Normality under the knife
Women who have congenital adrenal hyperplasia should not have to face surgery on their genitalia to make them 'normal'
o Jane Fae
o guardian.co.uk, Monday 21 June 2010 10.59 BST
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jun/21/normality-under-knife-surgery-genitalia (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jun/21/normality-under-knife-surgery-genitalia)
In the news recently there has been a spate of stories about what happens when surgeons make mistakes. But when it comes to "women's bits", a combination of male arrogance and breathtaking ignorance means the results can be pretty dire even when – they reckon – they're getting it right.
A shocking article by Professors Alice Dreger and Ellen K Feder over at the Hastings Centre's Bioethics Forum reveals how US clinicians have been evaluating the results of invasive and possibly unnecessary surgery on girls' clitorises – by poking them with cotton swabs and applying "medical vibratory devices".
These techniques, apparently, are needed to determine just how much sensation the girls have left after partial clitoral surgery – itself an improvement on previous practice, which was to cut the offending part out entirely.
I am unusually unsettled by this post.