Genital Modifications and Moral Boundary-making: Medical Perspectives on FGM/C versus FGCS in Belgium and the Netherlands

Hannelore Van Bavel

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Abstract: This chapter investigates how medical professionals who perform female genital cosmetic surgery (FGCS) in Belgium and the Netherlands perceive and negotiate the boundary between FGCS and female genital mutilation (FGM). It draws on in-depth qualitative interviews conducted with 11 medical professionals between March 2024 and August 2025, as part of a broader study of genital self-image, motivations for FGCS, and clinical responses. FGM is criminalised in both countries, whereas FGCS is not, even though some procedures classified as FGCS technically fall within the legal and policy definitions of FGM. In 2008, professional societies in the Netherlands attempted to clarify the distinction but ultimately failed to establish concrete criteria, relying instead on what they regarded as a self-evident difference. Healthcare professionals are therefore left to interpret and navigate this boundary in practice, drawing on their own professional knowledge, moral reasoning, and sociocultural understandings. This ambiguity raises important questions about how medical professionals distinguish between FGM and FGCS in their everyday practice. Do they regard the two as fundamentally different, or do they recognise areas of overlap, and on what grounds? What forms of reasoning, knowledge, and professional or cultural frameworks inform their distinctions? To what extent do their views reflect, reproduce, or resist broader social, cultural, and political discourses?

Date: 2026-09-23
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:osf:socarx:q2s8g_v4

DOI: 10.31235/osf.io/q2s8g_v4

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