'Pillow angel' surgically altered to remain small

[Elok]

Wow. This is so many different kinds of icky. This makes people like Paris Hilton who dress up their dogs seem positively normal.

[Guynemer]

You'd be astounded by some of these parents. It is because of them that this Onion Weekender has reached legendary status amongst pediatric residents:

[Asmodean]

Originally posted by Lazarus and the Gimp
Bonsai children! Brilliant!

Tasteless

Asmodean

[Heresson]

I want to be a 9 (or 15, or 18, whatever) year old forever as well

[Heresson]

Originally posted by Stuie
They should chop off her arms and legs and attach a handle to her back to make her easier to carry.

[MOBIUS]

Originally posted by Asmodean
Tasteless

Asmodean

* Laz adds to his list of Danish admirers...

[Winston]

I read an article about this case in the paper. Really a heartbreaking situation. And yet another reason for my being such a staunch conservative in these matters of ethical/medical dilemmas. In more cases than the average person, I think Nature should take its course, however "unfortunate" the outcome. Some choices we're simply not cut out to deal with, and thus the general rule should be one of non-interference. And as usual, I'm thankful this was not my decision to make. I hope it will turn out for the "best" for this girl and her family.

[Geronimo]

Originally posted by Dr Strangelove
The complex patterns of interconnections that make the brain what it is are laid down when the brain is very small, less than a centimeter in length. Post-natal learning is actually accompanied by a reduction in the number of connections, i.e., synapses. The cell processes which during fetal development snake out from the neuronal cell bodies to make these connections have to literally "sniff" their way within the vast array of cells developing within the brain in order to find the right target to connect to. They're designed to do this when the brain is very small. Asking them to do that when the brain is a hundred times larger I believe is asking the impossible.

it should be possible to identify the gradients the processes follow and engineer a means of drastically increasing the output of those signal molecules.

there is no reason to believe this would be an insurmountable obstacle.

In other species migrations routes of neuronal processes can cover nearly a meter by mechanisms apparently not much different from those in the developing human brain.

Its probably no coincidence that all of those species seem to have vastly superior CNS regeneration when compared to humans.