WUNRN
Rebecca J. Cook
University of Toronto - Faculty of Law
Bernard Dickens
University of Toronto - Faculty of Law
International Journal of Gynecology
and Obstetrics, Vol. 107, pp. 266-269, 2009
Abstract:
A hymen may be ruptured by sexual
intercourse and several other means. In cultures prizing unmarried women’s
virginity, premarital rupture may shame a woman, and her family. Women,
including brides whose virginity is not proven at marriage, face humiliation,
ostracism, divorce and violence, at the extreme “honor” killing. Nevertheless,
gynecologists may oppose hymen reconstruction on grounds that it is deceptive,
not medically required, or that the requirement of evidence of virginity
discriminates against women, and the procedure supports holding them to higher
standards of virtue than are required of men. Gynecologists may justify the
procedure, however, as serving health, which includes patients’ mental and
social well-being and women’s human rights to control their own bodies.
Further, many adolescents lose their virginity innocently, by rape or coercion,
and, without hymen reconstruction, women may face violence and even death. The
procedure is usually lawful, and distinguishable from female genital cutting or
mutilation.
Full Text Is Attached.
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