Female Genital Mutilation

Female Genital Mutilation

Female genital mutilation is the medically unnecessary modification of female genitalia. Female genital mutilation typically occurs at about 7 years of age, but mutilated women suffer severe medical complications throughout their adult lives. Female genital mutilation most frequently occurs in Afric...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:JAMA : the journal of the American Medical Association Vol. 274; no. 21; pp. 1714 - 1716
Main Authors: Davis, Ronald M, Genel, Myron, Howe, John P, Karlan, Mitchell S, Kennedy, William R, Numann, Patricia Joy, Riggs, Joseph A, Heights, Haddon, Skelton, W. Douglas, Slanetz, Priscilla J, Spillman, Monique A, Williams, Michael, Young, Donald C, Allen, James R, Rinaldi, Robert C, Gettleman, Lynn, Bresolin, Linda B
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Chicago American Medical Association 06-12-1995
Subjects:
Girls
Medical ethics
Reproductive system
Surgery
Women
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Summary:Female genital mutilation is the medically unnecessary modification of female genitalia. Female genital mutilation typically occurs at about 7 years of age, but mutilated women suffer severe medical complications throughout their adult lives. Female genital mutilation most frequently occurs in Africa, the Middle East, and Muslim parts of Indonesia and Malaysia, and it is generally part of a ceremonial induction into adult society. Recent political and economic problems in these regions, however, have increased the numbers of students and refugees to the United States. Consequently, US physicians are treating an increasing number of mutilated patients. The Council on Scientific Affairs recommends that US physicians join the World Health Organization, the World Medical Association, and other major health care organizations in opposing all forms of medically unnecessary surgical modification of the female genitalia.(JAMA. 1995;274:1714-1716)
ISSN:0098-7484
1538-3598
DOI:10.1001/jama.1995.03530210068033