What's wrong with being a mermaid?

BBC has an interesting article on a girl from Peru who is going to have her legs split after being born with a rare condition known as "mermaid syndrome."

news.bbc.co.uk...

My question... what's wrong with being a mermaid? Why does everyone have to walk on two feet?

Protector,
That's a stupid question.

S

Lets' see... I'm a kid who has this terrible disease....

I can't go run and play any sports... or just run and chase the others and be a "normal" kid..

lets say you're a girl with this....

there goes any chance of beauty pagents, etc....

I agree with Sanc... stupid question.

I dont think she would even be able to have sex.

I third the stupid question.

go ask your question here....


www.abovetopsecret.com...

Originally posted by Protector
My question... what's wrong with being a mermaid? Why does everyone have to walk on two feet?

The kids not a mermaid. Her legs, 'designed' to function independantly, are abornmally fused together. She cannot walk. She cannot swim like s fish. She is disabled. And, apparently, people with this condition simply don't surive childhood.

On the other hand, if she could survive and get by and was comfortable with it, then its up to her of course.

Deaf people, for example, have been known to selectively breed with other genetically deaf people, in order to ensure that they produce deaf children, because they adamantly insist that its not a handicap, and that people who are 'culturally deaf' (ie deaf and part of the culture of the deaf) relate to each other in an infinitly more meaningful way than people who can hear relate to each other or even them.

Similarly, conjoined twins sometimes decide that its better to be conjoined and alive than risk death via seperation. THe surgery in this and the'mermaid' case is apparently risky. So the general issue is, who is anyone else to say that someone elses life is not worth living?

Regardless tho, this girl will probably die, and undoubtedly will, if given the chance, prefer to be able to walk rather than be an invalid for the rest of her life.