{"id":10015886,"date":"2024-04-17T17:02:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-17T16:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.spaltkinder.org\/unkategorisiert\/why-we-should-no-longer-call-cleft-lip-a-harelip\/"},"modified":"2024-07-05T12:28:33","modified_gmt":"2024-07-05T10:28:33","slug":"why-we-should-no-longer-call-cleft-lip-a-harelip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spaltkinder.org\/en\/category-news\/why-we-should-no-longer-call-cleft-lip-a-harelip\/","title":{"rendered":"Why we should no longer call cleft lip a \u201charelip\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cHarelip\u201d, \u201ccamel\u2019s mouth\u201d, \u201cwolf\u2019s maw\u201d. These terms are not found in an encyclopedia on animal anatomy, but in older works on human medicine in various languages. People did not understand cleft lip and palate and named them after the things from their daily lives they seemed to look like: animals. We have much more medical knowledge about how clefts are formed now. And in our societies today, respectful communication is seen as increasingly important. But still many people continue to use these archaic terms in everyday language. Sometimes they are even still used in newspapers, television programs and medical journals. This despite the fact that many people with cleft lip and palate think that words like \u201charelip\u201d are pejorative and degrading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where do these terms come from? Are they used in other countries? And how can we move toward more tolerant and equitable communication?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where does the term \u201charelip\u201d come from?<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

In German-language medical literature, the term \u201cHasenscharte\u201d (\u201chare\u2019s cleft\u201d) first appears in a 1460 work by the renowned German surgeon Heinrich von Pfalzpaint. Why the hare was chosen as a comparison, when other animals also have a Y-shaped appearance of the nose and the upper lip, is not known. Presumably, the name is not only based on the appearance, but also has its origins in a superstition that was widespread at the time: In Germany as well as in the Anglo-American area and Asia, it was widely believed for a long time that seeing a hare, eating hare meat or even simply thinking of the animal during pregnancy could lead to the birth of a child with cleft lip. \u201cHare lip\u201d is the name given to cleft lips in English, and \u201cTu Que\u201d \u2013 \u201cTu\u201d meaning hare and \u201cQue\u201d meaning cleft or defect \u2013 is the old name given to them in China. Even though perceptive doctors disproved the \u201chare theory\u201d centuries ago by pointing out that hunters\u2019 wives should have almost exclusively children with cleft if the theory was true, the terms have remained in widespread use until today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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