US academics back in 2016 called for a ban on term 'breastfeeding,' called it 'ethically problematic' for promoting 'gender roles'

Academic researchers back in 2016 insisted that people ought to avoid using the term "breastfeeding," as it is "ethically problematic" — because it promotes and enforces "gender roles," according to a recently resurfaced study.

In February, U.K. hospitals came under fire for using the term "chestfeeding" instead of "breastfeeding" in order to be more inclusive for transgender people.

What are the details?

According to a report from Campus Reform, U.S. academics published a study in journal Pediatrics that called for people to avoid using the apparently controversial term.

Jessica Martucci of the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine and Anne Barnhill of Johns Hopkins University wrote, "We are concerned about breastfeeding promoting that praises breastfeeding as the 'natural' way to feed infants. Promoting breastfeeding as 'natural' may be ethically problematic, and, even more troublingly, it may bolster this belief that 'natural' approaches are presumptively healthier."

Campus Reform reported, "Martucci and Barnhill explained that in the 1950s and 1960s, a movement of women sought to promote breastfeeding in the wake of advances in medical formula technology — an approach that the researchers find 'ethically problematic' because it may 'support biologically deterministic arguments about the roles of men and women in the family' — for example, 'that women should be the primary caretakers of children.'"

As such, Martucci and Barnhill insist that people using the term "natural" when applied to "breastfeeding" may "inadvertently endorse a controversial set of values about family life and gender roles, which would be ethically inappropriate."

What else?

In January, former CNN host Piers Morgan said that the inclusive effort was "nonsense."

"I want transgender people to have respect and dignity and equality," he said. "I don't think you get there by telling midwives to stop using the term 'breastfeeding' because it may upset a few people when 99% of the people in there are breastfeeding. It's nonsense, and this kind of PC-cop nonsense with the language ... it has the opposite effect to what you think it does. It annoys people ... it doesn't bring you any inclusivity. It becomes exclusive; it alienates people."