Female Genital Mutilation - ethical view

Žensko genitalno sakaćenje, tj. postupak odstranjivanja tkiva sa ženskih genitalija u kulturne, religijske i druge nezdravstvene svrhe, praksa je koja izaziva kontroverze kako u društvenim grupama koje ga provode tako i na međunarodnoj razini kao pitanje vezano za osnovna ljudska prava. Ovom je praksom pogođeno više od 130 milijuna žena uglavnom na području centralne i istočne Afrike, ali se pod utjecajem globalizacije proširio i na ostatak svijeta, što ovaj problem čini još kompleksnijim, naročito ako se promatra kroz prizmu kulturnog relativizma. Svrha je ovog rada sagledati važne aspekte tog fenomena, od medicinskih preko socio,kulturnih (s posebnim osvrtom na rodne) do etičkih, ponuditi argumentaciju za ukidanje takve prakse te pokušati rasvijetliti neke probleme koje bi za sobom povlačila sama moguća akcija ukidanja te prakse.Female genital mutilation, i.e. the procedure of tissue removal from the female genitalia for cultural, religious and other non-health related purposes, is a practice that arouses controversy both in the local communities that practice it and the international community as a question of fundamental human rights. This practice is imposed on over 130 million women, mostly in the regions of central and eastern Africa, although it has spread over the rest of the world under the influence of globalisation, which only makes this problem more complex, particularly if viewed through the prism of cultural relativism. The paper aims to delineate the key aspects of phenomenon – from the medical, through the socio-cultural (with special emphasis on gender) to the ethical – offer arguments for a ban on this practice and shed light on some of the problems that the very possibility of banning the practice would necessarily imply