from: www.inquirer.net

[SIZE="3"]Doctors debunk myths on rape used by lawyers[/SIZE]

Philippine Daily Inquirer
November 03, 2009

MANILA, Philippines — How big is a penis supposed to get or how small is a vaginal opening supposed to be to prove rape had been committed? Such questions asked in court and law schools are related to common “myths” about rape that have no medical basis, said doctors at a forum on ***ual abuse.

“There is no such thing as a ‘standard’ in penis erection or vaginal opening,” said Dr. Corazon Yabes-Almirante, founder of the Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecological Society of the Philippines (PagsPhil), in the forum organized by the Philippine College of Physicians.

“There are women who get pregnant with their hymen intact because it’s very elastic. And a man can get a woman pregnant even if the penis does not become erect as long as it expels sperm,” the doctor said.

Child ***ual abuse cases could include non-penetrating injury, and physical findings are often not present, said the doctor, adding that the most important determinant of abuse was the child’s or a witness’s account of the incident.”

Yet legal myths relating to erections and vaginal openings or hymenal injury, which are dismissed as nonsense by doctors, are medico-legal details still brought up in rape trials.

Lawyer Evelyn Ursua, who heads the Women’s Legal Bureau, said lawyers use these nebulous concepts such as the “standard size of a penis in full erection” or a “broken hymen in rape” when they argue about details of the victim’s physical examination.

Lawyers also have to be educated about medical evidence and human behavior, Ursua said.

“Cases are dismissed because there are many medical myths in law,” said Ursua who recently served as the lawyer of “Nicole” who filed a rape case against United States Marine Daniel Smith. Smith was found guilty by a trial court but was acquitted by the appellate court.

According to a study of rape cases in Metro Manila posted on the website www.childprotection.org.ph, children are usual victims.

It found that for every 10 rape cases, eight were of children aged 17 and below. The youngest rape victim was seven months old while the oldest was 64.