Highlights from this issue
The ethics of female genital modification is a more philosophically complex problem than it might seem at first glance. Not only does it raise potential conflicts between moral principles and implicate a range of pragmatic social considerations that must be taken into account in setting national and...
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
BMJ Publ.
2016
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| In: |
Journal of medical ethics
Year: 2016, Volume: 42, Issue: 3, Pages: 145-146 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (JSTOR) Volltext (kostenfrei) Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | The ethics of female genital modification is a more philosophically complex problem than it might seem at first glance. Not only does it raise potential conflicts between moral principles and implicate a range of pragmatic social considerations that must be taken into account in setting national and international policies, but also the practice itself varies substantially within and across societies, and these variations may have morally significant implications. This is perhaps the central message of Arora and Jacobs's Feature Article (see page 148, Editor's Choice), in which they argue that categorical condemnation of female genital alteration—and indeed the very use of the loaded term ‘mutilation’ in these discussions—overlooks the significant cultural variation in female genital alteration practices. The authors contend that since attempts to stop the practice wholesale have been relatively unsuccessful, it is now time to consider permitting some types of non-therapeutic female genital alteration, namely those that carry low risk of physical harm and that have minimal or no impact on reproductive capacities and sexual-satisfaction. Such low-risk alterations do not violate the human rights of girls, so the logic goes, because they are morally equivalent to other purely aesthetic procedures (such as mole removal or orthodontics) commonly performed on children in liberal societies in which female genital alteration is prohibited. … |
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| ISSN: | 1473-4257 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of medical ethics
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1136/medethics-2016-103434 |