Bizarre 'Neck-Less' Baby Born In Nepal

AWV reader Dragun sent this story to me asking whether or not it was real. I have no idea as I have never come across the news site before and with it being so close to April Fool's Day I'm sceptical about most weird things that I read.

The bizarre looking baby was born in Charikot, Nepal and didn't appear to have a neck. It's head was almost totally sunken into the upper part of its body and had very large eyeballs. It died within half an hour of being born. It weighed 2kg at birth and was born after a nine-month gestation period.

What do you think? Real or not? I'm probably guessing that it is real. A forum discusses the baby here and it seems to be a case of anencephaly.

Comments

[ILuvNUFC]

I would'nt rule it out being real but for me it's just too close to April Fools Day to be taken seriously.

[Jennifer]

I would say it was real, while in University I took a course that covered various birth defects, the image looks familliar (not THAT picture, but the effects on the baby) to somthing I've seen before.

I'm not going to go looking for images cause I'm pregnant.

[Ali]

Urgh, it makes me wanna throw, please warn before posting these times of images, thank you.

[Michael Felman]

Well, im not trying to be a jerk, but you are viewing HIS web site. Thanks for the find Robert.

[Steph]

Still, it'd be courteous to have a warning for those who might want to skip this. It's quite unpleasant to wander upon this in the midst of rather innocuous postings.

[A-chan]

It looks like the baby is real, (I've seen stuff like this before) but this kinda looks like a mold of it. 0_o? It's skin just looks kinda plastic like.

[boney]

Its on Urgo's Ever-Growing List Of April Fools Jokes. Something that ogrish did. Very much doubt its real ;)

Striking resemblance to Mr Brian Peppers tho!

[Safia]

This is real. If you google "anencephaly" you will find many other images very similar to this one. It is a congenital deformation wherein the fetus's skull and scalp do not form completely, leaving the fetus with half of a head. The result is that brain tissues are often exposed and the eyes are sunken into the mass. Don't you remember the internet controversy about the Harlequin fetus? Thats real, too. Here are links for both:

Anencephaly (page 2 of images is much better to show the likeness of this fetus to the disease) WARNING! EXTREMELY GRAPHIC!: http://www.gfmer.ch/genetic_diseases_v2/gendis_detail_list.php?cat3=25

Harlequin fetus WARNING! EXTREMELY GRAPHIC!: http://www.ispub.com/ostia/index.php?xmlFilePath=journals/ijpn/vol2n1/harlequin.xml

[derek lindsay]

A-BOMB

[Jen]

well i wouldn't say that because its not the baby's fault for being born like that, i mean would you people want to be born like that? i think its sad for the baby...