ABSTRACT
The chapter considers Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and concludes that, notwithstanding the fact that aspects of the FGM Act 2003 are not fully in line with the Principle of Generic Consistency (PGC), due to practical and societal realities, this Act represents a good faith attempt at applying the PGC. The FGM Act 2003 contains a blanket ban of FGM and renders the practice illegal for all, where the reference to ‘girls’ is taken to specifically include ‘women’. Sir James Munby held that it would ‘never be reasonable parenting to inflict any form of FGM’ but that ritual male circumcision can be accepted by both society and the law. The fact that the court found that if FGM had been in place, there would be no automatic annulling of parental rights or forced adoption of the affected child raises many questions for society that are beyond the scope of this monograph.
