Woman 'gives birth' to lizard, gets accused of witchcraft

As strange as it may sound, an Indonesian woman apparently 'gave birth' to a lizard and is now being threatened by an angry lynch mob that is accusing her of practicing witchcraft.

Debi Nubatonis, 31, gave birth to the gecko after an eight-month pregnancy. Though scientists say that it is clearly nonsense that a woman has given birth to a lizard, officials are sending in a team of experts to clear the mystery.

Nubatonis apparently gave birth to the gecko in May in the remote Oenunto village where a midwife "delivered" the lizard.

The news of the lizard birth led to threats being levelled against the woman and her family who were accused of witchcraft and the debate quickly made its way to the internet as well.

Dr Messe Ataupa, Chief Medical Officer of nearby Kupang city says, "It is clearly nonsense to suggest that the woman gave birth to a lizard. There has never been a proven case of a living organism from one species giving birth to a different species, it just doesn't happen.

"We have spoken to locals who confirmed that the woman showed all the symptoms of pregnancy, and it does seem according to the midwife that she appeared to be going into labour. However, we believe it was just a phantom pregnancy or pseudocyesis where there was never a child although the woman would have had many of the symptoms."

Ataupa said that a small percentage of the women who have phantom pregnancies also experience labour. He further said that there might have been some discharge during "birthing" which could have landed on the lizard leading to the confusion and belief that the woman had given birth to a gecko.

He said: "If there was no baby, it might be possible that she (the midwife) just jumped to the wrong conclusion."


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