Cornell doctor scars children in the name of science

[threeplusfire]

http://jezebel.com/5565895/cornell-surgeon-used-vibrator-to-stimulate-6+year+olds

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/fetishes-i-dont-get/201006/can-you-hear-us-now

http://www.thehastingscenter.org/Bioethicsforum/Post.aspx?id=4730&blogid=140

http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2010/06/16/female-genital-mutilation-at-cornell-university

Finally, do we really think this is like what happened in the Tuskegee Syphilis Study? Yup. A population gets marked as being not normal sexually, and then ends up as research fodder with sub-standard ethics oversight, without anyone even telling them they're research fodder. The docs publish years of follow-up studies in medical journals, and their colleagues, including the medical journal editors, don't stop and say, "Wait, what now? What are you doing?" And the only way these girls are going to get protected is if the press finally gets involved. - from Psychology Today


Even worse than just abusing your children yourself is deliberately allowing someone else to do so. I speak from my own personal experience, as well as the experience of working at a hotline for cases of abuse.

Pretending girls will grow up psychologically damaged by big labia or clitorises is so offensive I don't even know where to begin with that one. Letting someone mutilate your child and subject them to what amounts to insane follow up exams because you worried they were physically unsightly or might turn out gay is just about the worst thing I've heard. (And let me tell you, I have heard some horrifying, awful stories.)

I can't even begin to describe how sick to my stomach this news makes me feel.

One Inch by rm

Comments

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

Entirely the expected outcome of the increasing obsession with labiaplasty, "revirginization" and other "genital sculpting" techniques designed to give grown women the genitalia of a small child. Oh, but I forgot, these sorts of things only ever go on in "backwards" Muslim countries and not the liberated secular West.

[melebeth]

My professional comment on the commentary is here.

[alainn-sorcha.livejournal.com]

Okay, I'm really annoyed by this argument that they'll be traumatized by the "abnormally" sized genitalia. I assume here that they're talking about Jr. High and High School locker room issues, because seriously WHO THE FUCK IS LOOKING AT A SEVEN YEAR OLD'S PRIVATES AND TAUNTING HER?

And then, by the time a girl hits her teens, she should be a reasonable enough being that she could participate in the decision. I get that teenagers can be histrionic and make emotional decisions when they just want a situation they don't like to be over. But surely there are ways to mitigate that and help them make a decision about the surgery that will take into account long term ramifications.

Never mind every other ethically questionable aspect of this whole thing.

[sun-set-bravely.livejournal.com]

Dear Goddess, this makes my Pussy want to light on fire and scorch some faces off. The 2007 date on those studies, and the fact that we're reading about this in 2010, is horrifying. I am lost for words.

[melyndabelinda.livejournal.com]

Why isn't this called child abuse? Child sexual abuse? Why isn't that doctor in jail and why aren't those parents stripped of their parental rights? Seriously, if someone suggested to me that they perform this surgery on my daughter I would be screaming on the news about medical ethics and reporting them to the State Board.

What the fuckity fuck?