Reply to: Bianchi P. The existence of parthenogenesis in the human species, poses an interesting question: Is it conceivable that auto-fertilization may occur in human true hermaphrodites?

Abstract

In his letter to the Editor, Bianchi said that,“The letterfrom Dr. Bayraktar [1] commenting on the article byBenagiano and Dallapiccola [2] on the existence of par-thenogenesis in the human species, poses an interestingquestion: is it conceivable that auto-fertilization mayoccur in human true hermaphrodites?”This approach of Bianchi is very interesting. Because,like Benagiano and Dallapiccola, I am saying that Mary’spregnancy cannot be explained by parthenogenesis,because parthenogenetic reproduction is not possible inhumans [1,2,4]. In addition, I am saying that Mary’s preg-nancy cannot be explained by parthenogenesis, but itcan be explained by autofertilization [1,4].Autofertilization is a biological mechanism that differsfrom parthenogenesis. However, it seems that Bianchiconfuses parthenogenesis and autofertilization. Myhypothesis is that“True hermaphrodites are potentialautofertile, because they have ovarian and testicular tis-sues, so autofertilization is rarely seen in truehermaphrodites”"