http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19350561/wid/11915773?GT1=10109

15-year-old performs surgery in India
Outrage over boy's attempt to gain spot in Guinness Book of World
Records

Updated: 11:01 a.m. ET June 21, 2007

NEW DELHI - {AP} The 15-year-old son of two doctors performed a filmed
Caesarean section birth under his parents’ watch in southern India in an
apparent bid to gain a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records as the
youngest surgeon.

Instead, the boy’s father could be stripped of his licenses and may face
criminal charges, officials said Thursday.

Dr. K. Murugesan showed a recording of his son performing a Caesarean
section to an Indian Medical Association chapter in the southern state
of Tamil Nadu last month, said Dr. Venkatesh Prasad, secretary of the
association. The video showed Murugesan anesthetizing the patient.

“We were shocked to see the recording,” Prasad told The Associated
Press, adding that the IMA told Murugesan that his act was an ethical
and legal violation.

Murugesan owns and runs a maternity hospital in the city of Manaparai,
Prasad said in a telephone interview from Manaparai. The family could
not be immediately reached for comment.

Murugesan, who could possibly be prevented from practicing and face
criminal charges for allowing his son to perform the operation,
expressed no regret and accused the Manaparai medical association of
being “jealous” of his son’s achievements, Prasad added.

“He said this was not the first surgery performed by his son and that he
had been training him for the last three years,” said Prasad.

Murugesan told the medical association that he wanted to see his son’s
name in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Prasad said that his team had reported the surgery to the state’s top
medical association in state capital, Chennai.

State health secretary V.K. Subburaj told reporters Thursday that the
government would investigate.

“We’ll get the report and then we’ll see whether there are any
violations ... prima facie it looks like there is a big violation,” he
said.

“We will definitely take action against the concerned medical officers.”

NEW DELHI - {AP} The 15-year-old son of two doctors performed a
filmed Caesarean section birth under his parents' watch in
southern India in an apparent bid to gain a spot in the Guinness
Book of World Records as the youngest surgeon.