CIN (Circumcision Information Network) 2:21

CIN CompuBulletin
Circumcision Information Network 
Volume 2, Number 21, 13 June 1995
E-Mail:  CircInfoNe@aol.com

INTRODUCTION
This weekly bulletin is a project of CIN, the Circumcision Information
Network.  Its purpose is to educate the public about and to protect children
from genital mutilation.  Readers are encouraged to copy and redistribute it,
and to contribute written material.  --Rich Angell, Editor.

CHILD HEALTH 2000
Contributed by Dr. Van Howe
Just got back from Child Health 2000 in Vancouver, British Columbia where
NOCIRC had a table in the exhibit hall which was quite well received.  I
helped George Denniston with a poster presentation which had pictures of the
John Taylor's work on the histology of the prepuce as well as Erickson's
pictures of an adult male phallus which demonstrate how much is removed in
mutilation.  NOHARMM held a rally outside of the convention hall which
included actor portraying a circumcision.  The Vancouver Sun put a picture of
the rally on the first page of their second section, but no article
accompanied the picture.  Unfortunately, I was inside with the poster during
the rally.  I did hear a lot of positive comments about the rally from
participants in the conference.  The message to stop genital abuse was well
received.  Nurses from Vancouver tell me that only 18-28% of boys are
circumcised there now and parents pay $250 (Canadian) to have their boys
mutilated.  One bit of depressing news was from an Toronto physician who told
me since the provInce stopped paying for circumcision a year ago, the short
supply of physicians performing the procedure and the demand from the Islamic
community has driven the price up to $1200.  Unfortunately, this has made the
procedure regain new popularity among a segment of the physician population.

NURSES PROTEST CIRCUMCISIONS
Excerpted from the Albuquerque Journal, 13 June:
While registered nurse Mary Conant's own son was circumcised 20 years ago,
today she considers herself a conscientious objector to what is sometime
considered a rite of passage and refuses to assist in the procedure.

"I would die before I assisted with another circumcision," she said.  "Our
real issue here is circumcision as a violation of human rights."

Conant, who worked at St. Vincent Hospital along with nurse Betty Katz
Sperlich, this month formed Nurse for the Rights of the Child, a non-profit
group to protect unconsenting infants and children from surgical alteration
of their genitals.

CIRCUMCISION:  MEDICAL VS. PERSONAL OPINION 
Contributed by medical student Franc Garcia:
The confusion over infant circumcision in the U.S. can be resolved today.
 The solution lies in our willingness to stop and scrutinize medical
statements before we accept them and pass them on in the media or in our own
opinions.  There is an important difference between a doctor's medical
opinion and that same doctor's personal opinion.  For an opinion to
justifiably be called medical it must be based on accepted medical facts.  It
must have a scientific rational which is devoid of emotional desire and
instead is based on objective and compelling evidence.  Otherwise, an opinion
stated by a doctor such as "I believe coca cola causes AIDS" must be
considered a personal thought or non-medical opinion even though it is being
stated by a doctor.  When a doctor such as Dr. Edgar Shoen or Dr. Thomas
Wiswell states that the male foreskin is pathogenic, or that circumcision is
an effective means of preventing disease, HE IS NOT EXPRESSING A MEDICAL
OPINION even though HE may consider it a medical opinion.  Because there is
no medical evidence which proves such claims about the foreskin, Dr.
Wiswell's and Dr. Shoen's statements about it can only be considered personal
and in no way related to their status as doctors.  It is critically important
for the media to understand this important distinction.  DR. SHOEN AND DR.
WISWELL MAKE PERSONAL STATEMENTS ABOUT CIRCUMCISION AND NOT MEDICAL ONES.  So
then, the confusion over infant circumcision in the U.S. is maintained
because we neglect to look closely at statements made by doctors about the
issue.  Upon such close examination, many of these statements fail to qualify
as valid medical opinions and what is left instead is a set of true medical
opinions WHICH ARE ACTUALLY CONGRUENT.  If we only consider statements  by
doctors about circumcision which are true medical opinions and not simply
personal statements, we find that the collective medical opinion in the U.S.
is squarely against infant circumcision and the confusion ends.

CIRCUMCISION ADDRESSED ON STAGE
Repeated from last week with some updates and corrections:
My movement theater performance piece, "Seeing in Black and White, Seeing in
Color," which addresses circumcision as a principal issue, is going to be
performed at various places in the Bay Area in the coming months.  I am
performing Sunday, 9 July at 19:00 at Bindlestiff Theater, 185 6th St. at
Howard, San Francisco, and July 23 at 3110 Adeline, Oakland at 19:00.

Last week I had the performance of my life at the California Men's Gathering
in Malibu, and the piece got extremely good feedback.  There is a video of it
and I will be shooting other videos in case anyone is interested!

Come see it!  Call (415) 824-8230, write to 3425 19th Street, San Francisco,
CA 94110 or E-mail me at svoboda @ igc.apc.org if any questions.  --Steve
Svoboda

AN ISRAELI PERSPECTIVE
Contributed by an Israeli reader:
My own experience here in Israel indicates that the testimony of someone cut
in adulthood is particularly effective in breaking through the barrier of
denial --it's harder to call an adult a liar to his face.  

REAL ABUSE, BLIND DENIAL
Contributed by a reader:
I read an article recently lauding two mothers who are working to get tougher
laws to control sexual predators of children.  One of the comments was
something like (quoting from memory so it's not exact)  "Bank robbery is a
federal crime, so should child molestation be, because it steals something
far more precious, a child's soul." 

And I had a thought.  People get so upset (and rightly so, of course) when a
child's genitals are touched improperly.  So how much more important is our
work, then, that we are trying to stop children's genitals for being forever
mutilated.  Yet the recent magazine article on us [New Republic] made us
sound like ridiculous fools with a trivial cause.  

I guess it just proves exactly how horrifying and painful the subject is,
that people must pretend that it's laughable.  With molestation we can at
least pretend the enemy is a stranger (not true anyway, since most sexual
abuse victims know their abuser).  With circumcision that is not possible
since he is us.

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION call NOCIRC, the National Organization of
Circumcision Information Resource Centers at (415) 488-9883.  Ask about the
resource provider nearest you.  For written information, write NOCIRC, PO Box
2512, San Anselmo, CA 94979,  with SASE and/or donation if possible.
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