Benatar (philosophy, U. of Cape Town, South Africa) compiles a group of 13 essays by internationally based scholars in medical ethics, law, health policy, and philosophy, who weigh the harms, benefits, and ethics involving morally contested surgeries: male circumcision, female genital cutting, sex assignment and reassignment, conjoined twins separation, limb and face transplantation, and cosmetic and placebo surgeries. The book is aimed at surgeons, students and scholars of bioethics, and the general reader. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
When the benefits of surgery do not outweigh the harms or where they do not clearly do so, surgical interventions become morally contested. Cutting to the Core examines a number of such surgeries, including infant male circumcision and cutting the genitals of female children, the separation of conjoined twins, surgical sex assignment of intersex children and the surgical re-assignment of transsexuals, limb and face transplantation, cosmetic surgery, and placebo surgery.