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Dr Keith Moore:
Professor Keith Moore (Anatomy, University of Toronto,
Canada) describes the stages of human development, in his book
The Developing Human, clinically Oriented Embryology:
"Growth of science was slow during the medieval period
and a few high points of embryological investigation
undertaken during this age are known to us. It is cited in the
Qur'an, the Holy Book of the Muslims, that human beings are
produced from a mixture of secretions from the male and the
female.
Several references are made to the creation of a human
being from a sperm drop, and it is also suggested that the
resulting organism settles in the womb like a seed, six days
after its beginning. The human blastocyst begins to implant
about six days after fertilisation.
The Qur'an also states that the sperm drop develops
"into a congealed clot of blood". An implanted
blastocyst or a spontaneously aborted conceptus would resemble
a blood clot. Reference is also made to the leech-like
appearance of the embryo. The embryo is not unlike a leech, or
a bloodsucker, in appearance."
"The embryo is also said to resemble 'a chewed piece
of substance' like gum or wood. The somites do in fact
resemble the teethmarks in a chewed substance."
"The developing embryo was considered to become human
at 40-42 days and to no longer resemble an animal embryo at
this stage. The human embryo begins to acquire human
characteristics at this stage.
"The Qur'an also states that the embryo develops
between 'three veils of darkness'. This probably refers to:
- the maternal anterior abdominal wall,
- the uterine wall, and
- the aminiochorionic membrane.
Space does not permit discussion of several other
interesting references to human prenatal development which
appear in the Qur'an." (The Developing Human, Dr KL
Moore, M.Sc, Ph.D, FIAC, FRSM)
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