Let’s have the prison system humanely execute women when their families wish to kill them for besmirching the family honour.
Let’s have the police perform ritual beatings of disrespectful wives.
Let’s have surgeons perform gentle amputations of the limbs of thieves.
And why? Because The American Association of Paediatrics wants the United States to create laws that allow doctors to perform ritual female genital cutting to accommodate the cultural values of those who cling to this barbaric cultural artefact, despite living in a country that alleges to respect human rights. If the US is going to legalise cutting children, then we might as well make “humane” accommodations for other customs that are out of step with the twenty-first century.
Let the American Association of Paediatrics know that you don’t believe physicians should be given a pass on the Hippocratic Oath. The vow to Do No Harm supersedes any cultural custom. Parents and physicians who cut their baby girls deserve gaol time, not protection under the law.
Equality Now has provided the contact information of the dozy doctors responsible for betraying their profession:
Errol R. Alden, M.D. FAAP
Executive Director/CEO, American Academy of Pediatrics
141 Northwest Point Blvd
Elk Grove Village, IL 60007-1019
Phone: +1 847 434 7500
Fax: +1 847 434 8385
Email: ealden@aap.org
Kevin B. Weiss, M.D., MPH
President and CEO, American Board of Medical Specialties
222 North LaSalle Street
Chicago, IL 60601
Phone: +1 312 436 2600
Fax: +1 312 436 2700
Email: kweiss@abms.org
Alan R. Cohen, M.D.
Chair, The American Board of Pediatrics
111 Silver Cedar Court
Chapel Hill, NC 27514
Phone: +1 919 929 0461
Fax: +1 919 913 2070
Email: abpeds@abpeds.org
Molly Muses . . . 
Pingback: Sunday in Outer Blogness: Happy Mothers’ Day Edition! | Main Street Plaza
Amen, sister.
That’s disgusting, and horrifying. Perhaps equally as horrifying, there’s some degree of precedent for (supposedly) ethical surgeons assisting patients with their various self mutilation agendas. There’s a group of psychiatric disorders, including body integrity identity disorder, which cause sufferers to want parts of their bodies (usually limbs) removed. I’ve read about treating physicians actually prescribing surgical removal. Some “cure”. So, if this type of solution is considered “medicine”, the idea of allowing female genital mutilation might not be as impossibly barbaric as we all hope.
Incidentally, have you read Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s book, Infidel?
I have. Ali is amazing, and I respect her courage with telling the truth about how barbaric some cultures can be. Hand-wringing apologizing on behalf of barbarians isn’t tolerance. It’s promoting violence against fellow human beings. She isn’t afraid to say that.
I sent in a couple of letters and the response I got back was 1. they didn’t condone that and 2. the other letter said was um not sure, why don’t you refer to the american academy of pediatrics….
Yeah, lots of what? we said that? no way and we don’t have anything to do with that refer to someone else. Always passing the buck.
I’m glad the massive reaction against it made them retract it. Now if we could just get them to take a harder stand against MGM.