American Academy of Pediatrics: Difference between revisions

On April 26, 2010, the AAP changed its long-held stance against female genital cutting.

<ref>{{REFnews

}}</ref> In their report, chiefly authored by Dena Davis, a professor at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law at Cleveland State University,<ref>{{REFnews

}}</ref> the AAP advised doctors to inform families that the procedure is medically unnecessary and even dangerous.<ref>{{REFnews

}}</ref> The AAP raised the idea of legalizing a less-severe ritual cutting, which they compared to an ear piercing,<ref>{{REFnews

}}</ref><ref>{{REFjournal

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}}</ref> and offering a "ritual nick" might dissuade parents that were resolute, from sending their daughters to their home countries,<ref>{{REFnews

}}</ref> thereby avoiding greater harm.<ref>{{REFnews

}}</ref> The AAP had deviated from a much more forceful statement published in 1998, which unequivocally condemned FGC in any form.<ref>{{REFjournal

  |last=MacReady

The Girls Protection Act, which would make it illegal to take a minor outside the U.S. to seek female circumcision, was introduced in Congress on the same day the AAP published its new recommendation.

<ref>{{REFnews

}}</ref> New York Representative Joseph Crowley, one of the bill's sponsors, condemned the AAP's move as "the wrong step forward on how best to protect young women and girls" by creating confusion about the acceptability of FGM in any form.<ref>{{REFnews

}}</ref> Davis of the AAP countered that such a law would be difficult to enforce.<ref>{{REFnews

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The AAP wrote the following in their 2010 FGC Policy:

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This was a segue into the following sentence:

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:The AAP <b>1999 Policy Statement</b> also includes this statement on informed consent:

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:The above sentences cited <u>Informed Consent, Parental Permission, and Assent in Pediatric Practice</u>, a policy guide by AAP's Bio-ethics Committee.<ref>{{REFweb

}}</ref> However, those sentences appear to contradict the document they cited, which says:

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: That document also says:

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The AAP has no official position on whether a baby can refuse a procedure, nor does it specify if crying in pain counts as reluctance or refusal. However, they do write that a patient's discomfort should be taken into account, and that children should have the necessity of a procedure communicated to them.<ref name="Fleischmann 1994"/> (It might follow that inability to do so means that proceeding with an intervention that could be harmlessly deferred constitutes needless violation of autonomy, or inadequate consent):

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