Hmmm...well, my initial reaction, like many others, was that it must be a hoax. Apparently "extensive steps" have been taken to confirm that it is not a hoax. Either way, I think it looks pretty freaky.
Posted by Tstorm (Member # 1871) on :
That's...disturbing.
Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
Yeah. I couldn't look at it for long.
Posted by BGgurl (Member # 8541) on :
Wow...very weird.
Posted by Theaca (Member # 8325) on :
That makes me feel bad. Posted by mackillian (Member # 586) on :
Me too. Posted by ReikoDemosthenes (Member # 6218) on :
I'm reminded of Frankenstein's Daemon...
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
How interesting--I'd never heard of this condition before. Are there internal defects as severe as the external ones?
I did a presentation last semester on modern visual representations of the monsters in Hesiod's Theogony, and naturally I decided to touch on Cerberus. I was directed by a fellow student to an anthropology paper on how that which is deformed is more disturbing - more monstrous - to human senses than that which is just big, dark and scary. This fit well with my take on Cerberus, as well as the Chimaera and Typhoeus. Umm... right. So I was looking online for modern pictures of Cerberus and found the "freaky animal webpage," where there was a picture of a kitten looking almost exactly like this one. It was a good day when I could really gross out some of my friends in the department
[/boring story]
Posted by Dead_Horse (Member # 3027) on :
It sounds like the kitten only lived about 2 days at most. Doesn't it take about a week for kitten eyes to open after they are born?
Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
Similar congenital anomalies also occur in humans. Plus there are infants born who appear to be covered in scales, or have flippers, or any variety of unusual presentations. (I'm not going to link to online images here because it would feel like mockery. You can search them out if it is a specific interest.) This is why I very strongly hesitate to apply the "looks like it's human" test in discussions of voluntary abortion.
"Looks like" actually means much less when you know how varied it can be in a given species.
This kitten may not have had a functioning eyelid, and that may have been why the eye was open. But, as Noemon linked, there were multiple internal anomalies as well, and this is probably what kept him from surviving. But that needn't necessarily have been the case. Children with holoprosencephaly have survived. From what I recall, there is often a penis-shaped protrusion above the single eye (there is a special name for it, but I can't remember it). Usually, though, the more unusual the external anomalies are, the more unusual the internal ones are, too. Not always, though.
Edited to add: And how those who care for childrens (and kittens ) with very unusual features relate to them is a measure of how familiarity can change what seems to be an intrinsic, automatic "squick" response in to something else.
Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
Why would people automatically think it was a hoax? From what I have read in the past, it's a documented abnormality that's got quite an established history.
Mutants: On Genetic Variety and the Human Body is a really fascinating (and, despite the first word of the title, compassionate and kind) look at genetic mutations and the defects they cause-- and what these aberrations teach us about the way humans develop. I highly recommend it to those with an interest in the subject.
Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
quote:And how those who care for childrens (and kittens ) with very unusual features relate to them is a measure of how familiarity can change what seems to be an intrinsic, automatic "squick" response in to something else.
...which is why I encourage people to familiarize themselves with more common "abnormal features" so they can react in a loving way to babies with conditions like cleft lips and palates, who really can be beautiful, but many of whose parents never get told that. Posted by Primal Curve (Member # 3587) on :
Is it weird that I found it more fascinating than horrifying?
Posted by Theaca (Member # 8325) on :
proboscis, CT.
Posted by KarlEd (Member # 571) on :
quote:Originally posted by Primal Curve: Is it weird that I found it more fascinating than horrifying?
My first reaction was "Oh Wow", then "It's actually kind of cute." I was sad to read that it didn't live.
While I wouldn't wish suffering on the poor thing, if it had simply been born that way and lived relatively normally, I wouldn't have been sqicked in the least. I think it would be great to have a cyclops cat. (again, and I have to stress this, I don't mean one with internal deformities that would never be able to have an enjoyable life.)
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
That was exactly my reaction, Karl. In fact, I said almost exactly what you just said, word for word, in an email message about this kitten earlier today.
Posted by camus (Member # 8052) on :
My initial reaction was more of a "Hmmm, that's interesting. I wonder if it will survive." It never really creeped me out until I thought about it a while. I don't really know why that is, so that makes me somewhat curious about what Carrie's anthropology paper has to say about this.
Posted by camus (Member # 8052) on :
I also wonder if, once we gain more genetic knowledge, people would want to "design" a creature like this. If so, what ethical limitations would there be in regards to tampering with genetics in animals?
Posted by littlemissattitude (Member # 4514) on :
quote:Originally posted by ketchupqueen: Mutants: On Genetic Variety and the Human Body is a really fascinating (and, despite the first word of the title, compassionate and kind) look at genetic mutations and the defects they cause-- and what these aberrations teach us about the way humans develop. I highly recommend it to those with an interest in the subject.
I second KQ's recommendation of this book. It is really very good.
I guess I've been a little bit morbidly curious about these kinds of things ever since I was in the third grade and went to a school for a little while where there was a boy who had six fingers on each hand. I hated the way the other kids would crowd around him and make fun of him, but it still left me with a curiosity about people with such abnormalities.
Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
My neice was born with six fingers on each hand. No biggie. They tied them off and they died and then they just took scissors and snipped. Like a hangnail, really.
Posted by aspectre (Member # 2222) on :
If man wasn't meant to have six fingers, there wouldn't be six strings on a guitar.
Posted by quidscribis (Member # 5124) on :
Is there any reason, other than cosmetics, to remove the extra fingers?
Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
Well, they get in the way a bit. And, like, wearing gloves. But, yeah, I think it's just cosmetic, other than that.
Well, that and, you know, kids are mean. It's a quality of life issue when they get older.
Posted by quidscribis (Member # 5124) on :
True. And I hadn't thought of gloves - what can I say, haven't worn 'em in a while.
I guess a part of me wonders if we, as humans, would be more accepting of mutations if they weren't so quickly altered to become more aesthetically normal? Or hidden.
For example, in India, people are very open about hermaphrodites (which is what they're called there, although they're called something else more polite in North America and I don't recall that terminology at the moment. Sexual differentiation?) Those with the condition are accepted quite readily for who they are and have a fair amount of freedom to be both male and female in appearance and dress, if that makes sense.
I dunno. It makes me wonder.
Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
Have you heard of the "huevodoces"? In the Dominican Republic, an intersex condition where babies appear female but then, after puberty, become male in appearance (and function, they can have kids and all) is fairly common. Because it's so common, there's no stigma real attatched to it. Of course, the doctors and nurses and midwives have gotten better at telling which babies will have the condition. But if a baby is treated as a girl and then "turns male" at puberty, it's no big deal; they just switch to a masculine name and clothing and treat him as a boy from then on.
Posted by quidscribis (Member # 5124) on :
I hadn't. I Googled it and came up with not very much at all. So it's faulty testosterone converting enzyme. Interesting.
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