ETHICAL ISSUES IN CONDUCTING INTERVENTION RESEARCH ON FEMALE GENITAL CUTTING

Nahla Abdel-Tawab

Dr. Nahla Abdel-Tawab ([email protected])

is a physician with postgraduate training in behavioral sciences

and health education. She was the coordinator of the Bellagio Conference

for Advancement of Research on Female Genital Cutting. Over the

last 15 years she has been engaged in a� number of intervention

studies client provider interaction, postabortion care and female

genital cutting.

At present she works as a Behavior Change Communication Specialist

with Tahseen

/ Catalyst Project which aims at improving� /

reproductive health of women and men in� Egypt.���

Acknowledgment

This paper

has been commissioned by the Bellagio Conference for Advancing Research

on Female Genital Cutting. The Conference was organized by the Population

Council with funds from the Rockefeller Foundation. The athor would

like to thank members of the Research Review Committee at the Population

Council and participhas at the Bellagio Conference for providing

feedback on earlier versions of this manuscript.�

Abstract

While the ethical principles of beneficence, non-maleficence, autonomy

and justice are relevant to all types of research that involves

human subjects, the above principles are of particular importance

when conducting intervention research to promote abandonment of

the practice of female genital cutting (FGC).� FGC is a highly sensitive

and controversial issue that touches on women’s bodies, their

status in society as well as deeply entrenched cultural values of

gender and sexuality. This paper discusses some of the ethical challenges

that researchers face in designing interventions against FGC, assessing

their impact and in disseminating results of such interventions

to policy makers, donors and the research community.�����

The author concludes the paper by suggesting

that all proposals for intervention studies against FGC include

mechanisms for helping women/girls who have been circumcised; that

more culturally appropriate informed consent procedures be developed;

and that ethical review committees include individuals who are familiar

with the study community.