5/30    Baby born in China with 3 arms
        http://www.local6.com/news/9290536/detail.html (pic included)
        \_ something something arms race with China.
        \_ That's awesome--you could make a living as a pickpocket. -John
        \- ^pickpocket^gigolo
        \_ That is kind of an interesting ethical question. Assuming the
           two left arms are somewhat functional and not hazardous to his
           health, chopping one off is a little strange. What if someone
           evolved some extra functionality and doctors always chopped
           it off? What if having three arms was actually useful? Modern
           culture is based on the use of tools. And three arms might
           theoretically allow this guy to be a genius musician or artisan.
           By chopping it off when he's a baby they are robbing him of a
           body part without his consent. Maybe not in this case but it's
           interesting in principle.
           \_ How is this a hard ethical question?  You do what is best for
              the kid medically.  And that is a science question, not a
              philosophical one.  A case where you have siamese twins and
              you have to make a decision that affects each differently has
              more of an ethical flavor.
              \_ I said "assuming [they are] not hazardous to his health".
                 That makes it a philosophical question. That, plus the
                 fact that many doctors really don't know what the fuck
                 and basically make varyingly-educated guesses. It sounds
                 like in this particular case both arms are impaired, but
                 only one is in the "right place", so they will probably
                 chop the lower one off and hope the other one develops.
                 But even if they both worked fine I bet they'd do it for
                 cosmetic reasons.
          \_ Um, "circumcision".  OK, a foreskin is not nearly as cool as
             a third arm, but still.  I'd love to have a third arm.  Or a hand
             coming out of my forehead, so I can hold a cigarette while
             doing other stuff, or keep my sunglasses real cool-like sort
             of halfway up.  -John
             \_ But would they be Peril Sensitive?
                \_ Ah, wonderful.  A hack troll to keep the memory of his
                   hack writer hero alive.  *sigh*
                   \_ It's a joke.  Get over it.
                      \_ Oh, I've been over that hack for quite awhile now.
                         \_ Uh ok.  The movie sucked but there's no reason
                            to be this bitter.  The guy is dead and never
                            hurt anyone while alive.
                            \_ I'm actually quite entertained at the moment.
                               \_ I'm happy that you're happy.
             \_ Yeah, and circumcision is up for debate also. Just because
                it's in some people's culture doesn't mean it's ok. I
                do not want people chopping off my body parts. Foreskins
                aren't mutant anomalies and neither are they a credible
                health problem. It's also meaningless from a religious
                point of view since the baby has no clue about the matter.
                (There's also the problem of inflicting pain on babies...)
                \_ I wasn't referring to circumcision as "something that's
                   done anyway, so it should be a precedent".  I think
                   whacking bits off anyone without their aware consent,
                   unless said bits are life-threatening, is dumb.  -John