Ultrasound images that appeared during the week, showing a male foetus masturbating in the womb have sparked a heated argument between scientists who can not agree if one shape is an index finger or the tip of a penis.
Two Spanish researchers, Vanesa Rodriguez Fernandez and Carlos Lopez Ramon Cajal, said the scan of the foetus at 32 weeks showed “very clear sexual behaviour,” with its fingers wrapped tightly around its genitals.
Vanesa wrote in the medical journal, Prenatal Diagnosis, “The foetus is grasping his tumescent penis using an evident force.”
Cajal added images that showed “the foetus pulling back its foreskin to reveal the urethral opening – also known as the meatus – then using its hand to return it into place.”
But an Israeli scientist, Meizner, told Discover Magazine that the Spanish researchers had made a “huge error” by misidentifying the foetus’s index finger as its foreskin.”
Adding that “What the authors mark as foreskin is the normal index finger,” he asserted that the first image “represents a grasped normal hand with five fingers.”
And that the second image shows, “the flexed hand with five fingers,” he wrote.
“What the authors mark as meatus is the flexed index finger, a bit drawn backwards.”
Prof. Meizner said the penis and scrotum were visible in the first image to the left of the hand – a claim refuted by the Spanish obstetricians, who said the bulge he was referring to was the umbilical cord.
Responding to the criticism, the scientists said they disagreed with Prof. Meizner’s analysis of the imagery, as they had observed that masturbation took place over a period of 30 minutes.
“The behaviour reported in our study was observed and confirmed by several doctors over a period of time.
The image is a snapshot of an exploration that was performed over a period of 30 minutes.”
“Typically, I work using two ultrasound machines and seven transducers (three-dimensional mechanical and electronic transducers).
“I would be happy for you to visit my hospital and ultrasound lab to witness this.”
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