Birth Defects Sometimes life can be very cruel. A man named Edward Mordrake. He was born to aristocracy in England. While that in itself was fortunate for Mordrake, the way he was born was not. It is said he had a very handsome face, one which any man would have been happy to possess. This face was not the problem, the problem was his other face. Yes, I said other face. On the back of his head was a female face. That face was a big eyed drooling face. It is thought this birth defect was caused by a form of a disorder known as craniopagus parasiticus. This refers to a parasitic twin head without a body. Poor Mordrake, he never claimed his birthright and his burden was too much to bear. He committed suicide at the age of 23. One birth defect is particularly bad for children. It causes them to be born covered in hair and gives them the look something like an animal which almost immediately rejects them by other children. About the only good thing which can be said about this is the fact the disease is very rare. It does make one wonder if this could have been the beginning of the wolfman legends. People might have seen these unfortunates and thought they were some kind of monsters. Joseph Merrick was born in 1862 and died at 27 years old. He became famous as the Elephant Man and many stories and even movies were written about his life. Contrary to what some believe his name was not John. Mr. Merrick had become a famous attraction in a freak show and those who knew him said he was extremely intelligent which must have made his condition even more stressful to him. His face was horribly deformed and swollen on one side giving the impression of somewhat resembling an elephant ear. His body was also deformed. There is a Philippine gentleman named Rudy Santos. He suffers from a condition known as Craniopagus parasiticus or parasitic twin. He has an extra leg and pair of arms attached to his pelvis and abdomen. Doctors state this poor man had a twin and during the pregnancy his body absorbed the twin. He also has an undeveloped head attached with an ear and hair. Nature was truly cruel to this man. Later in his life doctors came across him living in poverty and decided they could help him with surgery, but at that point Mr. Santos decided against it. I am sure the surgery would have been life threatening. There is a boy from Columbia who began to grow moles at an incredible rate. The disease is known as congenital melanocytic nevus. A mole grew so large on his back it covered the entire back. People began to cruelly call him Turtle Boy because the huge mole looked like a turtle shell. Unfortunately for the boy the people in his village thought he was possessed by the devil. This got him banned from the local school. Luckily for him doctors in Bogota decided to help him and successfully removed the giant mole and he now leads a normal life. A boy from Uganda developed a disease which caused him to have a pin shaped head, pushed down ears and bulging eyes. The disease is called crouzon syndrome and is said to affect one in 25000 births, but the problem for him is he has a very severe form of the disease. The disease has caused him to have hearing problems and also problems with his vision. He was shunned and made fun of by his neighbors. A fund for the boy was raised by his doctor and enough money was collected to send him to Texas for an operation which had complications but ultimately succeeded and now he lives a normal life. Sometimes birth defects appear in celebrities and we don’t notice them. Take the case of Elizabeth Taylor. You might say I am crazy; she was one of the most beautiful women ever to grace the silver screen. That is true, but her birth defect was right in front of us and yet no one noticed it. She was born with extra eye lashes, but this just seemed to add to her beauty. The actor Ashton Kutcher was born with a birth defect which he has admitted to. We don’t notice it because it is not out in the open. It seems he was born with webbed toes. Taye Diggs’s birth defect is right out in the open and if you look carefully it can be seen. You have to look at his hands to notice it. The man has twelve fingers. Kate Bosworth is very pretty, but there is something unusual about her features. She has heterochromia which causes her eyes to be two different colors. She has a blue eye and a hazel eye. It certainly hasn’t hurt her beauty. Here is a guy everyone knows, Dan Aykroyd. He is very famous in the comedy scene and also famous among UFO investigators because he claims to have seen some very strange things. You wouldn’t notice his birth defect since in is on his feet. He has several toes which were fused together. Drew Carey the host of the Price is Right has a birth defect. It doesn’t seem to affect his performances, does it? That is because he also has one which has to do with his feet. He has eleven toes. Andy Garcia had a more serious birth defect. When he was born, he had a conjoined twin on his shoulder which was removed. You have to wonder how this affects ones mental stability. Daryl Hannah was born with one finger far too short. It didn’t stop her career or affect her looks. The super famous Oprah Winfrey has a birth defect one which seems to be pretty common. She has six toes on her left foot. This didn’t stop her from making billions of dollars. Damon Wayans the super cool comedian didn’t let his birth defect stop him from becoming famous. He was born with clubbed feet. One of the more noticeable birth defects belongs to Forest Whitaker. As most of us already know he was born with a lazy eye which causes it to droop. He must have had to work extra hard to get where he is. I have to hand it to him. There are quite a few birth defects, but most of them are not of the type which are very serious. People can live normal lives with extra toes and even an extra finger or two. It is the grossly deformed from birth defects who many times are shunned by society. Science is getting more astute at correcting these problems.
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