Young mother 'terminates " 6 months pregnancy after discovering 'mermaid' child had grown tail'

A young woman terminated her pregnancy after six months when doctors told her she was carrying a mermaid-like foetus. The 23-year-old took the drastic action after a scan at the Health Care Center for Women and Children in Yichang City, in Central China’s Hubei Province. 

Scans showed the foetus had developed a 'tail-like growth' but no legs.

It also did not have a bladder and had a stunted liver, reports said.

Doctors at the hospital told mother 'Wu' the foetus was suffering from a rare condition known as sirenomelia, or "Mermaid Syndrome".

It is a rare congenital deformity in which the legs are fused together, giving them the appearance of a mermaid’s tail.

Wu decided to terminate her pregnancy after specialists estimated that the baby would only survive for a few hours after birth.

The causes behind Mermaid Syndrome are still a medical mystery and it is said to occur only once in every 100,000 pregnancies.

Shiloh Pepin, an American dubbed "Mermaid Girl", suffered one of the world’s most well-documented cases of sirenomelia.

Young mother 'terminates " 6 months pregnancy after discovering 'mermaid' child had grown tail'