Posted on 06/02/2006 12:49:56 AM PDT by neverdem
The first large medical study of female genital cutting has found that the procedure has deadly consequences when the women give birth, raising by more than 50 percent the likelihood that the woman or her baby will die.
Rates of serious medical complications surrounding childbirth, such as bleeding, also rose substantially in women who had undergone genital cutting, according to new research being published today in The Lancet, a British medical journal.
"Reliable evidence about its harmful effects, especially on reproduction, should contribute to the abandonment of the practice," wrote the study's authors, all members of the World Health Organization Study Group on Female Genital Mutilation and Obstetrical Outcome.
While women's groups and human rights organizations have long campaigned against genital cutting as a rights issue, the study provides the first conclusive medical evidence of long-term physical harm, moving the debate further into the public health arena.
"Finally we have data to prove what health workers have long known: that female genital mutilation is a health issue, a killer of women and children, as well as a human rights issue," said Adrienne Germain, president of the International Women's Health Coalition, in New York.
"This should greatly help advocates overcome arguments that genital mutilation is an untouchable cultural practice."
More than 100 million women worldwide have undergone genital cutting, mostly in childhood, often without anesthesia or sterile technique. Pain, bleeding and infection are immediate consequences. Doctors suspect that the procedure is also linked to a risk of urinary infection.
The procedure varies in severity, from a full excision of the clitoris and labia, to a lesser procedure in which only the former is removed. In a number of African cultures, genital mutilation is part of a coming-of-age ceremony, and defenders have contended that it is a cultural practice, like male circumcision...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I'm almost beside myself that a study was required in the first place. Mess with mother nature and reap the whirlwind. Registration at the Lancet is free. Their editorial on this is also open access.
a 'study' that seems clinically horrible
I'm still waiting for the NY Slime to print the following headline:
Abortion raises by 100% Likelihood Mothers Newborns Will Die
Wild Birds 'Partly' To Blame For Bird Flu Spread
Ibuprofen Can Double Risk Of Heart Attack, Says Medical Study The Lancet article is linked on the thread. "Conclusions Selective COX 2 inhibitors are associated with a moderate increase in the risk of vascular events, as are high dose regimens of ibuprofen and diclofenac, but high dose naproxen is not associated with such an excess." Naproxen has a much longer half-life. Anyone who's prescribed a daily baby aspirin should take it one hour before NSAIDs or COX-2 inhibitors, IMHO.
FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.
I lived in France 20 years ago, and the arabs would pay to fly in people from Algeria to do this to their little daughters, since no french doctor would do it for them.
religion of peace my a&&.
You have a point...
Hey, not to mention the ones who don't survive genital mutilation in the first place! I guess they don't fit into the statistics somehow? In their native countries, genital mutilation is done under less-than-sanitary conditions.
And NOW spends its time whining about Elizabeth Vargas and Geena Davis' cancelled TV show...
guess those crazy arabs just have a fondness for cameltoes.....sic..
By the same token, maybe you think we should start aborting their babies? This procedure is unbelievably cruel. I read an account from a survivor of this procedure in the Reader's Digest some years back. She was cut with a used, bloody razor with no anesthetic. She passed out from the torture. Years later, she still had female problems from the procedure. While I can't bring myself to describe in detail, I will say that not only was parts cut off, but the remaining open tissue was sewn together to make a very tiny hole, which tears horribly during childbirth. And you think it is okay as long as it keeps the population down.
Like I said, a culture that needs to die out.
Pray that the demonic/barbarian practice of female circumcision will be halted.
This world is still in the Dark Ages, to a greater or lesser degree according to district.
It is castration pure and simple IMO. The filthy animals who practice this on children should be castrated.
"Cutting"? "Cutting"?
It is genital mutilation. You better believe that if it were a Christian practice, ELISABETH ROSENTHAL NY TIMES would have the front page complete with pictures.
This Muslim practice of mutilating, and it is mutilating, a female child is so typical of the mindset of the Muslims.
Allah forbid that a woman know any joy or pleasure in this life. These people take the most natural thing in the world, and destroy it.
It's no wonder women die in childbirth. Scar tissue doesn't stretch.
Isn't this mainly a Muslim practice? I notice the Times manages to get through the article without saying much about whom the culprits are.
Yeah amazing... I may have missed it but not one damn mention that this is a muslim practice.
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