Fgm's Just or Unjust?

FGM's Just or Unjust?

The question raised is whether Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) should be allowed in cultures around the world in which it is practiced. It is hard to determine the ethics on this subject because it is performed in a culture not similar to western views. To decide whether or not this practice is morally correct is not in the hands of a westerner but that of the people within these cultures. Excluding personal biased medical and moral reasoning, FGM's should be continued to be allowed in these cultures for a number of reasons.

At first glance, this practice seems to be cruel, unreasonable, and medically unsafe, yet after further analyzing the subject it is clear that our biased (western) views on morals and culture cannot be more correct than theirs. Who is to say that one culture is better than another? Before jumping on a particular side, one needs to consider that these cultures in which they practice FGM's have been around for thousands of years compared to our newborn culture here in the US. Simply because our military and economy are more powerful than another, does that really mean our culture is too? It is obvious that cultures do change with time, such as gay marriage in the US, but the reasoning behind this change is because of the people within. We as Americans (especially outside the Bible belt) are coming to realize that gays should not be considered a lower form of humans. They should have the same rights and equality as do the remaining citizens of the US. Just because our culture (which is based on religion to begin with) states that marriage should be between a man and a woman, does not mean that people with different lifestyles should not be equal. This kind of prejudice is all too similar to the era of abolitionists. In comparison between the present, with gay rights and post civil war African American rights, we can obviously see that culture is an evolutionary process.

It seems easier to side with the banishment of female circumcision because of our indoctrinated environment and personal biases towards the mutilation of little girls, which personally I agree with. Yet, within the environment of these cultures they do not feel the same way. For example, if I were to have a daughter I would not perform this act, but that is only because of my personal beliefs and values that my culture has taught me throughout my life. My hypothetical daughter would be a social outcast in the US. She would go through the physical, emotional and mental pain of the procedure and would not gain any beneficial value. Yet I did not grow up in a culture in which they see this practice as ideal or attractive. The women in these countries have a different set of values, which are far more important to them then what a westerner thinks of their actions. It is their tradition, their history, their set of beliefs, and although I personally disagree with cutting off female genitalia, it is not my place to enforce my beliefs on them. Yet if it is the case that these women are simply oppressed by their counterpart and those males are just using these women as a tool for their own means, then some sort of action whether it being education or military force should potentially take place. But who am I to have the knowledge of what is going on half way around the world, I am just an ignorant American brainwashed by FOX news. I understand that my reasoning is naÐ"Їve, yet I did not grow up in their culture and have no say on what practices should take place.

BENTHAM------While reading Jeremy Bentham and discussing his Utilitarian views, it is easier to see why these people do what they do. It is doubtful that all the women in these societies practice female circumcision solely based on the fact that men want it. There must be other reasons because otherwise it would have been stopped long ago. Although some of the women want an end to female circumcision, they still perform the act on their daughters. If this subject is seen as so morally incorrect by most of the western world, than why do they continue? In Bentham's work he discusses a type of a cost-benefit model, which compares the pain to the pleasure of any given scenario. In this case the cost of the procedure, being the physical pain and loss of sexual drive, should not outweigh the benefits, being the historical