CIN (Circumcision Information Network) 2:10

Introduction
This weekly bulletin is a project of CIN, the Circumcision Information Network (formerly CIN CompuBulletin). The purpose of this weekly bulletin is to educate the public about and to protect children and other non-consenting persons from genital mutilation. Readers are encouraged to copy and redistribute it, and to contribute written material.
--Rich Angell, Editor.

CIRCUMCISION:  THE PROCEDURE.
For brevity, only one of the most common forms of routine circumcision
will be described here. 

The baby boy is usually taken out of sight and sound from his parents. 
His arms and legs are strapped to a plastic board called a Circumstraint
or otherwise held down to prevent movement.  At this point he baby is
already becoming distressed.  The genitals are scrubbed to prepare for
surgery.  The foreskin is torn form the glans and slit lengthwise to allow
insertion of the circumcision instrument.  Then, the foreskin is
amputated.  This usually takes between 5 and 10 minutes. 

This procedure is most often done without an anesthetic because many
physicians still believe babies don't feel pain, that the pain is not
centralized, or that pain doesn't matter because the baby will not
remember it. 

The circumcision procedure is undeniably painful and traumatic for the
infant.  Most babies scream throughout the surgery, while others infants
"pass out" from shock and exhaustion, which is one way any human copes
with the experience of overwhelming and prolonged pain.  Circumcision is a
surgical procedure with inherent risks:  these include hemorrhage,
infection, surgical mistakes, and possible death.  Serious complications
occur with one in every 500 circumcisions. 

In May of 1993, a baby lost the tip of his penis due to a botched
circumcision at Marin General Hospital in California.  The following
month, a baby in Miami bled to death as a result of his circumcision. 
These are just two recent examples of reported complications. 

Most deaths and other complications due to circumcision are not reported
as circumcision-related.  For example, if a hemopheliac baby bleeds to
death after a circumcision, the cause of death is listed as "hemophelia." 
If a baby suffers a gastric rupture, the cause is listed as "vehement
crying." 

Even if an anesthetic is used, pain returns as the anesthesia wears off,
so pain is only delayed.  And the long-term result is the same: the
child's healthy genital integrity is violated and he is robbed of his
protective & erogenous foreskin. 

"U.S. CITED FOR RAMPANT HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS"
The New Times, February, 1995, Seattle, Washington, by Cat Saunders
[First of a multi-part series.]

No, the headline of this article is not taken from some political piece
reprinted from The Washington Post. Nor is is borrowed from the official
U.N. list of countries which are still committing human rights violations
brutal enough to make you sick. No. The headline comes straight out of the
heart of one person, me, who has had the audacity to speak out on behalf
of untold millions of babies who have been and still are brutally
mutilated in our own country. 
     
I' m tired of being "nice" about what's happening. I'm sick of using
euphemisms to talk about "it" -- circumcision -- as if it were no big
deal. I hate the idea that I should talk about it in cool, calm, collected
terms so as not to arouse "uncomfortable" feelings of guilt in the people
who are responsible for its continuation: parents, doctors, religious
authorities, hospital personnel, legislators and political leaders,
circumcision restraint manufacturers, the general media, and anyone else
who supports it directly or indirectly through apathy and denial. Most of
all, I've had it with the fact that our government parades around like
some kind of moral icon, blasting other countries for their human rights
violations, when we are one of the world's worst offenders!  We Americans
recoil in horror at reports of female circumcision in third world
countries, yet we refuse to see that we commit equally brutal acts of
genital mutilation every day, on baby boys. Do you think I'm exaggerating
when I say that infant circumcision is genital mutilation?  Then I think
you are part of the problem. Do you think I'm seeing clearly, but you feel
helpless to change reality? I understand. Sometimes I feel helpless, too. 
But if we all take our feelings of helplessness and let them deepen into
powerful feelings of grief and rage, then we can stop this terrible
injustice.  We can't change what we've already done, but we can mourn it. 
We can face the incredible ramifications of this kind of legally
sanctioned, institutionally practiced, and religiously supported sexual
abuse. And we can say no.  Circumcision is sexual abuse.  It is a profound
violation of human rights. 

Think about it.  Everyday in our country more than three thousand baby
boys undergo circumcision. That translates into more than 1.25 million
genital mutilations every year. A piece of foreskin that would become 15
square inches (when erect) of sensitive Penile tissue is sliced from the
genitals of tiny infants -- without their permission and typically,
without anesthesia. 
     
The screams of these babies haunt me. Their souls cry out: please help us.
If the victims cannot defend themselves, and if the government offers no
protection, then those of us who can see what is happening must stop the
insanity. 

A group of nurses from St. Vincent' s Hospital in Santa Fe, New Mexico can
see. They have organized to stop circumcision. In this interview, I spoke
with four of the nurses who were in Seattle recently. As you read their
stories, open your heart. Let your feelings come, for only if we all feel
the horror of circumcision can we stop it. Together we can stop it now. 

Editor's note:  To be continued.  Next time, the interview with the nurses.

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