Just a little stitch? The ethics of hymen reconstruction

Dr. Verina Wild (University of Zürich)

Hymen reconstruction surgery purporting to “restore virginity” is now available in many countries. Little clinical evidence supports the intervention, for which there are no surgical standards of practice and hardly any policy guidance. Nearly as scarce is social science research exploring women’s motivations to undergo the intervention, and health care professionals’ justifications for providing it.

The intervention and the role of health care professionals are ethically controversial, for example: Are physicians becoming accomplices of unjust social norms? Can this really be regarded as an autonomously chosen surgery? Is there a moral obligation for health care professionals to help vulnerable women in order to prevent further harm? Is there a moral obligation for health care professionals to help women pursue their future life plans by expanding spaces of autonomy? Which meaning do concepts such as “justice”, “autonomy” or “vulnerability” have in this case?

Together with a research team we have conducted interviews in Tunisia, trying to find out more about the stories of people involved in hymen reconstruction. Other interviews and data analysis of online requests for hymen reconstruction were undertaken in Germany and Switzerland.

In this paper I present selected empirical results. I will develop first steps of an ethical analysis that takes historical and socio-cultural aspects into account and that includes the voices of women who have undergone the surgery. The complexity of the ethical dimension will become obvious, impacting on potential attempts to develop policy.