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Ryan McAllister, Ph.D. is the Executive Director of
NotJustSkin.org He works
as biophysicist and studies several topics, including the development
of the nervous system.
NotJustSkin.org is
dedicated to providing scientific information about questionable
medical procedures and advocating for human rights.
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Guest Article... |
CIRCUMCISION
: Health, Sexism, and Human Rights
by
Ryan McAllister, Ph.D
and Dan Sisan, Ph.D
© 2004
Circumcision may not be something you’ve
thought about before, but it might be one of the most
important decisions made for our children today. It is also
a decision that illustrates how we perceive and care for our
boy children differently than our girl children.
Most cultures don’t circumcise either sex of
child (European, South American, and most Asian countries),
and some cultures circumcise both (about 28 African
countries.
View maps here.) The U.S. stands alone in
routinely circumcising male babies without religious
reasons.
The idea of circumcising a girl sends most
Americans into shock or rage. Why, then, is the idea of
circumcising a boy met with apathy or humor? Some argue the
procedure is worse for girls than it is for boys. Is this
fact, or another sign that we feel less compassion for boys
than girls? (See below for information on the severity of
the procedures.)
Not knowing much about circumcision, about
half of American parents today allow someone to circumcise
their boys.
Why? Appearance? Health? Cleanliness?
Conformity? Parents often state that they were motivated by
conformity, either “so he will look like [the dad]” or so
that he “won’t be teased.” Can you imagine other surgeries
being performed on otherwise-typical, healthy children
merely for conformity? Perhaps a need of our own plays a
role in this choice we make for our children. Perhaps
knowing it was done to ourselves or our loved ones leads us
to rationalize that it was done for good reason.
But maybe it wasn’t.
Consider how circumcision first became
popular in America. In the late nineteenth century, male
circumcision was adopted by doctors to “cure” masturbation.
Masturbation was claimed to cause epilepsy and a number of
other unrelated maladies. (Read more of the history.) Today,
circumcision is the country’s and the world’s most common
infant surgery. At the same time, it’s surrounded by
misinformation, emotional charge, and – I argue – sexism.
Consider the following:
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Circumsision of infants is not recommended by any
national medical association.
Read the statements. |
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Circumcision has a 2-10% complication rate. Serious
risks include infection, hemorrhage, scarring, shock,
penile disfigurement, penile amputation, and even
occasional death.
Read a detailed analysis and studies
of the complications. |
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Circumcision has no proven health benefits. Some studies
show that it increases risk of infections or disease
transmission. The few studies that indicate some health
benefits, either lower urinary tract infection (UTI) or
sexually transmitted disease (STD) rates, all have
serious methodological flaws (usually in terms of
population selection). Further, all of these diseases
have a combined occurrence rate lower than breast
cancer. With only dubious evidence of partial protection
from
Read more. |
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An
intact penis is easy to clean and care for. The
circumcision wound, on the other hand,
requires cleaning and bandaging for the week after the
procedure. |
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Circumcision changes the way an infant will later
experience sex and sexuality. It removes several square
inches of functional, healthy tissue including
10,000-20,000, or about half, of the penile nerve
endings. It is likely that removal of these nerves and
tissue damages the ability to feel sexual pleasure in a
way that the affected man will never know. Problems
later in life can include lack of sensation, chafing,
lack of arousal, frustration, and problems due to
insufficient lubrication.
Read more. |
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Circumcision hurts – excruciatingly. The foreskin is
highly sensitive tissue that is fused to the head of the
infant’s penis, and must be forcibly ripped before being
amputated. The procedure sometimes sends infants into
shock. Babies who have been circumcised are
significantly more likely to have problems
breast-feeding, and they demonstrate heightened pain
responses months later.
Read
more. |
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Men who
were circumcised as infants have higher rates of rage,
depression, and other psychological challenges than men
who were not, as identified by self-assessment and
partner assessment.
See this article for example. |
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Female
partners of circumcised men reported less pleasure
during intercourse, and experience more sexual problems
in a study with self-selected subjects.
Read the article. |
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A child
who is not subjected to circumcision is likely to fit in
with his peers. U.S. circumcision rates are falling,
down from 90% in the 1970s to below 60% today. |
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Some
Jewish individuals are opting for alternative ceremonies
that do not require cutting called “Brit Shalom.”
Read about Brit Shalom. |
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Proponents of female circumcision argue that U.S. male
infant circumcision validates female circumcision. The
claim that male circumcision is cleaner or that it
should be done for the benefit of future female partners
mirrors statements that female circumcision is necessary
to keep women "clean" and "acceptable" for their
husbands.
Read more about the parallels between male and female
circumcision. |
U.S. Federal law protects female children
from genital cutting, modification, or piercing of any kind.
No such laws exist to protect boys.
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In many
African countries, both male and female circumcisions
are performed under similar, unhygienic conditions.
Around the world, seven times as many boys as girls are
circumcised each year and hundreds or thousands of boys
die from the procedure. Yet, only deaths from and opposition to female
circumcision receive attention in the U.S. |
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Further,
there are 4 categories of genital cutting (or mutilation
as we call it when it’s done to women. Most male and
female circumcisions fall into class 1 or 2, class 1
being the least severe. Eighty percent of female
circumcisions fall into class 2 and involves “Excision
of the prepuce with or without excision of part or all
of the clitoris,” as defined by the World Health
Organization.
Male circumcision damages or removes the analogous parts
of the male, such as the frenulum, sometimes referred to
as the male clitoris, where most of the penile nerves
cluster. Thus male circumcision is as bad female
circumcision.
Read more on the genital mutilation classifications. |
|
Involuntary circumcision violates the human
right to an intact body.
Read article |
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Human rights are supposed to be the same for
all people, regardless of gender. |
To sum up: circumcision is not recommended by
any national medical advisory organization in the world; it
has surgical risks; removes healthy, sexually functional
tissue; is likely to have lifelong physical and emotional
consequences; and is practiced discriminatorily on boys. Can
we justify this practice? I argue that parents and doctors
have no place circumcising children. This choice is rightly
the child’s.
You’d probably like to say that you’re the
kind of parent who would protect your daughter from
circumcision if she were born in Nigeria or Somalia. Be that
kind of parent for your son in America.
Here are a few more things you could do:
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Encourage friends and family to get the facts on
circumcision before they have children. Comprehensive
medical information is available at
http://www.NotJustSkin.org. |
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Overcome
your embarrassment and talk about circumcision.
Acknowledge the wounds it has produced for some men, and
the need to protect children from unnecessary surgeries.
Tell people what you wish your parents had known. |
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Sign the
Ashley-Montagu petition to end genital cutting
worldwide:
www.montagunocircpetition.org. |
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Join your local NOCIRC center (you can
find it at www.nocirc.org ). |
Find more suggestions at
NotJustSkin.org.
Copyright 2005 Ryan McAllister, Ph.D and Dan
Sisan, Ph.D, all rights reserved
CIRCUMCISION RESOURCES ON THE
INTERNET
RELATED ARTICLES IN MENSIGHT
Guest Article...
by Kristen
and Jeffery O'Hara
The effect of male circumcision on the
sexual enjoyment of the female partner
Male circumcision, the most commonly
performed surgery in the USA, removes 33 - 50% of the penile
skin, as well as nearly all of the penile fine touch
neuroreceptors. To date no study has investigated whether
this dramatic alteration in the male genitalia affects the
sexual pleasure experienced by the female partner or whether
a woman can physically discern the difference between a
penis with a foreskin. The impact that male circumcision has
on the overall sexual experience for either partner is
unknown.
Go to Article
GUEST ARTICLE...
by J. Steven Svoboda
Circumcision: A
Violent Ritual in Search of a Rationale
The
fact that infant circumcision still happens today is
astounding. (This article is principally concerned with
non-religious circumcision.) If we are male, when we are
just hours or days old, doctors cut off the most sensitive
part of our body. The operation is violent, usually
performed without anesthesia, and unspeakably painful to the
infant. The screams, the shaking, the frantic attempt by the
newborn to escape this unexpected and unbearable pain can be
truly horrible to watch—let alone experience.
Go to Article
CIRCUMCISION: A BARBARIC
PRACTICE, A HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATION
By J. Steven Svoboda
The simple fact that circumcision can happen in
this country is astounding. When we are days old, doctors
cut off the most sensitive part of our body without
anesthesia. The operation is very violent, done without
anesthesia, and unspeakably painful to the infant, as anyone
who witnesses the event with an open mind has to admit. The
screams, shaking, and frantic attempt by the newborn to
escape this unexpected and unbearable pain can be truly
horrible to watch, let alone experience. While societies
tend to be blind to the horrors they create themselves,
anyone must concede that this is brutal and an act of
mutilation.
Go to Article
Infant Circumcision FAQ...
from
Circumcision Information Resource homepage
What is circumcision?
... What are some reasons that circumcision is
performed? Circumcision is primarily performed for
cultural or religious reasons. ...
Go to Article
THE END OF CIRCUMCISION IN AMERICA
by George Denniston MD, MDH... With the formation of
Doctors Opposing Circumcision (DOC), we are proposing
to end routine neonatal circumcision in America.
...
Go to Article
Circumcision of Boys: A Serious Male Health Problem
by
J. Steven Svoboda, Gregory
J. Boyle, and Christopher P. Price
Circumcision does not constitute genuine medical treatment.
It violates criminal law, the Canadian Charter of Rights and
Freedoms, and also human rights. The health implications are
graver than is generally realised, despite clear medical
evidence of adverse effects from the pain, significant
complications, psychological harm and inevitable prejudice
to genital function. There are no clearly demonstrable
medical benefits. The law, the medical profession, and
society in general seems to have turned two blind eyes to
this serious form of violence against males.
Go to Article
Involuntary
Circumcision: The Legal Issues by
R. S. Van Howe, J. S. Svoboda*, J. G.
Dwyer, and C. P. Price
Circumcision is the amputation of the prepuce from the rest
of the penis, resulting in permanent alteration of the
anatomy, histology, and function of the penis.[1,2] Recently
legal scholars have challenged neonatal circumcision’s
legality[3-7] and argued that it constitutes child
abuse.[8,9] While this conjecture may seem outlandish to
American physicians who tend to a population in which 70% to
90% of the males are circumcised neonatally, such claims
have a strong foundation in legal precedent and
medico-ethical standards that aim to protect the bodily
integrity of persons.
Go to Article
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