title: Female genital cutting (mutilation/circumcision): ethical and legal dimensions.
abstract: The practice better described as female genital cutting (FGC) is of long standing in some communities, and has spread to non-traditional countries by immigration. It is of varying degrees of invasiveness, often including clitoridectomy, but all raise health-related concerns, which can be of considerable physical and/or psychological severity, and compromise gynecological and obstetric care. The practice is not based on a requirement of religious observance, although parents usually seek it for their daughters in good faith. It is directed to the social control of women's sexuality, in association with preservation of virginity and family honor. FGC is becoming increasingly prohibited by law, in countries both of its traditional practice and of immigration. Medical practice prohibits FGC. In compromising women's health and negating their sexuality, FGC is a human rights abuse that physicians have a role in eliminating by education of patients and communities.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Law, Faculty of Medicine and Joint Centre for Bioethics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Cook
authors.forename: B M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Dickens
authors.forename: M F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Fathalla
mesh_terms: D000349:Africa; D019093:Circumcision, Female / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000941:ethics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D003469:Culture; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007744:Obstetric Labor Complications / Q000209:etiology; D011247:Pregnancy; D012068:Religion and Medicine