CIN (Circumcision Information Network) 2:33

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.

DOCUMENTARY IN ENGLAND CAUSES STIR
The following article from the 3 September issue of the Observer, "Short
cuts on a baby's tearful road to faith:  Channel 4 documentary on
circumcision enrages leaders of the Jewish community," by Home Affairs
Correspondent David Rose, was typed by Barry Ellsworth: 

A television documentary that portrays the circ of Jewish babies as a
brutal and needless mutilation was last night denounced as a "fundamental
attack on Jewish life" likely to provoke anti-Semitism. 

The programme, "It's a Boy," to be screened on Channel 4 this month,
includes graphic footage of a circ in the Midlands that went disastrously
wrong.  The 8-day-old baby, circumised without anaesthetic by a rabbi who
is not a doctor, is seen bloodied and screaming in agony during the
operation.  When lt was clear things were going wrong, the rabbi demanded
the crew stop filming, but they secretly recorded what followed.  The boy
developed an infection and ended up in intensive care being pumped with
anti-biotics and kept alive by oxygen and drips. 

The film -- the work of Victor Schonfeld, the Jewish father of a
circumised son -- also presents details of 2 babies who died as a result
of circ and contains an interview with the mother of a third who almost
bled to death.  It reveals cases of permanent genital disfigurement,
claiming that, at a conservative estimate one in 50 circumcisions leads to
serious complications.  The impact of the film, which also shows Muslim
circumcisions. will be intensified by Ch. 4's decision to show it without
commercial breaks.  Yesterday, after the company had sent videos of the
programme to Jewish community headers, it came under vehement attack. 
Some Jewish organisations are apparently considering legal moves to block
transmission. 

Dr. Maurice Stiffman, med. officer of the Initiation Soc., the main
Orthodox organisation performing circumcisions, described the programme as
exaggerated propaganda.  "I always tell mothers they should be there and
see what happens, because that is much less upsetting than hearing the
baby's cries from another room, he said.  "Of course, some babies cry for
a long time afterwards.  But how much is pain, how much is anger?  People
get very emotional about penises."  He defended the absence of
anaesthesia, saying it could cause complications, and also the fact that
most of the Initiation Society's mohels, the men who do the operation, are
not qualified doctors.  They worked with the utmost care, be said, and
their specialisation made them safer than doctors who would spend most of
their time in other fields. 

Dr. Stiffman, who defends circ in the programme, added "The film is
anti-Jewish because it attacks a fundamental part of Jewish life.  Circ is
something for which Jews have literally risked their lives, the embodiment
of 4,000 years of history." 

The programme argues it is possible to be a Jewish male without being
circumcised, and depicts a substitute "naming ceremony" performed by a
rabbi in America.  Rabbi Rodney Maniner, convenor of the Reform
Synagogue's Beth Din, or theological court, said "Jewish people are not in
the habit of deliberately harming their children.  For those who witness
the ceremony there is anguish, but also a great sense of community.  The
crying is the sound of a new cycle of the covenant with God:  everyone is
moved, not because the baby is hurt, but because of the sense that they
have re-entered into history." 

David Ceserani, Professor of Jewish history at Manchester University,
feared the programme would cause an "anti-Jewish frisson".  He said: it's
very easy to junk circ if you don't care about continuity or tradition. 
If you do, this happens to be one of the most important ones: naming
ceremonies without circ are completely peripheral to the Jewish world.  I
am sure Mr. Schonfeld is motivated by high minded principles, but he is
completely misguided." 

Schonfeld said the film's aim was to open up a debate on a subject about
which many Jews felt deeply uneasy.  "This can be a life-threatening
procedure and the children's suffering is unarguable.  It needs public
attention." 

PHYSICIANS FOR THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD
PRC, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting human rights
principles in pediatric, neonatal and obstetric practice, serves the
medical community by providing physicians with scientific and educational
materials and by providing a forum for ethical patient advocacy and the
reform of medical practice.  PRC offers support and advice for health-care
professionals who seek to stop the socially sanctioned genital mutilation
of minors.  George C. Denniston, MD, MPH, 2442 NW Market St., Suite 42,
Seattle, WA 98107. 

RESEARCH PROJECT
Parents who have protected their sons from circumcisers, please send your
positive accounts for a publication on the subject to:  Robert L. Stewart,
Creative Concept Center, PO Box 1626, Mattituck, NY 11952. 

QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can
change the world.  Indeed it is the only thing that ever has."  Margaret
Mead. 

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