Call to end criminal infant circumcision

A CAMPAIGN to save the foreskin is to be launched next month by doctors who claim that the practice of circumcision is medically unnecessary and could lead to charges of assault.

At a conference on sexual mutilations at Oxford University doctors will call for the foreskin to be preserved to prevent problems developing in later life. An estimated 30,000 circumcisions are performed on the NHS each year plus an unknown number carried out for religious reasons.

The National Organisation for Restoring Men (Norm), which is organising the conference from 5-7 August, says circumcision is nearly always medically unjustifiable and interferes with later sexual enjoyment.

Anatomical research has shown that the foreskin is the most highly enervated and erogenous part of the penis. Its loss represents a functional, dimensional and sensory deprivation that can never be regained, it says.

Dr Peter Ball, a GP in Oxford [sic] and member of Norm said: It is not just a bit of skin that can be lopped off willy-nilly It is a grave loss to someone's anatomy.

Dr Ball, who was circumcised himself but has restored his foreskin by stretching the skin around the shaft of the penis, said men who had been circumcised as adults reported decreased sensitivity and reduced sexual enjoyment.

The circumcised penis requires a lot more stimulation. The foreskin contains a lot of sensory fibres which contribute to the impact of the climax - andit is more comfortable for women.

About one in five men in the UK is estimated to be circumcised but the popularity of the operation has declined sharply since the 1950s and about 3 per cent of boys are now circumcised. This compares with an estimated 60 per cent in the US.

The commonest medical reason for circumcision is phimosis - a tight foreskin that cannot be retracted. Critics say the operation can be left until thelate teens when patients can decide for themselves.

The conference is to be addressed by Margaret Somerville; former director of the McGill Centre for Medicine, Ethics and Law who last year declared that circumcision was a criminal assault. She said it was a bodily wounding on a tiny infant that has given no consent itself.

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