It was during our advisory committee meeting that I came across this fun thing. There was an application made by three doctors for registration under PCPNDT act. They wanted their center registered so that they were legally allowed to perform ultrasonography there. Actually only one affidavit is necessary, the one made by the owner. But in this case even the two sonographers had also made an affidavit each. As per the prescribed format, they had stated that they would not do prenatal fetal sex determination. But there was a snag. The word fetus appears four times in that one small paragraph The word was printed as follows.
Foutes
Foefus
Foetus
Fetus
I got curious. So I checked the affidavits of the two soologists too. They were identical.
"Careless people" someone said, "they do not pay attention to spelling."
"It is quite surprising that doctors spell such a simple word so badly" someone else said.
"Do they actually read their own affidavits?" a knowledgeable person said. "They probably assign the job to their secretaries or receptionists."
"I don't think they are dumb or careless. This could be deliberate. If they do prenatal sex determination and get caught, they will be able to claim they never made an affidavit that they would not determine fetal sex. They would be right, because the word fetus is not spelled correctly in key positions in those affidavits."
"Oh, yeah!" the others chorused.
Foutes
Foefus
Foetus
Fetus
I got curious. So I checked the affidavits of the two soologists too. They were identical.
"Careless people" someone said, "they do not pay attention to spelling."
"It is quite surprising that doctors spell such a simple word so badly" someone else said.
"Do they actually read their own affidavits?" a knowledgeable person said. "They probably assign the job to their secretaries or receptionists."
"I don't think they are dumb or careless. This could be deliberate. If they do prenatal sex determination and get caught, they will be able to claim they never made an affidavit that they would not determine fetal sex. They would be right, because the word fetus is not spelled correctly in key positions in those affidavits."
"Oh, yeah!" the others chorused.
