The parents of a girl born with two heads have threatened to sue a hospital because they claim doctors did not tell them the mother was carrying an abnormal foetus.
They claim the doctors were more interested in gaining professional kudos from attempting any subsequent complex surgery to possibly remove one of the heads.
The child was born on October 21 at Tangxia Central Hospital, Zhejiang province, and is still receiving hospital care.
No operation has been proposed, but the parents are reportedly planning to sue the hospital on the grounds it put doctors' careers ahead of their interests in concealing knowledge of the deformity.
A doctor at Tangxia Central Hospital, who wished to remain anonymous, said an ultrasound examination suggested the presence of twins. When the mother was examined at another hospital earlier, she was told she might be carrying an abnormal foetus.
However, the Tangxia doctors should have been able to determine the woman was in fact carrying a deformed foetus, according to a doctor at Beijing United Family Hospital.