Goldman describes some of the harm of circumcision. "Studies show that circumcision is significantly painful, traumatic, and affects the brain. Some infants do not cry because they go into shock. After circumcision infants change behavior, and there are disruptions in mother-child bonding. Anesthetics, if used, do not eliminate circumcision pain." The effects of circumcision pain were not mentioned in the AAP report.
Goldman explains that advocates ignore the significant harm of circumcision. "Most circumcised men, including doctors and researchers, do not know what they are missing. Studies show that circumcision removes up to one-half of the erogenous tissue on the penile shaft. The foreskin protects the head of the penis, enhances sexual pleasure, and facilitates intercourse. Cutting it off removes several kinds of specialized nerves and results in thickening and progressive desensitization, particularly in older men." A survey showed that circumcised men were 4.5 times more likely to use an erectile dysfunction drug. He describes the psychological harm of circumcision in detail in his book.
Most of the official Humanistic Jewish organizations do not distinguish between bris shalom (welcoming ceremony without circumcision) and hospital circucmcision, but there is a growing tendency to oppose circumcision altogether in favor of the new peaceful welcoming ceremonies. Humanistic Rabbis do not perform ceremonies in conjunction with circumcision.
The American Academy of Pediatrics is set to issue a revised policy statement and guidelines on infant circumcision that could come out as early as this spring. The current policy guideline on infant circumcision does not recommend routine infant circumcision, and lays claim to the “potential health benefits” of the procedure.
Over 50 Rabbis, mohels and other Jewish leaders perform covenant ceremonies without surgical circumcision, and many more will do so upon request. These include Rabbis in the Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist and many other branches of Judaism.
Independent filmmaker Eliyahu Ungar-Sargon has recently launched a groundbreaking podcast series that investigates the complexities of Jewish circumcision. The Cut Podcast draws on themes explored in the host’s 2007 documentary Cut: Slicing Though the Myths of Circumcision, but journeys far beyond the scope of that film, with absorbing interviews from diverse Jewish thinkers.
A new study in the International Journal of Men’s Health shows that circumcised men have a 4.5 times greater chance of suffering from erectile dysfunction (ED) than intact men, revealing what appears to be a significant acquisition vector.
A study published in the Journal of Men's Health has found that primary care physicians are most significantly influenced by their own circumcision status in their recommendations for routine infant circumcision. The circumcision status of their sons was also found to be significant.
If this pattern of men suffering from circumcision-related trauma holds true for the general populace, this would constitute a significant mental health problem and, considering that three-fourths of the U.S. male population is circumcised, a public health problem, too.
...the study found that uncircumcised men were less likely to contract HIV. In their discussion of the results, however, the authors of the study failed to mention this vital fact, and concluded by recommending that circumcision be promoted as an AIDS control strategy...
The suit alleges as a result of the circumcision, the boy has been "permanently deprived of having normal sexual intercourse when he is an adult," and is at risk of developing related medical problems.
Many people think that the surgical removal of the foreskin is a risk-free surgery. That is incorrect. Shortly after the surgery, complications such as bleeding, infections, urethral strictures, punctured urethras, scarring and deformities are common. Also, amputations and deaths have been reported. This procedure performed without anesthesia leads to severe pain reactions in babies. In the long term, psychological and sexual issues.
"To sanction medically performed FGM would leave undisturbed the damaging assumptions motivating it, and would endorse the unjust attitudes to girls' and women's rights embodied in the practice."
"The justification for the practice of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is often cited as a tradition, an initiation into adulthood or a religious practice. It is in fact, a serious crime which carries a maximum penalty of 14 years' imprisonment." says Manjula Nayee, Senior Policy Advisor at the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
(NEW YORK, NY) — An original study at the University of Washington has found that male circumcision has no effect on human papillomavirus (HPV) infection rates. These results counter the widely publicized claims that intact males were more than 1.5 times likely to acquire HPV.
Should AB-768 become law, it will assert claims about the health and social benefits of circumcision that the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association have consistently refused to make. In their 40 years of pronouncing on circumcision, the AAP has emphasized that any benefits are speculative and non-universal, while the risks and harms are known and apply to all.
...there are court cases where circumcised men are rewarded compensation, but the money makes these people more frustrated because it doesn't give them the results they want, the results of reconstruction surgeries a very poor. I think that the only way to compensate a person for an organ that was cut without his consent is to regenerate his organ.
An August 2011 letter in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health estimates that circumcision rates have dropped to 12.4%. The letter was written by Robert Darby Ph.D., and analyzes data on Medicaid rebates for circumcision from 2000-2010, tracking a declining trend in infant circumcision rates from its peak of 90% in the 1950s.
The past century has been marked by the declaration and protection of universal human rights, as well as a marked increase in the quality of life, both in the United States and worldwide. With these improvements, higher expectations regarding a child’s right to bodily autonomy have become socially accepted and legally mandated. Many argue that since female children in the U.S. are protected by a 1996 law banning female circumcision, this law should be expanded to include the protection of male children as well.
Rose Chebet, a resident of Kaserem Parish in Kaserem Sub-county in Kapchorwa District, dropped out of school because she had to flee her home, fearing that she would be circumcised. She said she could not access formal education when she went into hiding and was forced to return to her village to resumed her education.
Earlier this month, Men do complain (MDC) and NORM-UK chairman Dr John Warren and colleagues, pictured below, delivered an open letter to the BMA arguing that 'a child who has no disease, no injury or no dangerous abnormality has no need of any type of treatment or irreversible surgery' and that to carry out it out just to please the parents 'violates the autonomy of children'.
"Africa may be viewed as the new source of discarded virgin foreskins to sustain a multi-million-dollar industry. Discarded human foreskins are used in the cosmetics industry, in the manufacture of insulin and artificial skin," the Medical Rights Advocacy Network warns in the letter.
An initiative banning circumcision that was removed from San Francisco's November ballot stimulated a wave of articles related to the topic, but virtually all of them avoid discussing the inherent harm of circumcision.
There are a growing number of Jews who are becoming increasingly vocal in questioning both the ethics and the legality of circumcision. Jews in the Reform Judaism movement have already been advocating for an end to ritual circumcision during the past 180 years. What follows is a collection of statements from Jews who question the ethics and legality of forced under-age circumcision.
(Beirut) - A Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) law that bans female genital mutilation (FGM) is a crucial step in eradicating the practice, Human Rights Watch said today. The Family Violence Bill, approved by the Kurdistan parliament on June 21, 2011, includes several provisions criminalizing the practice, recognized internationally as a form of violence against women. Several studies by the government and non-governmental organizations estimate that the prevalence of FGM among girls and women in Kurdistan is at least 40 percent.
Jonathon Conte discusses his awakening understanding about genital integrity and autonomy, developing skills for talking with people about the issue, and how it affects everyone.
We have a perfectly designed genital structure, the foreskin, and cutting it off is to me a major violation of boys' human rights... I found out that 3/4 of the nerve endings were missing, and this was only recently discovered. Only one study has been done comparing about 160 men in two groups, circumcised and intact, and found that the most sensitive part of the penis is the foreskin... by miles.
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