Those Wacky Hindus!

So I read today a rather horrible story about a little girl born with two faces. She only has one head, but four eyes, two mouths, two noses and… well, two ears, not four.

Shiva H Vishnu!

Now any sensible, non-religious person would have their child at the hospital, getting checks and scans and counting the days until surgery can correct his rather horrific disfigurement. Well, not these wacky folk in rural India, who revere her as a reincarnation of a god.

From the article on CNN.com:

“Lali is God’s gift to us,” said Jaipal Singh, a member of the local village council. “She has brought fame to our village.”

Oh, good. Rampaging greed and a desire for fame gets to take prescedence over a little girl’s health and appearance. Always nice to see that Americans aren’t the only ones willing to do that.

“I am writing to the state government to provide money to build the temple and help the parents look after their daughter,” Ram said.

I’m wishing I could write to the state goverment to have them remove the child from the parents care and get the poor kid some actual medical care, instead of religious nonsense and prayer. Consider this very telling remark, which seems to indicate the parents have no business having a child:

Singh said he took his daughter to a hospital in New Delhi where doctors suggested a CT scan to determine whether her internal organs were normal, but Singh said he felt it was unnecessary.

“I don’t feel the need of that at this stage as my daughter is behaving like a normal child, posing no problems,” he said.

Yeah, you don’t want to find any of those pesky health problems that might indicate this is a child with a serious deformity rather than some god in human form.

Let me state this clearly, so there’s no misunderstanding. ANYONE WHO PLACES A CHILD AT RISK OF PHYSICAL HARM, OR DEATH, OR DENIES THE CHILD MEDICAL CARE BECAUSE OF RELIGION NEEDS TO BE ARRESTED AND HAVE THE CHILD REMOVED FROM THEIR CUSTODY! Period. I apply this to people of any faith.

For the sake of reason and humanity, get that poor child some medical care!