Genital Mutilation At Cornell Medical Center
Science and medicine are wonderful. Except when they aren’t. Research is an area fraught with ethical conundrums. We see public outcry over embryos being used in stem cell research. These are, mind you - embryos that would otherwise literally be down the drain. Embryos that could contribute greatly to ending human suffering, as stem cell research progresses. Then we have this http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2010/06/16/female-genital-mutilation-at-cornell-university and this http://www.thehastingscenter.org/Bioethicsforum/Post.aspx?id=4730&blogid=140 and this is going on EVERY DAY.
WARNING: STRONGLY TRIGGERING CONTENT in the articles.
Disclosure: I’m against any form of child genital mutilation. That includes circumcision. I think that any alteration to one’s genitals for non-emergent reasons is a PERSONAL CHOICE and should not be done until a person can decide for themselves. Most states put the age of medical consent at varying ages upwards of 12 years old. If there are non-emergent reasons for altering genitals, then you should be able to explain them to your child by then, and if you can’t - what the fuck are you doing making that decision for them in infancy?
To continue: Dr. Dix Poppas performed approximately 50 clitoroplasties as part of his research. Having deemed these girls to have abnormally large clitorises, he performed the surgeries, and thereafter performed annual exams to determine the degree of remaining nerve-sensitivity. “Nerve-sparing,” they may be, but these surgeries may not have been necessary in the first place. The follow-up exams, performed in the presence of a parent, involve applying a vibratory device to these children’s clitorises while asking them to tell him how strongly they feel it. There’s more detail in the articles on the full exam.
Some have made mention that many of the patients have Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congenital_adrenal_hyperplasia and if you google Clitoromegaly, you’ll also see reference to CAH. However, CAH/Clitoromegaly are often, though not always, markers for Intersexed individuals: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intersex .
Let me boil it down: For some reason, a doctor is removing part of a clitoris and then using a vibrator on little girls, (nominally girls, actually,) and wants to continue this research following them through adolescence and adulthood while also creating a control group of un-altered young women whom he will presumably also use a vibrator on in order to determine the variations in sensitivity while gathering data on their sexual activity.
Cornell University/Medical Center approved this. They’re spending Fed/State tax dollars on this.
The reason for the research is to improve techniques used on both children and adults, for cosmetic/psychological/sex assignment reasons. Which currently have a high proportion of bad outcomes. Seems like a good idea, doesn’t it?
Except…
Here comes the opinion portion of our show: (I’ll be going from clinical to WTF, in about 30 seconds.)
1. The majority of these surgeries are done for sex assignment purposes, young children are very unlikely to be able to articulate what gender they identify with. They may SHOW a preference, but they cannot typically state a clear preference, let alone give informed consent.
2. Biological gender may be in conflict with gender identification. Therefore, concluding that an intersex child is female, solely on the presence of ovaries, is ridiculous. As is concluding that an intersex child is trans. In fact, drawing any conclusions without the clear and informed input of THE PERSON, is ridiculous.
3. If surgery performed on adults has such disastrous outcomes, why on earth would you do it to a child? The results achieved with children cannot possibly improve the technique used on adults.
4. Performing this surgery on a child, is sexual violence. No sugar-coating it, folks. It’s physically and sexually scarring surgery. Hence, the follow-ups to see how much sensitivity remains…
5. This Doctor, the nurses and the parents, through presence and consent, are SEXUALLY ABUSING THESE CHILDREN. Using a vibratory device of any kind equals masturbation, these children are being masturbated in a clinical setting, with their parents present.
6. This is the objectification of human beings, children at that, for the purpose of medical experimentation. How exactly is this different from Mengele? There are degrees of medical violence committed in the name of research, but there is NO distinction in the objectification of the subject. From Mengele to the Tuskegee syphilis experiments, to this - ALL show the exact same disregard for human life, in favor of data. In fact, all show the exact same objectification based on CLASSES of individuals. Mengele had the Jews, Gypsies, etc., that the Nazis turned over to him, the Tuskegee experiment was solely on African Americans, and this is non-gender-normative children. I’m not being hyperbolic, and I’m not suggesting that Poppas is on the same scale as Mengele, (although, if this were to become a standard procedure for all non-normative presumptive females, we are talking that scale, ultimately.) I’m saying that this is ethically unacceptable. Primum non nocere, after all. First do no harm.
7. Poppas at the very least misled the IRB. How is this acceptable?
8. Law enforcement should be brought in. The Weill School of Medicine at Cornell and the Cornell Medical Center must be made aware of this. The parents may not intentionally be allowing this abuse, but they are allowing it. Children’s services should investigate, at a minimum. The National Institutes of Health funded this, and they should know about it, too.
As long as we treat intersex children as a problem to be solved before there IS a problem, we’re violating their body integrity, self-determination, and psycho-sexual development. This has to stop.
Also, here’s a little question: Who deems a clitoris, “abnormally large,” when body proportions in children are often completely distorted and normalize by puberty?
Example: Babies’ heads are far too big for their bodies, but we don’t go around decapitating them, do we?
For those who will argue that the size displayed in these patients would be large for even an adult -So what? Let someone decide for themselves whether they feel the need for reduction as an adult.
Think about that, and let Cornell and Dr. Poppas know that this is unacceptable, by going here: http://www.weillcornell.org/dppoppas/ There is also a Facebook group here: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=136407289706975
We’re supposed to be better than this. Yet we have people who fight for the personhood of embryos that are going to be destroyed, who would probably sign their child up for this abuse if it meant they were more hetero- or gender-normative.
Note: There is no such thing as, “Normal,” only, “Average.” Get over it.
