Jimmy Carter's Ethical Dilemmas

Jimmy Carter’s book, A Call To Action began by establishing certain ethical dilemmas that have gone on in the past, and are still going on today. These dilemmas include women’s rights issues such as slavery, genital cutting, rape, spousal abuse, etc. Carter claims that a factor for the abuse of women is that people turn to violence first, instead of solving issues ethically and using violence as a last resort or even ceasing the use of violence entirely. Our former president then talked about how he accompanied two other civil rights leaders to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his “I have a dream” speech. He said that he began thinking about a previous speech King had given in New York City. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was an anti-war activist,
This chapter discussed genital cutting, which I had no previous knowledge of. Genital cutting is the removal of all or part of a female’s genitalia. Other terms for this could be female cutting or female circumcision. This procedure can cause many issues to a woman that includes infection, menstruation defects, issues with sexual intercourse, and problems with childbirth. Many of the women who undergo this surgery die from either bleeding out or infection. It has been estimated that approximately 125 million females have undergone female genital cutting. The purpose of this procedure is to ensure that young girls will not grow up and have the desire and enjoyment of sex. The term used in the text is to “purify” the women. This procedure is usually done at a very young age. In many religions, genital cutting is the step towards a girl becoming a woman. Genital cutting was predominately practiced in Senegalese religions. However, as of 2012, the practice of genital cutting has been against the law because it was seen as abusive to little girls. Thankfully, in 2013 about 6,400 villages stopped the practice. UNICEF provided a shocking statistic about women who have undergone this horrific procedure. 91% of women in Egypt, 98% in Somalia, 96% in Guinea, 93% in Djibouti, 89% in Eritrea, 89% in Mali, 88% in Sierra Leone, and 88% in Sudan have had this procedure. These statistics mean that almost every woman in the countries listed have undergone the surgery, probably against their will. They also said that 50% of women in Kenya, Guinea-Bissau, The Gambia, Ethiopia, Chad, Faso, and Burkina have been cut as well. A public poll had been taken and only a third of women in these countries wanted to see this practice continue. This chapter has been a complete eye opener to me that this horrific stuff goes on in our world. I cannot believe these women have to go