Gabby Williams is 8 years old, but looks the same as she did she when she was born, she hasn't aged. Doctors say it could reveal biological immortality.
And it’s not only her looks that are those of an infant, her needs are also affected, she still wears diapers and her mother has to change her, feed her, and cradle her.
Gabby, from Billings, Montana weighs only 11 pounds and shares a rare condition with only a handful of people around the world.
Medical researcher, Richard F. Walker says, “In some people, something happens to them and the development process is retarded. The rate of change in the body slows and is negligible.”
He told ABCNews.com his focus is not the consequences, but what causes it. The people who suffer from “biological immortality” grow at a rate of one-fifth the speed normal people do and have a series of other problems, including deafness, inability to walk, eat or in some cases speak.
Mary Margaret Williams, 38, Gabby’s mom, says her daughter has changed very little since being born, she has gotten a little longer and now wears 3-6 month-old clothes.
Walker explains that physiological change or as he calls it “developmental inertia” is essential for human growth,
“Without that process we never develop. When we develop, all the pieces of our body come together and change and are coordinated. Otherwise, there would be chaos.”
But he adds, the body does not have an “off switch” for this development, as in the case of the biologically immortal 8-year-old.
“If we could identify the gene and then at young adulthood we could silence the expression of developmental inertia, find an off-switch, when you do that, there is perfect homeostasis and you are biologically immortal.”
With this statement, Walker doesn't mean that people would never die, there are still accidents and disease, but he argues humans would not have the later years, people would remain physically active and able.
