CIN (Circumcision Information Network) 3:11

CIRCUMCISION INFORMATION NETWORK
Volume 3, Number 11, 16 March 1996
E-mail:  CircInfoNe@aol.com

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.

THE FRENCH CONVICTION
Le Figaro, 21 February 1996
Algerian Convicted
The Rite of Circumcision Put in a Bad Light
This Religious Practice is Better Controlled by Jews than by Muslims

For the first time in the annals of justice, a Muslim circumciser was
prosecuted by the French judicial system because of his ritual activities.
 Mohand Berkache, a 66 year-old Algerian, was convicted Monday by the
tribunal of Saint-Etienne to six months in prison with a fine of 5,000 francs
for "intentional armed violence."  The "arm" used by this humble pensioner
was a simple pair of scissors with rounded tips.

Following his surgeries, several families of Turkish origin living in Puy-de
Dome and in l'Isere had to take their children to the hospital.  Five of
them, between the ages of 3 and 7, presented with abnormal hemorrhage.  The
Department of Social Services and the physicians in attendance concluded in
their report that there had occurred "a major mutilation of the penis with a
significant loss of skin and blood."  Mohand Berkache was investigated and
barred from practice in September 1994.  In the course of the trial, the
expert witness qualified his acts as "a barbaric practice and an act of
savagery."

"There was no intention to harm on the part of my client," explained the
lawyer for the convicted, M. Tahar Smiai, who plans to appeal the conviction.
 "Circumcision is not a barbaric act.  There can be complications, but in
this case, they were not so bad.  Muslim families often prefer to go to a man
of faith rather than to a hospital."

The sentence handed down by the tribunal of Saint-Etienne raises the question
of controlling circumcision in France.  Where does religion end and where
does medicine begin?  The rules are less compulsive in Islam than in Judaism.
 In the Arabic-Muslim world, circumcision, which is a ritual and obligatory
act for boys attaining puberty, has for a long time been practiced outside
the realm of the hospital and instead by barbers and hairdressers.

In France, however, the act is considered by law to be a surgical operation.
 It must be performed by a physician.  If the physician is a layman, he is
assisted by a religious personage.  "The Muslim community is poorly
informed," says the rector of the mosque of Paris, Dr. Baubakeur.  "The
circumciser of Saint-Etienne remains within the tradition, but he is not a
surgeon.  In this case, they sanction is symbolic."

Among the Jews, the act is reserved for the "Mohel,"  a certified religious
personage who, in most cases, has medical competence. 

Alexandrine BOUILHET
[Translated by Frederick Hodges]

ERRONEOUS ADVICE
Written and Submitted by Scott Kremer, MangoChutney@aol.com
A Letter to the Editor, Santa Rosa Press Democrat, Santa Rosa, California
The letter ran 29 February 1996.  The areas the editors cut from my letter
are included in brackets [].

Editor:  I was dismayed to see the erroneous advice in the Feb. 14 "Doctor,
Doctor" column by Dr. Ronald Eisenberg and Dr. Virgil Williams. [They cite
arguments favoring circumcision which have either been disproved or have no
medical relevance.]

I phoned Highland General Hospital in Oakland, where I was referred to the
Radiology Department for both men.  I had a brief, pleasant conversation with
Dr. Eisenberg.  He told me that in preparation for this column he had simply
done a computer search through the Medline service for articles on
circumcision published in English in the last three years.

I've sent him a chapter titled "Common American Myths about Circumcision"
from the 1995 edition of the book "The Joy of Uncircumcising" by Jim Bigelow
[, Ph.D.  (The first edition of Bigelow's book was reviewed by the Journal of
the American Medical Association, Volume 269, No. 4, January 27, 1993)]  This
single chapter has 119 footnotes citing studies from around the world --
England, Canada, Mexico, China, Scandinavia, France, Australia and Israel, as
well as many medical journals from the United States--which strongly dispute
or disprove every notion Eisenberg repeats favoring circumcision.

[With a true scholar's patience,] Bigelow exposes errors in the memory chain
of American medicine that have perpetuated the practice in North America
while every other modern country in the world has abandoned it -- if they
ever practiced it in the first place.

A forthcoming work by medical historian Frederick Hodges reviews every
medical article obtainable about male circumcision, several thousand of them.

He shows that the medical practice of circumcision began in America in the
19th century for one reason only -- to prevent masturbation.  Hodges even
located an article from the late 1950's, less than 40 years ago, where an
American doctor recommended female circumcision by arguing that "the
benefits" of circumcision should be made available to women as well as men.
 Are there any takers for this advice?

SCREAM OF THE WEEK 
(Statements Documenting Infant Circumcision Pain)
Submitted by Johnny4444@aol.com

"I've videotaped circumcisions for teaching purposes, and no one, especially
the doctor, is aware of the pain until he sees the baby's reaction on tape.
 It's horrifying -- there's no doubt that he's feeling intense pain."
 ("Second Thoughts About Circumcision," by Marianne Neifert, MD,
Pediatrician, Child, Jan./Feb. 1989)

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION call NOCIRC, the National Organization of
Circumcision Information Resource Centers at (415) 488-9883, fax (415)
488-9660.  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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