While female genital mutilation has been condemned by many developed countries, the issue of 'aesthetic' genital surgery in rich countries garners no such criticism, an Irish doctor has said.
Genital mutilation, sometimes referred to as female circumcision, is a traditional practice in some developing countries. It is generally condemned by the western world.
However writing in the British Medical Journal, Dr Ronán Conroy of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI), insisted that genital surgery in the developed world should be tackled before other traditional practices are criticised.
"The practice of female genital mutilation is on the increase nowhere in the world except our so called developed societies. 'Designer laser vaginoplasty' and 'laser vaginal rejuvenation' are growth areas in plastic surgery, representing the latest chapter in the surgical victimisation of women in our culture", he wrote.
Furthermore, this burgeoning industry is able to operate without the slightest attention being paid to it by medical researchers, he said.
He pointed out that the literature on female genital mutilation is 'long on polemic and short on data'.
"European and American writers often assume that it is forced on unwilling young girls, but this is at odds with the high social value placed on it in societies that practise it", he said.
He suggested that 'our own sexually repressive use of female genital mutilation may be at the root of our misunderstanding of its role in other countries'.
Dr Conroy believes that the 'high moral tone' with which those in richer countries criticise female genital mutilation would be more credible 'if we in the rich countries had not practised it and did not continue to practise it'.
"It is western medicine which, by a process of disease mongering, is driving the advance of female genital mutilation by promoting the fear in women that what is a natural biological variation is a defect, a problem requiring a knife", he added.
Genital mutilation, sometimes referred to as female circumcision, is a traditional practice in some developing countries. It is generally condemned by the western world.
However writing in the British Medical Journal, Dr Ronán Conroy of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI), insisted that genital surgery in the developed world should be tackled before other traditional practices are criticised.
"The practice of female genital mutilation is on the increase nowhere in the world except our so called developed societies. 'Designer laser vaginoplasty' and 'laser vaginal rejuvenation' are growth areas in plastic surgery, representing the latest chapter in the surgical victimisation of women in our culture", he wrote.
Furthermore, this burgeoning industry is able to operate without the slightest attention being paid to it by medical researchers, he said.
He pointed out that the literature on female genital mutilation is 'long on polemic and short on data'.
"European and American writers often assume that it is forced on unwilling young girls, but this is at odds with the high social value placed on it in societies that practise it", he said.
He suggested that 'our own sexually repressive use of female genital mutilation may be at the root of our misunderstanding of its role in other countries'.
Dr Conroy believes that the 'high moral tone' with which those in richer countries criticise female genital mutilation would be more credible 'if we in the rich countries had not practised it and did not continue to practise it'.
"It is western medicine which, by a process of disease mongering, is driving the advance of female genital mutilation by promoting the fear in women that what is a natural biological variation is a defect, a problem requiring a knife", he added.
