a congenital dislocation of the hip, the doctor will reduce it, and then, for at least several months, apply special fixed orthoses - stirrups. If this is not enough, then surgery may be indicated for the child. Fortunately, in most cases, dysplasia can be cured fairly quickly without surgery.

Cleft lip

This birth defect occurs external deformity, problems in the newborn’s nutrition and speech development, but the general psychosomatic development of the child usually does not suffer from this.

Fortunately, today cleft lip is not an irreparable problem - in the very first few weeks of the baby he undergoes an operation that will remove this defect.

Cleft palate

This congenital deformity, which is a splitting of the tissues of the hard and soft palate, in which there is communication between the oral and nasal cavities. This is a fairly rare pathology, with which 0.1% of newborns are born in the world.

This defect is also eliminated surgically. If the operation is carried out efficiently, the child’s appearance will not be significantly affected - several invisible thin scars will remain.

Polydactyly

This is a pathology in which there is new growth on the arms or legs born child there is an extra finger. The frequency of such an anomaly is very high - approximately every three hundred babies.

This defect can be eliminated very quickly - a simple surgical operation that lasts only a few minutes, a small rehabilitation period, and there will be no trace left of the extra finger. Although many parents prefer to leave everything as it is.

Congenital heart defect

One of the most serious pathologies are congenital heart defects. They can be very different, but all are associated with improper formation of the heart septum.

Treatment of such pathology directly depends on its severity. If the defects are not very significant, the doctor may decide to simply monitor the baby, and with age the baby simply outgrows such a birth defect. But children with serious defects face serious surgical operations. But, fortunately, today such operations are very successful in most cases.

It is important to know:

You can predict the birth of a baby with pathology using ultrasound during pregnancy. But, unfortunately, it cannot be prevented. But you shouldn’t get upset ahead of time, because in most cases, children with the described pathologies live full lives.

Remember that before making any decision regarding the treatment of a child, it is worth listening to the opinions of at least two different specialists. In addition, do not forget about the need to visit the same geneticist.

The human body grows and develops in accordance with the genetic program that is embedded in DNA. This molecule consists of genes through which protein is produced. He serves building material for all life on Earth. Each gene, to put it simply, is responsible for a specific organ. These are the heart, kidneys, liver, brain, skeleton, etc. etc. They all begin to grow and develop in the womb of the mother’s body. At the same time, the process of their development follows a clearly established pattern.

Genes scrupulously adhere to a certain program, guide cell division, and, in the end, a child is born. small man. He has a head, arms, legs, eyes and other organs necessary for normal life. Very often children grow up handsome men and women with ideal body proportions. Such bodies are pleasing to the eye and evoke a feeling of admiration. Humanity owes all this to DNA.

It would seem that it is necessary to erect a monument to this molecule, which gives people the joy of life. But one should not over-praise the complex biological structure. She's not as perfect as she seems. Sometimes a systemic failure occurs in a molecule, and the development of individual parts of the body deviates from the given programs. In this case, creatures appear in the light of day that are absolutely different from the people around them. Freak people - that's what they've been called since time immemorial. Physical abnormalities bring untold suffering to deformed people, but it is impossible to help them. Science still has very little knowledge to on our own correct the functioning of genes.

So perfect human bodies are born thanks to the precise work of DNA

From this we can conclude that the Supreme Intelligence that invented DNA at one time was not at all distinguished by conscientiousness and responsibility. These guys obviously cheated and did such a responsible job in bad faith. A person can only state the facts of ugliness and meekly endure the marriage of hacks.

The only reassurance is the thought that this is for the time being. Genetics will soon go far ahead, and people will eventually learn to correct the mistakes of others. Our descendants may even reach the Higher Mind. They'll kick these guys' ears or take off their belts and fatherly whip them in their soft spots. But this is a matter for the future, we will turn to the past and talk about clearly expressed ugliness, which has always aroused in people a feeling of great curiosity mixed with compassion.

Hairy people

Doctors call it elevated hairline"hypertrichosis" on the body. This is when a person is covered with hair from head to toe. They do not grow only on the palms of the hands and soles of the feet. It is especially unpleasant when lush vegetation covers the face. The most famous person with such deformity was Jo-Jo. He was born in St. Petersburg in 1868. His name was Fyodor Evtishchev.

Jo-Jo or Fedor Evtishchev

Thanks to the hairiness, the boy with early years He performed first in Russian, then in French circuses. In 1884, the famous American showman Phineas Taylor Barnum (1810-1891) drew attention to him. The young man went to America and received the pseudonym Jo-Jo. He traveled all over the United States, performing as a humanoid dog. The cunning showman told everyone that he was given birth to by a woman who became pregnant German Shepherd. Fedor died in 1904 from pneumonia while on tour in Europe.

Freaks are not only found among men. A terrible and terrible burden falls on fragile women’s shoulders. An example of this is Puerto Rican Priscilla Lauter. Actually, the Loters lived in the United States. They adopted the girl in 1911, paying decent money to her parents. The child's entire body was covered with long black hair. On the face only the nose, cheeks and forehead were devoid of hair. For the Loters, who worked in the field of circus attractions, the ugly girl was a real find.

Priscilla with her adoptive father Carl Lauter

In addition to being hairy, Priscilla had two rows of teeth growing in her mouth. However, this did not bother her at all. The deformity did not affect the intellect. The child was exceptionally smart. He enjoyed wild success with the audience. Before Priscilla’s performance, the venerable Karl Lauter sincerely assured the audience that she was given birth to by a woman who had had intimate relations with a large ape. Of course, the master was a little disingenuous, but it was necessary to somehow stir up the interest of the jaded public. To confirm the invented “legend,” Priscilla performed on the circus stage only with monkeys.

One very rich and eccentric American woman wanted to adopt a girl. She cherished the dream of crossing her with a monkey. But the Loters were not flattered by the large sum of money and refused the lover of exotic experiments. Priscilla married a circus performer who also had a deformity. The young man’s skin on his body was covered with large scabs, and he portrayed an alligator in front of the audience. God did not give this couple children, but they lived a long and happy life together.

Giants and dwarfs

History knows quite a few people with very small and large stature. These are also freaks, because they turned out this way as a result of a genetic failure. In the old days, all monarchs kept dwarfs in their courts. Short men and midgets were believed to bring good luck. For more than a thousand years, this public enjoyed a favorable situation. They lived quite well near the royal table. If they also knew how to make people laugh, they became favorites of the reigning persons. Jeffrey Hudson is considered the most famous of all dwarfs.

The little guy got eaten at court English king Charles I (1600-1649). His height was only 75 cm in adulthood. As a child, he was 15 centimeters smaller, so he was often placed in a large cake and served to the table. Guests surrounded the confectionery miracle, and then a tiny man jumped out of it, like a jack out of a snuff box. For those who did not know, this had a stunning effect.

Little people in a big world

Geoffrey was very loved by the queen. Naturally, the kid took advantage of this. He behaved impudently and defiantly with the courtiers. One day the dwarf considered himself insulted by the marquis and challenged him to a duel. The kid had his own sword. It was made for him by order of the queen. With this miniature weapon, Geoffrey managed to wound the Marquis several times in the thigh before the soldiers arrived in time to separate the brawlers.

Human freaks of enormous stature are no less popular. Ancient historians cite astonishing figures. For example, the same Goliath had a height of 2 meters 90 centimeters. Many researchers who adhere to the alien version of the development of human civilization believe that Goliath was not a Philistine, but a representative of an alien race. Let it be so, but besides Goliath there are enough other giants who are in no way inferior to him in size.

You can name Orestes, whose height reached 3 meters. This is the son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra - the sister of Helen the Beautiful, because of whom the Trojan War broke out. Here the alien version will no longer get through, since the giant’s sister was Iphigenia. The same beautiful girl who they wanted to kill to appease Artemis. The young creature's height did not stand out among other girls. Thus, if Orestes is an alien, then why is Iphigenia so small?

Let's leave ancient Greek mythology to the conscience of historians and turn to the ancient Romans. They, too, could boast of huge human monsters. Judging by the memoirs of Josephus (37-100), who wrote the famous work “The Jewish War,” very tall slaves lived in Rome. Among them, one named Eleazar stood out especially. His height reached 3 meters 30 centimeters. But this giant was not very distinguished physical strength. He was long and thin. But he ate for three. In competitions between inveterate eaters, Eleazar always won everyone.

It is believed that high growth directly depends on the bones of the legs. The longer the legs, the taller the person. Moreover, the length of his body is not much different from standard sizes. Giants rarely have great physical strength. The real athlete was a giant named Angus MacAskill. He was born in Scotland in 1825. Until the age of 13 it was ordinary child. Then it began to grow rapidly. At the age of 21, his height was 235 cm and his weight was 180 kg. It was a mountain of muscle without an ounce of fat.

Naturally, the huge strongman performed in the circus, earning good money. He lifted weights, amazing the audience with incredible strength. But even an old woman can have trouble. MacAskill once bet $1,000 that he would raise sea ​​water ship's anchor. He weighed almost 900 kg, but the money was very good, and the mighty giant got down to business. The giant lifted the anchor, but in the process injured his spine. I had to give up the circus. Already disabled, MacAskill went to his homeland, where he died in 1863.

Robert Wadlow with his older brother

The most tall man on the planet in the entire history of civilization, Robert Wadlow is officially considered. This is an American who lived in Mississippi. He died at the age of 22 in 1940. The young man weighed 220 kg with a height of 267 cm. The cause of death was not high growth at all, but simple blood poisoning. The guy cut his leg, which led to his untimely death.

Fat people are freaks

Fat people are also ugly people. But not ordinary fat people, but immensely fat individuals. For them, basic physical actions seem to be quite a problem. Even to walk across the room, fat people need to make a lot of effort. American Robert Earl Hughes belongs to this company. He lived in Indiana and left this mortal coil in 1958. His weight was 468 kg with a height of 178 cm.

This man could not move. In order to sit, a special chair was made for him. He slept on a special bed. Its frame was welded from steel corners. The mattress was placed on a steel sheet welded to the corners. When Robert was taken to the hospital, they had to order a crane and a forklift. The cause of his death was excess weight, which is not at all surprising.

Fat freaks were not uncommon in other states of America. A similar situation was observed with Johnny Ali, who lived in North Carolina. He was born in 1853 and at first was no different from other children. When the boy turned 11 years old, he developed a voracious appetite. The child began to rapidly gain weight. By the age of 15, he could no longer walk through the doorway to leave the house on the street. At the age of 16, the young man switched to a semi-recumbent lifestyle.

He spent all his time at home, sitting in a special chair. He slept in it, since he simply could not move onto the bed, and his family were not able to drag his huge body back and forth. Weight young man reached 509 kg. This data was obtained after Johnny died. During his lifetime, no one weighed him, so as not to create unnecessary problems for themselves.

The young man died in 1887 at the age of 33. The reason for this was basic human stubbornness. Johnny tried to get up from time to time so as not to feel completely inferior. This time too, he managed to lift his huge bulk from the chair and headed to the window of the room to admire the world around him. The floorboards could not withstand the enormous weight. The floor boards broke and the poor guy fell down. There was a basement underneath the room, but Johnny didn't fall into it. He was stuck in the hole, his legs dangling helplessly.

Relatives and neighbors began hastily building a wooden platform so that the fat man could rest his feet on it. But while people were working, the young man could not withstand all the shocks and died. A huge body was pulled out of the basement with the help of horses. At funerals they also used artiodactyls and special blocks to lower the coffin with the deceased into the grave.

Freak people with two heads

Such monster people also appear sporadically, putting eyewitnesses of this phenomenon into a state of superstitious horror. In 1953, a two-headed baby was born in Indiana. He lived for several weeks. One of the heads was completely normal. The other had a mouth, eyes, ears, but there were no glimpses of intelligence on her face. The heads grew from the same body, but each moved, slept and ate independently of the other.

Much earlier, in 1889, also in the state of Indiana, a creature was born who official medicine It's called the Jones Twins. They had a common body, but their heads were directed in opposite directions. The “twins” had 4 legs, and each two were fused with each other. The body had two arms. It seemed that right hand obeys the orders of one brain, and the left - another. The Jones Twins died in 1891.

Infant with two heads

In 1829, a freak with two heads was born on the island of Sardinia. Each head “sat” on a long neck. The body was shared with two arms and legs. The parents gave the child the name Rita-Christina. The family lived very poorly, so the father and mother took the two-headed creature with them to Paris and began to show it to a curious public for money.

It all ended with the authorities banning such an immoral event. Parents abandoned Rita-Christina in an unheated room in the winter and went home. The child died very soon from hunger and cold. Doctors opened the small body and made sure that, apart from two heads, there were no more paired organs in it. The skeleton of the unfortunate child is still kept in Paris today.

History knows a man with one head, but two faces. This is Edward Mordrake. He lived in the 19th century and was a representative of an aristocratic English family. His second face was located on the back of his head. It had muscles, so it could smile, frown and even laugh. But most of the time the face bore the stamp of gloomy doom. The owner of two persons could not bear such a burden weighing on his psyche. He went crazy and ended his life in a mental hospital.

Freak people with one eye

The first one-eyed people were the Cyclopes. Their only eye was located on their forehead. We know about this from ancient Greek mythology. Whether these monster people actually lived on earth or not is unknown. But medicine is well known to a black man named Nikolos. He lived in the first half of the 20th century in Mississippi. In the center of his forehead there was a normal-sized human eye. There were no eye sockets as such. These places were completely flat, covered with skin. Eyebrows grew like all normal people.

Representatives of the circus business promised this man fabulous money. But he never entered the circus arena. Nikolos ran a farm and tried to avoid people. He felt comfortable only among animals. Nikolos was very fond of dogs, which did not care about the lantern that their owner had one eye. The one-eyed American did not start a family and died quietly alone in the 60s of the last century.

Conclusion

Thus, it is clear that from time to time the DNA molecule produces amazing biological masterpieces. Freak people amaze humanity with their appearance, while experiencing unspeakable mental suffering. Even if they earn a lot of money performing in the circus, this is unlikely to provide them with moral consolation. Many of them would agree to live in poverty, but have a normal human appearance.

Nowadays, when the ecology leaves much to be desired, abnormal deviations in people are becoming more common. These are no longer flaws in the work of the Higher Mind, but the irresponsible activities of individual representatives of the human race. So it is still unknown who needs to be “given the belt” - the mysterious humanoids who invented DNA, or the owners of huge corporations that are gradually and steadily transforming human race into creepy mutants.

The article was written by Alexey Zibrov

Hard

ATTENTION NOT FOR THE FAINT OF NERVE! DO NOT ALLOW CHILDREN TO VIEW!
More than 30 years after the end of hostilities in Vietnam, relations between Hanoi and Washington remain strained. Reason - America's use chemical weapons, Agent Orange substances.

This war ended on April 30, 1975, but its curse affects both the second and third generations of Vietnamese people.

In the 60s and 70s, Americans, trying to discover Viet Cong hideouts, sprayed Agent Orange from airplanes. The main component of Agent Orange is poison number 1 - dioxin.

Dioxin is a general name for a whole group of organochlorine substances with a rather specific structure. There are about eight dozen dioxins in total. The most common one in the “language of chemists” is designated by the abbreviation TCDD. Perhaps it is also the most dangerous, as it is 67 thousand times more poisonous potassium cyanide. It can become a strong immunosuppressant, like the AIDS virus. May cause serious cancer.

During the war, the United States sprayed about 80 million liters of Agent Orange over Vietnamese territory...

45 million liters were secretly sprayed over the southern parts of the country, near the Cambodian border.

The Vietnamese had to sit in shelters for weeks due to American bombing. When they went outside, the trees around were already without leaves.

Agent Orange has provided and continues to provide harmful influence and on the gene pool of the population of these regions.

The powerful defoliant is responsible for causing severe illness in people in areas where this toxic chemical has been sprayed. increased level birth defects.

Children are still born in Vietnam with various kinds congenital deformities, physical and mental. Many of them are part of the group increased risk oncological diseases.

There are especially many people with disabilities in remote villages in the Mekong River Valley.

There are approximately 4.8 million victims of this toxic substance in Vietnam, including three million directly affected by the so-called “orange rain”.

There are still a large number of people registered who became disabled due to the fact that their parents and grandparents were exposed to dioxin.

In the late 1990s, Canadian researchers took samples of soil, water, and the fish and ducks living in it, as well as samples of human tissue.

They found that in contaminated areas, the concentration of dioxins in the soil was 13 times higher than normal, and in fatty tissues human body- 20 times.

Japanese scientists who compared infected and uninfected areas found that in infected areas the risk of having children with a cleft palate, the so-called cleft palate, was three times higher...

Or with extra fingers and toes.

In addition, children born in these areas are eight times more likely to have umbilical hernia …

...and three times more likely to have congenital mental disabilities.

Chemical spraying over Vietnam ceased in 1971 due to public demand, but by then 6,000 missions had already been flown.

Nguyen Trong Nhan, representative of the Vietnamese Association of Victims of Agent Orange and ex-president The Vietnamese Red Cross considers the use of this substance a war crime.

"We are trying to help those affected by this substance and the dioxins it contains, but our government's capabilities are limited," he admits.

In 2004, association activists filed a lawsuit in an American court against the chemical manufacturing companies. The plaintiffs sought compensation from chemical companies for damage to human health and the country's environment.

The amount of monetary compensation in the event of a legal victory could amount to several billion dollars.

Child birth injuries (shoulder dislocation, hip joints, hematomas, etc.) are those problems with the baby’s health that arise due to pathologically difficult childbirth, as well as as a consequence of errors by medical personnel and (or) improper behavior of the mother during childbirth, etc.

Pathologies of newborns are deeper, often not immediately diagnosed problems with the baby’s health. The causes of problems of this kind may be chromosomal malformations of the fetus, damage to the central nervous system, disorders in the formation and development individual organs and systems. If we consider the pathologies of newborns from the point of view of the causes of their occurrence, we can divide them into two large groups: genetically determined and acquired. Let's look at the most typical cases from each group.

Chromosomal pathology of the fetus

Down syndrome- one of the most common pathologies of newborns, which, unfortunately, tends to increase the number of cases. It is impossible to predict (let alone take measures to prevent) this pathology in newborns. Scientists still cannot say why completely healthy parents a child is born with an extra chromosome. But it is possible to diagnose Down syndrome already in the first half of pregnancy. To do this, a pregnant woman needs to undergo genetic screening in a timely manner. What to do with the information received that an unborn child has Down syndrome is a personal decision for each woman. But you need to know about this.

Shereshevsky-Turner disease- clean female disease, which is usually diagnosed at 10-12 years of age. People with this disease are missing one X chromosome. Infertility and mild mental retardation are companions of this chromosomal pathology.

Kleinfelter's disease- a problem for men whose karyotype contains 47 chromosomes - 47, XXY. The main manifestation of this disease is very high growth and infertility.

In addition to these diseases, there are also whole line diseases caused by chromosomes. Thank God they are rare.

How to avoid chromosomal pathologies in newborns?

There are two ways to do this: consultation with a geneticist before pregnancy and strict (!) adherence to the timing of genetic screening during pregnancy. Keep in mind: genetic research pregnant women are informative only at a strictly defined stage of pregnancy! If you miss these deadlines, you will receive incorrect answers.

“Acquired” pathologies of newborns

Doctors of all specialties who observe pregnant women never tire of saying that to their “ interesting situation» women should:

a) prepare, that is, at least undergo an examination for the presence in the body various infections, consult a geneticist, give up bad habits in advance.

b) treat pregnancy with full responsibility: visit the doctor on time and do everything necessary tests, strictly follow his recommendations.

What are the consequences of violating these rules? “Just” the occurrence of pathology in newborns varying degrees gravity. Let's look at the main ones.

Violation in the formation of individual organs. This pathology of newborns can occur literally anywhere in the child’s body. The “weak link” in the baby’s body can be his heart, kidneys, lungs, and organs of vision. Pathologies in the development of limbs are possible (extra fingers, for example), etc. The reasons for this in the vast majority of cases are the impact on the woman’s body harmful factors"outside world". And the habit of nodding to the environment, over which we have no control, is very bad. Alas, in the vast majority of cases, “thin spots” in a child’s health are laid down by mothers. Nicotine, alcohol, foolish use of medications, etc. - every woman who dreams of a child needs to clearly understand what she is doing when she brings a cigarette or a glass of wine to her mouth.

It also happens differently: sometimes the pathologies of newborns are caused by hereditary factors or truly unpredictable “whims” of nature. Is it possible to help the child in this case? Yes. Definitely yes! For example, modern medicine performs unique heart surgeries on children literally in the first hours after their birth. But doctors must be prepared for the birth of such a child. Don't skip doctor's visits during pregnancy! Let doctors diagnose the problem in time and save the child’s life.

Perinatal cerebral hypoexcitability. The main causes of this type of pathology in newborns are chronic oxygen starvation child during pregnancy, intrauterine infection of the fetus, as well as birth injuries.

Characteristic symptoms of hypoexcitability: low muscle tone of the child, general lethargy, drowsiness, reluctance to breastfeed, absence of crying or its extremely low severity. Such children usually make a frightening impression on mothers, but do not worry in advance: in the vast majority of cases, this type of pathology in newborns is corrected during the first few years of life (and sometimes earlier). Treatment can be very different: both medication and physiotherapy, depending on the severity of the manifestations.

Perinatal cerebral hyperexcitability- a problem, to a certain extent opposite to the previous one. The limbs of children born with this pathology are usually very tense, and trembling of the chin is often observed. Children often scream for a long time and later become hyperactive and have an unstable psyche.

This pathology of newborns in the vast majority of cases is also not very serious and can be successfully eliminated in early childhood.

Hypertensive-hydrocephalic syndrome occurs due to increased intracranial pressure. A symptom characteristic of this type of pathology in a newborn is an increased volume of the head, bulging of the fontanelle, and a disproportion between the facial and cerebral parts of the skull. The behavior of children suffering from hypertensive-hydrocephalic syndrome is very different. Children can be both frighteningly lethargic in their life manifestations and painfully active. IN severe cases a pronounced developmental delay is possible.

How to help a child with neonatal pathologies

Extremely important early diagnosis these problems! Preferably during pregnancy. And absolutely certainly - soon after the baby is born! If you notice something wrong in your child’s conduction, do not hide it from the doctor: the sooner the problem is diagnosed, the greater the chances of success.

I gave birth to a freak child. It is impossible to look at him without shuddering. I don’t even dare describe it to you. At the hospital, I asked the doctors to kill him. I felt that if I took him in my arms, the maternal instinct would awaken in me, and I would doom myself and him to eternal torment, which is what happened as a result. They offered to give him to an orphanage, but would that really save me from suffering? My son's deformity is incurable. I hide it from neighbors, acquaintances, and relatives. If you could imagine what my life has become... I'm on the verge of suicide. Why is our society so cruel? I still remember how the doctors shouted at me when I asked to give him one single injection that would solve all the problems...

I.P., Kursk

WHEN preparing this material, I encountered a similar reaction. Doctors, mothers, obstetricians and officials, to whom I tried to read the letter, began to shout in one voice: “How is this possible?! What kind of cynicism! Yes, we have never even heard the word such a wild “freak”!” Maybe. Deviation from the norm is now called pathology. But there is such a word in the Russian language. There is even a whole science, dealing with deformities, is “teratology”.

The problem of whether or not such people should live in this world is also not new. In Sparta and Athens, newborn deformed children were thrown from cliffs. IN Ancient Rome It was allowed to kill children “who do not have a human image.” In the Middle Ages, the birth of a freak was considered the result of his mother sinning with the devil, and such women were classified as witches. In the XVI-XVII centuries. freaks were publicly burned at the stake. In 1683, a child “with a cat’s head” and his mother were burned in Copenhagen.

In Russia in 1704, Peter I issued a special decree prohibiting midwives from killing freaks.

Both humane Soviet medicine and our current medicine know such cases. Of course, it is unlikely that any physician will admit that he did something similar with his own hand. And not even under the threat of existing criminal liability for this, but simply... Nevertheless, doctors, who, due to the nature of their specialization, have to deal every day with how cruelly nature sometimes takes revenge on a person, know that parents are sometimes ready to take it to heart and your own and others' sins. Just so as not to carry this cross through life and not know that somewhere the little creature you abandoned to the mercy of domestic social protection is “adapting.”

“Sometimes you operate on such a child, and the mother outside the door prays: “Lord! If only he died!” says L. Frolova, director of the medical and practical complex for the treatment of children with disabilities birth defects development of the face and jaws. - Or they invite you to a consultation and ask: “Is it possible to make it... well, somehow painless...” I immediately answer them: “Who did you invite: a doctor or a murderer?!”

“Over the 4 years that we have existed, I have been approached with such requests three times,” says the manager Children's center neurosurgery, psychoneurology and surgery of the craniofacial region A. Prityko. “When we say that we won’t kill anyone, they take the children and leave. They don't want to continue treatment."

There were no statistics on how many such babies are born in Russia. Dr. Prityke claims that 10,000 little Quasimodos are born every year that he could help. Of these, 50-60 people end up in his Center, the only one in the country. As a rule, these are all abandoned children. Until now, their treatment depended on the conscience of the orphanage workers. So what will happen now that everything has come down to money?

Previously, the birth of freaks was explained by the wrath of God, comets or impending disaster. Today, every specialist can name his own reasons and the “geography” of the appearance of deformities. L. Frolova, for example, classifies deformities - down to the microdistrict of the capital and even the time of year. However, she is not going to publish this data: after all, there is nowhere to escape from the dangerous area. The main causes of deformity: our difficult life, smoking, alcohol, ecology, unfavorable cycles of conception.

Ways to prevent the birth of little sufferers come down to one thing: to recognize the pathology as early as possible and persuade the woman to have an abortion. The indications for this have now been expanded and the period has been increased to 6 months.

In order to accurately determine the pathology, there are many methods: from the insanely expensive cytogenetic (analysis, which, according to N. Volodin, in the West is done free of charge to all pregnant women over 40 years old) to more or less simple cytochemical. Of all this, our expectant mothers really only have access to ultrasound scanning(ultrasound), which can be done by a little more than half of pregnant women.

In addition, it is clear that pathology is not the same as pathology. I have seen children with Down syndrome; there are many of them in orphanages, and sometimes they are almost indistinguishable from healthy ones. But one day, when I saw a child with a head several times larger than his body, with atrophied arms and legs, I could not hide my horror... And my first thought was - what does he live for?

When I asked the doctors whether it would be more humane..., they involuntarily burst out: “Who do you think should do this? Who would decide to commit murder?” But since there is such a question: who will do this, it means, even theoretically, there may be situations when it is necessary to solve it?