Comments

1
Does he punch them in the face after the operations?
2
Dix Poppas?
3
How did that get past ethics?
4
One word: CONSENT. A child can't consent and therefore any adult, whether a parent or doctor, who mutilates a child's body is committing a crime. I include circumcision in the mutilation category. Whether the child is female or male, the term "mutilation" applies because the child can't possibly consent.

My uncle was circumcised on the kitchen table. I shudder to think of what parents do when of the mindset "we know better than nature".
5
This evil, good for nothing piece of child mutilating AND molesting piece of shit is allowed to live... why?
6
And presumably we can operate on animals without their consent because . . . ?
7
...I don't think I've ever cried such much over an article before. Please tell me we can do SOMETHING to stop this from happening to these girls?
8
What the MOTHER FUCK. And speaking of mothers, what kind of a sick bitch voluntarily does this to their child?

My clit is pretty big. But I didn't *know* it was bigger than average until I explored my bisexuality and saw someone else's clit, and having a bigger than average clit has not in any way negatively impacted my life or my sexuality. Contrary to what these doctors and parents seem to think, six year olds are NOT comparing clit size during kindergarten nap time. And who the hell is judging what's "normal" and what isn't? Christ on toast, this pisses me off.

I wish I went to Cornell so I could raise holy stinking hell about this. In the office of the president, in front of television cameras.
9
Dude... excuse me while I pick up my jaw. This is crazy! The supposed benefit of this study couldn't possibly outweigh its sheer outrageousness.
10
Just what is he telling the parents of these girls to get them to consent to this bullshit surgery? Are they immigrants who might have a cultural background of sexual surgery on young girls? And a what age is he doing this?
Because if ever there was a reason to pull a doctors credentials, this is it.
11
I think there needs to be some real scrutiny into whoever approved this unbelievable fuckhead's funding. He's clearly at least a little demented, but someone, as @3 observed, had to approve his proposal and give him the money for it.

The procedure - and the entire conceptual framework behind it - is appalling. The fact that it's bad science, that the follow-up "testing" is so utterly facile, just adds to the indignity.
12
What's the difference between a bar and a clitoris?

Most men have no trouble finding a bar.

Q: What do a clitoris, an anniversary and a toilet have in common? A : Men usually miss them.
13
I feel disgusted. How is this legal? Don't these little girls have rights? What are the parents thinking? Mutilating your child is not going to make them normal, it's going to fuck them up even more. And the post operative touching of genitals...ugh. I feel it's even worse that the parents are in the room. These people are supposed to protect their children, not stand by as someone causes them psychological damage.
14
Head aspload
15
If anyone finds it hard to believe that a parent would allow this to happen to their child, they might want to read Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides, aside from being a really amazing book, a large part is devoted to the main character undergoing similar "testing and exams" shortly after puberty. Although it's fictional, I gather it's based on real events.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middlesex_%…
16
good job Cornell IRB
17
@4, a child can't consent, but their parents certainly can for them - otherwise every single medical treatment ever performed on a child would be assault.
18
Dan- where should concerned readers direct our comments and disapproval to? You were so great about providing the emails and phone numbers of the authorities in Constance McMillan's case - please, deploy your troops once again!
19
It's as reckless and irreparable as wanting to nuke an offshore oil leak.

How did this get past ethics review? How?
20
Wait, larger penises correlate with gayness in males?? Cite yer source! If that's true, it's so fucking unfair. Why do we straight chicks have to get stuck with all the micropenises?
21
Jesus motherfucking christ

Also - using a vibrator on a 6 year old girl? Last I checked, vibrating someone to orgasm counts as having sex. This piece of shit is having sex with six year old girls.

This whole story is mind-bloggling.
22
Way to be an asshole, Confluence. Don't joke about stuff like that.
23
This makes me sick. How is this guy not in prison? Isn't this child molestation? What, because the parents tell him to do it, that makes it ok for him to essentially fuck their daughters w/ a vibrator? I've never seen another clit (except in porn) and I don't sit around thinking "wow, mine is so much bigger!" And you would think a big clit would be a good thing...easier for a partner to find it!
24
"At annual visits after the surgery, while a parent watches, Poppas touches the daughter’s surgically shortened clitoris with a cotton-tip applicator and/or with a “vibratory device,” and the girl is asked to report to Poppas how strongly she feels him touching her clitoris. Using the vibrator, he also touches her on her inner thigh, her labia minora, and the introitus of her vagina, asking her to report, on a scale of 0 (no sensation) to 5 (maximum), how strongly she feels the touch.... Poppas has indicated in this article and elsewhere that ideally he seeks to conduct annual exams with these girls...."

Sounds like a child molester to me. With the added thrill of having the parents present while he molests them. What a sick fuck.
And where is the IRB here? Where is the Medical Board?
And where are those evangelicals who claim they want to protect innocent life (think of the children!)?
25
As a bioethicist, I am thoroughly disgusted to hear about this and have alerted my colleagues to this egregious violation of ethics. I am deeply opposed to the position taken by some that "some circumcision" of female genitals are acceptable in America to avoid more severe mutilation overseas (yes, I am against non-medical circumcision of all children, male and female, since they cannot consent). This shows the disturbing approaches and assumptions made by many in the medical community, and Dan's caution about lesbians and enlarged clitorises is right on the mark.

Thank you, Dan, for posting on this.
26
Dan! I second 18! Who do we call?
27
Child rape, child mutilation. I am absolutely stunned. Who does this freak work for? He's got a department and a department head. He's got staff, nurses, everything. All of these people should be held accountable.

It is absolutely no exaggeration to call this Nazi medicine.

Weill Medical Collge needs to be thoroughly examined from head to toe to find out what the hell is going on and who knew about it. All of these people need to be censured if not actually imprisoned. Dix Poppas needs to never see the sky again.

The other two doctors are women: Jennifer Yang, Diane Felson. WHAT THE FUCK WERE YOU THINKING?
28
Fucking hell.
29
Goddammit this is depressing. Even *if* the science here *was* "good science'' this would still be just fucking horrifying and sad.
30
I'm going to be sick. I have two little girls myself.

Confluence is one of the worst hack commenters polluting SLOG these days, Canuck. Don't encourage her.
32
Thanks, Fnarf. I and every doctor friend I have are on it.
33
Thanks @31. I just sent that link as well as the article link to all my teacher and social worker friends.
I haven't felt this disgusted and infuriated since I watched Mississippi Burning. Time for a good, long run. Uphill.
34
I'm for castrating this doctor, displaying him, using a vibrator on him, and asking him if he has sensations, then putting his scrotum in a vice and telling him to let them know, between 1-10, the level of pain. Cornell should be blackballed by the AMA (no pun intended) and DCFS should step in before corrective action is taken. Does he also shorten the shafts of little boys who may be too large for comfort? Who gave him this right. How many men are angry because the procedure to remove their foreskin was made by someone else! I've met quite a few! I am so enraged about this !!!!
35
Terrible. I think a doctor cut off a bunch of shaft meat from my ding-dong, and I don't know why. I had no goddamn choice.
36
An extremely minor point, but: If you're studying anything other than medicine at Cornell, this isn't happening on your campus in Ithaca. It's happening five hours away from your campus in New York City.
37
These girls weren't having their phalli mutilated instead of leaving them alone. They were having them probably slightly less mutilated, then tested so that future procedures will be proposed with accurate benefits, rather than having the standard-issue mutilation. For what it's worth. The paper describes pretty well how much gender-standardization surgeries totally suck right now and how weak research on sexual function has been. These guys might be child molesters, or they might be the only surgical team that actually gives a hoot whether the cosmetic clits they build work. Or both. Whatever.

The paper says "Phallus length was 1.0 to 4.5 cm (average 2.4)." I don't think that's enough to justify modifying a girl's genitalia, even if you've got an intense belief that surgery is justified to help kids fit in. I don't see how an inch-long clit/penis is going to affect your life much before you're sexually active.
38
@30, thanks, Matt, will treat her as *unregistered.*

This gets even worse when you read the links, the doctor is the one deeming their little bodies "too big," and is performing the surgery at 3-6 months! Babies often seem to have somewhat exaggerated genitals, relative to their bodies, how could you even make a diagnosis at that age? I was reading a blog just now by a woman who identifies as intersex, and she says the medical community is so eager to put everyone into boxes, absolute male/absolute female, when there is plenty of gender *fluidity* out there. As with looking for a *cause* for gayness, this smacks of the arrogance of identifying something as needing fixing simply because it doesn't fit into an expected category. SO sad.
39
He was doing this to kids? That's creepy, messed up shit...
40
Gaaahhh!!!!

* shudder *
41
Jesi,
You can email the Dean of Weill Medical College, Antonio Gotto: dean@med.cornell.edu
Or Dr. Poppas himself: dpoppas@med.cornell.edu
You can also email University President, David Skorton: president@cornell.edu

You can find phone numbers and email addresses for all Cornell faculty here: http://cornell.edu/search/?q=&submit=go&…
42
It absolutely boggles my mind that any parent would allow their child to endure that.

When parents mistakenly make the decision to allow doctors to operate on an obviously intersexed newborn's genitals, I can understand how and why they might come to that decision (especially with doctors assuring them that it's "the way it's done"). But THIS? How any parent could knowingly take their young daughter into a building where a strange man was going to cut out chunks of her normally developed crotch and then annually rub it? Fuck that. No brochure or pamphlet could make that shit sound ok.

Shocking and disgusting. This asshole better be jobless ASAP. On my way to check if there's a page about ending this malpractice on Facebook.
43
Update: I couldn't find any pages about this on Facebook. If anyone finds one or decides to make one, please link us!
44
Wait...WHAT!?

I thought they stopped doing this shit 40 years ago when all those quack surgeons tried to turn boys into girls cuz their penis's were too small, or were accidentally damaged? Theres even been a bunch of Dateline's, 20/20's, and 60 minutes on this shit!

And its happening at CORNELL?!?!?

Fuck the doctor, i want to know what the hell is going on in the ethics department and with the administration for allowing this shit to even be THOUGHT of, let alone practiced!

Doctors and administrators asses need to be on silver platters.
45
interesting how large penises in our society are glorified yet females who have "larger then average" clitorises need to be surgically altered to minimize the appearance. What's wrong with a larger then average clit?

I'm also a bit confused at how cutting someone's genitalia for purely aesthetic reasons somehow amounts to promoting "natural" growth. Promoting natural growth would be letting their clit grow as long and large as it pleases, that's natural.
46
I'm so glad Dreger's around and has found great colleagues (and friends) to help with this important work.
47
Excuse me while I go kill myself.
48
Again as a link. This is how to contact this piece of shit excuse for a medical professional/researcher here:

http://www.weillcornell.org/dppoppas/

All phone numbers, etc.
49
Posted on my blog, spreading it around livejournal as soon as I find out how. This is sick, sick, evil, EVIL shit and I was retching by the time I finished reading. Thanks for letting us know, Dan. Fuck...fucking hell.
50
WHAT. THE. FUCK.
51
Jesus. I just had a rough day looking after my four-month-old little girl and was settling down to the Slog for some R&R.

Think I'll go and hold her a little longer.
53
#16 for the win. Obviously Poppas and his coworkers needs to be stopped, but that's not the half of it. Every single person on Cornell's IRB needs to lose their job, their accreditation, their tenure if they have it, their fellowships, their grants and their career: forever. Ditto the department head, and frankly same for the Dean and the President. Anyone with direct knowledge of this should be looking for another line of work, if not facing charges.
52
No. No. NO! How could they? How could they do that to little girls?
54
Many of you here seem to respond with stunning shock and dismay.

That's good, but that's not even the beginning. Maybe it's just the experiences of people I've known over the years, but non-consensual genital mutilation has been going on like this — and slipping past ethics committees at respected academic institutions — for a terribly long time. None of this reads as novel to me, and perhaps this is one of the shitty things about having an ear to the ground as a transsexual person and knowing the people I have over the past twenty years.

Considering the myriad of good folk (and some, alas, very twisted by said experiences) I've known over the years who were mutilated (and traumatized) by surgeons, sexologists, and their ilk without informed consent, this reads like another chapter on the FGM/IGM/MGM oeuvre of debate pertaining to kids' tender bits and who has the right to fuck with them — irrespective the reason or rationale.

Poppas is effectively another from the crop which sprouted John Money in the 1960s and 1970s. The problem here, Dan et al, is that none of these names dropped in this entry have clean hands — not Alice Dreger, not Kenneth Zucker, and not a slew of others closely connected to these names which were not mentioned here.

Zucker, for instance, contends vehemently that transsexuality can be "cured" in kids so that they somehow stop being transsexual as they get older. This is as absurd as trying to "cure" homosexuality. It freaks me out that Zucker is not only affiliated with CAMH (Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, formerly the Clarke Institute), but also Sick Kids Hospital.

Dreger, meanwhile, harmfully classifies intersex body features as a "disorder". She is a close faculty colleague as the hack of a researcher, J. Michael Bailey, at Northwestern. Use this as a springing board to read more on the two of them. There is no shortage of nastiness about this rabbit hole.

In short, I wouldn't call it comfort that finally people are seriously sitting up and taking notice to these continued "research projects" — and funded with grants, no less — to explore the pathology of sex, sexuality, and sexual identity in the most innocent of people: kids lacking level power over their body. I'd call it "too little, too late". Poppas has no place within the academic realm, just as Money, Zucker, Blanchard, Dreger, and others don't, either.

Dan, I applaud you for drawing attention to the extremely questionable ethics about Poppas, but you're really only touching on the tip of a very dangerous, very nasty iceberg.

Here's what everyone should walk away with:

1) Tinkering with the tender bits of any body, without informed consent of the individual whose body hosts those tender bits, has no place in the medical oeuvre.

2) "Sexology" is as dubious a discipline as phrenology

3) All of the incestuous peers in the sexology realm — all the names cited above — should not only not be taken seriously, but also not permitted to continue their "research" in any respectable academic institution or teaching hospital. They are all caustic.

Next time, I'll do this without a bunch of Dragonstooth Stout in my bloodstream.
55
I started a group on Facebook. Get the word out everybody.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=13…
56
My jaw dropped as I read this post....I am beyond disgusted that this is true and still happening. Anywhere but here in the US, and at Cornell? Doing the surgery in the first place is wrong, and what is "normal" sexual developement anyways? This is pedophilia to the worst degree, the whole vibrator testing bullshit is proof of that. I don't care if it's for "medical" reasons or if the parents are present, doing this annually is repeated systematic molestation. That doctor is a sicko and should be stopped. As I woman and soon to be mother of a baby girl I am totally outraged and sickened by this information.
Thank you to poster #41 for those contacts, I think this is one I will have to speak up about.
57
You know, everything about this I would argue is reasonable IF and only IF (and this, for anyone who has been through an ethics board, is the crucial point) the expected benefits of the study outweigh the risks. There are lots of things that seem heinous and invasive on paper (electroshock therapy for depression) that, if people were educated, wouldn't be so shocking (no pun intended). However, I simply see no justification for this at all. I suppose I need to read the paper before i pass judgement as journalists are notoriously bad at reporting on scientific articles, but I just see no purpose to cutting away tissue. At least for male circumcision has some, albeit questionable and sketchy, research to support it having health benefits. What could possible be the support for cutting away the glans? In children no less. If this was research for cosmetic purposes, then why not in adults? I urge people to be slow to pass judgement, but some things don't match up here.
58
I find this story appalling.
I find that I agree with much of the comment here. 4 and 25's comments are especially resonant for me. Learning from 37 that this might be thought of as serving to minimize the harm caused by the mutilation...I suppose that I could imagine someone holding that point of view if they first accepted that the mutilation was justified. I don't accept it at all. Instead this whole thing fills me with rage. I hope (probably vainly) to see an end to child genital mutilation, of all sorts, in my lifetime.
59
I hope somebody punches this guy in the face a couple times.
60
God, Telsa, that article you linked to is incredible, how have we become so divorced from our instincts as parents that we would allow a *doctor* to instruct us in child abuse? How could the mother in that article witness her son's extreme pain and ignore it, it boggles the mind. No wonder he attempted suicide later.
61
Where are the SPD when you need them?
62
Dan,
This is absolutely awful. This is FGM, plain and simple. I can't believe it is being practiced under the guise of "medicine". Please doctors leave the girls alone.
63
I`m glad to see the tradition of sexual shaming, exhibition, and molestation of children with non-`conforming`genitals is still going strong.

We need to yell about this. Kick a fuss and never let it die until every last boy with a small penis, girl with a large clitoris, and child with ``ambiguous`` genitalia is protected from surgeon-quack-fucks like these and allowed to grow up healthy, unashamed, and able to make choices about their own bodies.
64
Sickening. Unbelievable.
65
@60: Check out what John Money did to David Reimer. Calling that a "human tragedy" is damning what happened with faint condemnation. Reimer completed his own suicide.

Some of you might have heard me mention Anne "The Manne" Lawrence before. S/he's the scary man-in-a-dress who has fucked everything up for a lot of transsexual people. Lawrence is not only based in Seattle and was investigated for molesting a patient under anaesthesia in 1997 (with Lawrence-as-then-anaesthesiologist), but is also a self-asserted sexologist who has worked with J. Michael Bailey (at Northwestern) and Ray Blanchard (at Toronto's CAMH).

I cannot overstate how big a rabbit hole this is. All of these people are poison, and yes, not only does it reach Toronto, Chicago, Baltimore, and Ithaca, but also Seattle.
66
i can't believe what i just read. really!?! methinks this man is in for a shitstorm.
67
@62: No. Please doctors, leave all the kids alone.
68
What could be going through these parents' heads??? I will add to the multitudes on this one and say: Genital mutilation is WRONG on girls OR boys!
69
Does anyone know a major donor (he'll, any donor) to Cornell? Any alumni? Alums voices on this would be helpful. Speak up, let the alumni association president know you'd like this practice stopped and that you'll encourage other alums to pull support unless something is done.
70
@Tesla, I'm glad you mentioned John Money—this story reeks of him and the medical precedents he facilitated. And of course, invasive, nonconsensual medical procedures are not new to a whole lot of people. In the late '60s/early '70s, Money "treated" twins, one of whom had a botched circumcision that burned off the penis. Money's thoughts on gender echoed a larger cultural assumption that it was inconceivable for someone to live as a man without a penis, so he advised that the child be raised as a girl—with his, er, help:
The genital inspections that Dr. Money demanded [the twins] perform were central to his theory of how children develop a sense of themselves as a boy or girl—and thus, in Money's mind, crucial to the successful outcome of Brenda's sex reassignment. For as Money stressed in his writings of the period,
The firmest possible foundations for gender schemas are the differences between male and female genitals and reproductive behavior, a foundation our culture strives mightily to withhold from children. All young primates explore their own and each others' genitals, masturbate, and play at thrusting movements and copulation—and that includes human children everywhere, as well as subhuman primates. The only thing wrong about these activities is not to enjoy them.

But the children did not enjoy these enforced activities—particularly those involving "play at thrusting movements and copulation," which Brian recalls that Dr. Money first introduced when the twins were six years old. Money, he says, would make Brenda assume a position on all fours on his office sofa and make Brian come up behind her on his knees and place his crotch against her buttocks. Variations on the therapy included Brenda lying on her back with her legs spread and Bryan lying on top of her. On at least one occasion, Brian says, Dr. Money took a Polaroid photograph of them while they were engaged in this part of the therapy.*

What became of the twins? Drug overdose and suicide.

*from John Colapinto's As Nature Made Him, which is chock full of misconceptions about gender, but at least tells the story.
71
@70: David Reimer is the Money-mutilated twin from Winnipeg I referred to in @65. Given when he wrote it, John Colapinto did an OK job of conveying that David endured, but he approached it the way a writer from Rolling Stone would: like an assignment curiosity. Colapinto wrote naĂŻvely and with a morbid fascination. But in February 2000, when the book was published, it was the best one could hope for.

On this "sexology" note, when can we kick Anne "The Manne" Lawrence out of Seattle, people?
72
@54 "2) "Sexology" is as dubious a discipline as phrenology"

Can be, often is, doesn't have to be.
73
To all the people wondering how parents could "do this" to their children: These doctors frequently chastise and insist upon the surgeries, claiming that without the invasive medical procedures and humiliating follow-up exams, the children will grow up somehow feeling monstrous, freakish, sexually dysfunctional, and ultimately loveless. The surgery is the first and last hope for the children to have "normal" sexual lives. Lives where their sex is chosen for them and the amount of sexual stimulation that is "acceptable" determined based on the steadiness of a surgeon's hand.
Parents are scared and confused, they just went through the trial of pregnancy and early child-rearing to have someone with a bunch of letters tell them their child is not "normal" and it must be fixed immediately. In some cases, parents aren't given the choice, the surgery to alter or "normalize" their children was mandatory.
We trust doctors. Culturally, we have to, it's not hard for a doctor to convince someone, especially a worried parent, that a procedure is necessary, especially when they claim it holds the child's future happiness and ability to conform in society is at stake. Ultimately, the procedure is useless and meaningless and scars the family more than raising the child without the bother would have...which has been reported by personal anecdotes countless times. Which, if it shows anything, it reveals how callous and greedy these doctors are, no mater how many trumped-up claims they make.
So, I imagine this isn't any easier for the parents.
74
@72: Okay, fine. If not phrenology, then physiognomy.

All, coupled with "sexology", are a pseudoscience — all beaugus.
75
@73: h/t for a lot. Merci.
76
This man is a nazi.
77
How is this particularly different from male circumcision? I ask not because I am not horrified by this, but because I think that the act of circumcision is just as awful a surgery to do to a child who is unable to consent, yet somehow we accept it blindly, because it's written in a book of fairtales from over 2000 years ago that it's a good idea.
78
I'd say I threw up in my mouth a little, reading this horror story, BUT my jaw was on the floor so the vomit landed on my keyboard instead.

I scooped it up and I'm packaging it up and mailing some of it to Cornell U.

Then emailing Obama about this. Because oil spills can wait: this shit? gotta stop now.
79
I love my Dan.
80
Thanks for putting this out there.
81
Just, what in the everloving fuck. You better talk about this on your podcast and in your next column, Dan. This sick fuck needs to be stopped, like, YESTERDAY.
82
@77 - wow, it took 77 posts for someone to point out that it's worse for the menz. Normally it's up around post 10.

Also, I just don't GET why they're doing this surgery in the first place. I have a big clit and nobody, female or male, has ever had any problems with it. Hubby thinks it's pretty hot when I get hard for him.
83
OMFG, this is disturbing on so many levels. I thought I couldn't get more outraged or creeped out after reading that a guy was hacking off chunks of girls genitals, and then you go and tell us that he pokes the mutilated bits with vibrators. WTF a thousand times.

How is this legal? How did this make it past the ethics panel? How was this reviewed and accepted for publication without an outcry? What the fuck?!
84
Who do we write/call/email? Cornell should be susceptible to mass public pressure.
85
@ 84, see @ 31, 41, 48, and 55.
86
@ 73 - Thank you for this thoughtful, critical post. You're absolutely right - this is one of those cases where the responsibility ultimately lies with the doctor
87
Dear fucking god.
88
I guess none of these doctors would be doing anything if the parents didn't consent.

yeah parents!
89
I don't understand why it is so hard to protect our children. They are our greatest resource and greatest joy yet we continually destroy and allow their destruction. These are babies, precious adorable babies who are being brutalized physically, emotionally and mentally in the name of science. Would this doctor perform this surgery on his own daughter? There is so much wrong with this. Who will protect these children? Not even their own parents it looks like.
90
@ 88, see @ 73.
91
Ugh, I think I'm going to be sick.

Tell me to march Dan. Tell me who to donate to. TELL ME WHAT I NEED TO DO TO HELP STOP THIS!
92
@31: Message sent. Thank you, Fnarf--and SLOG for posting this.
93
How do 6 year olds get identified as having a larger than average clit? I honestly can't think what you'd be doing that would reveal that? Once it's revealed, what fucking parent brings them in for experimental surgery to cut a chunk of it off? Dan, I think you let the parents off the hook too much on this one.

As for why they do recurring visits, that I can understand. While I think the methods are totally unacceptable I don't know how else you would do it. You may not be able to reattach their cut off clit but you still want to identify if there are any long term complications with the surgery. If you fucked up this one girl you may not be able to fix her but at least you can change the way you do the surgery or just STOP DOING THE FUCKING SURGERY YOU SICK SICK FUCK once you've identified that it causes long term problems.
94
Call the Ithica field office for the FBI and report this CHILD ABUSE!!! Or print out this article and fax it to them and the Dept of Justice. That's what I did. You should too. This is child explotation for the sake of "research" both by the parents and the doctors involved. This is a fucking nightmare. Send the link to the local TV stations too.
FBI:
Room 317, Center Ithaca Building
171 E. State Street
Ithaca, NY 14850
Phone: (607) 272-6424
Fax: (607) 272-1550
95
According to the Psychology Today link, he didn't actually get IRB approval for the "sensory testing."

How come the article says Poppas had IRB (ethics oversight) approval and we suggest he probably didn't? Because what he has approval for is retrospective chart review, a harmless little look back at what he recorded in the charts as having happened to his patients. What he didn't do was to get approval in advance for the "clitoral sensory testing" that he was writing down in the chart and then used to produce the systematic and generalized conclusions about his technique.


The fact that he got approval for the mutilation is still sickening.

96
I must proclaim my hard-won disgust at this practice. I was mutilated as a 6 year old child, by my doctor, with my mother holding me down. The reason I was cut was due to a genetic anomaly where my labia sealed together, and had it been my choice, or MY DAUGHTER, I would certainly have approached the surgery differently. For one, I would have liked some anestesia, for two, I would have preferred a FEMALE doctor, who may not have been so anxious to brutalize a vagina. This incident when I was a small child did NOT HELP MY SEXUAL HEALTH. IN FACT, it has haunted me into my adulthood. I talk about it openly, which does help, but these terrorized young girls at Cornell have no voice yet to be heard, they are not adults, and their mothers are obviously swooned by some sort of compensation. Money? Drugs? What are the mothers being bribed with to sell their daughters into this macabre "study" where these procedures will damage their minds, hearts, bodies, and souls. CORNELL UNIVERSITY: I beg you, please, for the love of all that is right and good in the world, that this mangler, this alleged "doctor," must be STOPPED, his "study" halted, his work EXPOSED, and his consequences faced. I WANT THIS MAN IN JAIL>and I am not alone. Your sanction of these practices, as a University, is abhorrent to the core, and will be broadcast nationwide as an utter failing in your ethics department, a failure in your teaching methods, and a total failure in ACADEMIC SCIENCE. If Cornell University proports itself as a legitimate institution, it must adress this atrocity or face serious retribution. Everyone involved in this heinous crime should be called to account for their actions, in a courtroom. The "doctor," the board of Cornell, the MOTHERS of the children, and the students who participated in the "teaching efforts" of this mad scientist. I will be a voice among many, I am sure, but my story speaks for itself. As an American citizen I must protest the indignities being thrust upon these little ladies, and will add my petition to the throng for it to be STOPPED ONCE AND FOR ALL!
97
For the love of god, please do something kinky and mindblowing with the next doctor you run into.

I have worked with young doctors for many years in a research setting. I continuously amazed at how sexually naive and inexperienced physicians usually are. This results from the combination of being academic grinds, straight arrows and totally career focused from adolescence on. Add in a healthy dose of arrogance and conformism and you get a picture of the average young docs mental framework about sex. It's a culture that results in someone like Poppas helping girls to be "normal"--his version of normal.
98
And if you're reading this and you're a student at Cornell: female genital mutilation is being practiced on your campus. What are you going to do about it?

What should I do about it?
99
I sent this to the New York Post. That paper is MADE for stories like this, If it gets front page, everyone in NYC will know about this.
100
I am outraged and disgusted. I'm not that surprised about the doctor - there's some f**cked up people out there. But that Cornell University allows him to mutilate girls and parents are hiring him to mutilate their daughters - I'm stunned. What kind of parent is that obsessed with their girl's clits that they would do this? Seeking this kind of surgery should result in the termination of all parental rights. And Dr. Dix should lose his medical license and Cornell sued into oblivion.

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