Saturday, June 19, 2010

Medical Ethics at Cornell � Student Activism

Medical Ethics at Cornell � Student Activism

Medical Ethics at Cornell

I was reading this blogpost, becoming ever more shocked and appalled, but thinking that I had no reason to post about it here, until I got to the last line:
“If you’re reading this and you’re a student at Cornell: female genital mutilation is being practiced on your campus. What are you going to do about it?”
It’s an excellent question.
Pediatric urologist Dix Poppas of Cornell is a leading practitioner of infant “clitoroplasty,” the surgical reduction of the clitoris. In the surgery, performed on babies with larger than average clitorises, the clitoral shaft is excised and the head is re-attached. This surgery is purely aesthetic, and highly controversial. But what’s even more