"I would like to say that I was a 'perfectly normal,' healthy baby, ready to take on the world. But instead, I was born with multiple deformities. My eyes were on the sides of my head, and I had holes where my nose was supposed to be. I had a club foot and was missing toes. Also, three of my fingers were missing. A cleft palate had an opening in my top lip and extended all the way to the right eye.

Unfortunately, even one leg was shorter than the other.

The hospital staff, I was told, thought I had too many problems to survive. The doctors, in fact, refused to show me to my parents and, incredulously, even gave my parents forms to sign to 'give me up for science.'”