In Uttar Pradesh, a 24-year-old NEET aspirant amputated his foot to qualify under the disability quota for an MBBS seat after failing the exam twice. It is an extreme act of personal desperation shaped by a belief that securing a medical seat justifies any means, even irreversible self-harm. At the other end stands institutional desperation. The National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences recently slashed NEET-PG eligibility to zero percentile to plug thousands of vacant postgraduate seats, pass or fail notwithstanding. One desperation mutilates the body to enter medicine; the other dilutes standards to keep seats filled. Together they expose a regulatory logic that oscillates between exclusion and reckless accommodation, undermining merit.