As far as parents forcing children into genital mutilation, this is actually very popular and common elective medical procedure, but the word you're looking for is circumcision.
Please don't derail the discussion: murder and bank robbery are also quite rare. That does not make them acceptable!
Neither male nor female circumcision affects the ability to have children. Female circumcision is forbidden almost everywhere. Male circumcision is mostly still around for historical reasons.
@dang can I suggest closing down this thread? Too much apologia of child abuse!
Calling out the fact that the majority of sex change operations happen at the behest of an adult who elects to have the operation is not derailing the discussion, but inserting a rather critical point of context when examining the issue broadly.
That doesn't mean the concern about minors is not legitimate, but clarifies that the conversation is much broader than this subset.
> Neither male nor female circumcision affects the ability to have children.
Why is this relevant? I have not been mutilated, but I choose not to have children either. I haven't yet undergone a vasectomy, but plan to do so at some point in the future so I don't have to worry about it. But this seems like a non-sequitur, unless you're implying there is some moral compulsion to procreate.
> Female circumcision is forbidden almost everywhere.
It's estimated that ~200 million girls/women alive today have undergone FGM, and a significant number still undergo this yearly. While the practice is in decline in many places, there are countries where no such decline has started.
But regardless of that, it's an orthogonal issue, and no more belongs in a conversation about sex change operations than bringing up ritual organ harvesting in a conversation about appendectomies.
> Too much apologia of child abuse!
Again, acknowledging that surgery is often necessary is not the equivalent of apologizing for non-consensual ritual sadism.
Aside, your user name here is after an organisation founded by one of world history's worst mass murderers. Can I suggest to show empathy with his victims, and not use this term? Using it trivialises his crimes.
I'm just being generous, I'm not technically aware of a single instance.
> even for adult
Is this a theocratic totalitarianism thing or a hatred for humanity and hatred of personal freedom thing?
First, I think it’s important to draw a distinction between the practice of genital mutilation - a practice that is alive and well in various cultures and maims significant numbers of kids every year in the name of religious superstition - from sex change operations.
Regardless of what you think about the appropriate age for such a decision, reducing this to “genital mutilation” trivializes the issue and tries to draw a comparison with a barbaric practice despite there being no connection between the two.
Almost all forms of surgery would appear barbaric on the surface if not for the significant utility of undergoing those surgeries. That doesn’t mean we should equate cutting someone open and removing their appendix with a ritualistic religious practice that appears similar at face value.
That said, I made no claims about the appropriateness of these surgeries for minors, nor do I believe someone at that age is mature enough to understand the implications of such.
That doesn’t change anything that I wrote though, even if it’s an important factor to consider for a subset of potential patients.
(2) the purpose of modern genital mutilation for the mutilatee is to facilitate sex fraud, and for the mutilator is, one imagines, money.
(3) if believe someone at that age is mature enough to understand the implications of modern genital mutilation, you will have to face the question why you trivialise it. Your writing here may, directly or indirectly lead to more modern genital mutilation. Speech has consequences.
In what sense can children consent to genital mutilation, since they do not understand at all human sexuality and the human sex drive, since the have had absolutely no experience with it? Virtually all other forms of body modification are also not legal for children.