Friday, November 28, 2014

CAIRO: Doctor acquitted of genital cutting death

Associated Press
November 20, 2014

Egypt acquits doctor in female genital mutilation

by Maggie Michael
CAIRO (AP) — An Egyptian court on Thursday acquitted a doctor charged with performing female genital mutilation that led to a 13-year-old girl's death in a Nile Delta village, the country's first trial on charges of breaking the ban on the practice.

The verdict surprised activists against the practice, who had been hoping for a conviction and tough sentence to serve as a deterrent for doctors and families. Egypt has one of the highest rates of female genital mutilation in the world and criminalized the practice in 2008, but it remains widespread.

The court in the Nile Delta Province of Dakahliya ruled that the doctor, Raslan Fadl, and the father of Sohair el-Batea, the girl who died, were not guilty on charges of breaking the ban on the practice, said Reda el-Danbouki, a lawyer involved in bringing the case to trial. The judge did not immediately explain the verdict.

The judge also dropped a charge of manslaughter because the family and the doctor had earlier agreed to reconcile, el-Danbouki said. The family was paid 60,000 pounds, or about $8,500, in compensation.

El-Danbouki said he is coordinating with rights groups to appeal the verdict.

Sohair's family initially filed a police report saying she died as a result of female genital mutilation, but changed their story after reconciling with the doctor, said el-Danbouki. The case came to trial only after significant pressure from rights groups, he added.

The lawyer said that the judge ignored all medical reports that proved the girl underwent female genital mutilation, ignored a Health Ministry decision to shut down the doctor's clinic because it violated medical standards, and ignored the law itself.

"On personal level, I am shocked," he said.

Earlier this month the Associated Press visited Fadl's village and found that the doctor was still practicing in the same building.

Atef Aboul Einein, another lawyer who followed the case, said "this opens the door for any doctor to perform the same procedure without fear of being held accountable and in absence of any deterrence."

More than 90 percent of Egyptian women are estimated to have undergone the procedure, which in Egypt generally involves the cutting off of all or part of the clitoris and sometimes the labia. In a conservative society, it is believed to control a young woman's sexual appetite.

It is practiced in 29 countries, most in East and West Africa, but also in Iraq and Yemen. It is practiced among both Muslims and Christians. Rights groups see it as a way to control female sexuality that causes physical and psychological damage.

Earlier story

LONDON: No charges in 10 out of 12 female cutting cases

Evening Standard
November 17, 2014

Fight against FGM suffers a blow as more cases are dropped without charges

by Martin Bentham
Hopes of a landmark first British prosecution for the female genital mutilation of a child were dealt a blow today, after the number of suspected “cutting” cases over which no charges will be brought rose to double figures.

The Crown Prosecution Service said it had decided that “no further action” could be taken in 10 out of 12 cases referred to it by police, and only two files were still being considered for possible criminal charges.

It said that reasons for vetoing prosecution included the reluctance of one victim to testify against a 35-year-old suspect from London. A gap in the 1985 law banning FGM in England and Wales made it impossible to prosecute a Somali woman aged 40 who allegedly subjected her daughter to mutilation during a holiday in her homeland.

Three other women, two of whom were arrested at Heathrow, escaped charges because items they possessed — which police believed were going to be used for cutting — could also be used for other “traditional practices” that were lawful.

A 38-year-old London man who threatened to inflict FGM has been told he will not be charged because police were unable to show that he intended to put his words into action.

News that so many investigations have failed to produce prosecutions will disappoint campaigners, and reinforce concerns that existing measures to combat FGM are inadequate. They will also raise fears about the ability of the Metropolitan police — whose detectives are facing a growing burden from historical child sex abuse cases — to overcome the difficulty of obtaining proof to bring offenders to justice.

Ministers have already responded to the lack of charges by announcing a raft of legal reforms, including anonymity for victims and a new duty on parents to prevent mutilation. These are currently passing through Parliament as part of the Serious Crime Bill.

Today the Crown Prosecution Service and Scotland Yard vowed to do all in their power to charge offenders.

A CPS spokeswoman said FGM had “devastating consequences for girls and women” and it welcomed the government’s action to strengthen the law, in response to recommendations from Director of Public Prosecutions Alison Saunders. “The proposed changes [will mean] there will be a positive duty on parents or carers to prevent their child from being mutilated, and a positive duty on medical and healthcare professionals to report FGM and people at risk from it,” the spokeswoman said.

“The changes will extend our powers to prosecute for actions committed overseas; enable us to work with police to build stronger cases; and give those that inflict such cruelty on women and girls fewer places to hide.”

A Scotland Yard spokeswoman said the Met “remains absolutely resolute in its efforts to detect and prevent FGM”, and was working with heath, education and other professionals to ensure that girls at risk and victims were identified.

She added: “FGM is a hidden crime. It is a taboo subject within families and practising communities, making it very difficult for police to detect. We are now focusing on trying to secure the information about those committing the offences so there is less of a reliance on the victim giving evidence — often against their loved ones.”

Two people, doctor Dhanuson Dharmasena, 32, and another man who cannot be named, have been charged with FGM offences over the alleged mutilation of a woman who had just given birth at The Whittington Hospital in Archway. Both deny the allegations and are due to stand trial in January at Southwark Crown Court.

Anyone who has been subjected to FGM or who is at risk should contact the police on 999 or Project Azure officers on 0207 161 2888. They can also call the NSPCC FGM helpline on 0800 028 3550.

Thursday, November 20, 2014

TOBAGO: Mother wants answers about circumcision botch

TT online (Triindad & Tobago)
November 19, 2014

Tobago mom wants answers after botched circumcision

by
A Tobago woman is calling on THA Health Secretary Claudia Groome-Duke and Medical Chief of Staff at the Scarborough General Hospital, Dr. Nathaniel Duke, to provide her with an update on a botched circumcision on her son which took place 17 months ago.

Mrs. Jessica Roberts explained that she and her husband took their then four year old son to the Scarborough General Hospital to have a planned circumcision done.

However, approximately 15 minutes into the surgery, they heard the little boy screaming and went to see what was happening.

"To my surprise, when I pushed the door and went in to ask if they were ready for me, it was shocking to see that my son, apparently came out of the circumcision before time. Apparently the anesthesia wore off and the doctors were trying to dress the area while he was fully awake."

Mrs. Roberts recalled that doctors told her she had to leave the room and when she saw her son 20 minutes later, he was bleeding uncontrollably.

The doctors told her that the boy would have to be sedated again for them to operate further.
Eventually the area was stitched but Mrs. Roberts questioned whether interns or junior doctors operated on her son since the senior doctor was absent.

"When Dr. Bell came in, he told us that the problem was our son, he was not keeping himself still when he was actually supposed to be sedated to do it. [Blame the victim! What four-year-old would keep still for that?] The doctor who stitched up our son came to us and said, you know what, he apologised and he said it was not his fault, an error was made and everyone makes mistakes."

... the boy's parents made a complaint to the THA Secretary of Health and Social Services and the Medical Chief of Staff.

Mrs. Roberts said she was assured by Secretary Groome-Duke that the names of all doctors involved would be revealed and that an investigation would be conducted.

She said she has not heard from either Secretary Groome-Duke or Dr. Duke up to this day.
...

For now, her son remains traumatised by the incident since no counseling was provided for him. His parents said he is afraid of even using a pair of scissors.

... THA Health and Social Services Secretary Claudia Groome-Duke said ... a Therapeutic Counselor has been called in to provide counseling to the little boy.

Mrs. Groome-Duke promised to keep in close contact ... /p>

MICHIGAN: Circumcision Prevention Seminar coming

Metro Times (Michigan)
November 11, 2014

Circumcision prevention seminar comes to U of M campus

by Alysa Offman
No doubt MT readers already know we have a fascination with circumcision round these parts. Michigan has a startling high rate of non-religious circumcision and we sought to find some reasons why when we wrote a cover story about it a couple months ago.

Of course, the story of why some people are obsessed with the idea that our sons must be circumcised while others are obsessed with the idea what they should absolutely not be is one that never ends. [It never began in most of the developed world, and it has virtually ended in the rest of the English-speaking world.]

NoCirc of Michigan, an anti-circumcision organization, is holding a seminar entitled New Perspectives next month to discuss and extrapolate on what it means to circumcise, including the surgery's history and what it means culturally, socially, medically, and ethically.

“Our goal is to educate the public about this ancient practice that is generating modern controversy worldwide. The practice of circumcision around the world raises many compelling issues for healthcare providers, parents, and the general public," said NoCirc of Michigan head Norm Cohen in a release.

Cohen and NoCirc contend that 83 percent of newborn boys in Michigan are circumcised, which ultimately costs taxpayers $3 million every year when 19,000 surgeries are covered through Medicaid.

New Perspectives is free and takes place on University of Michigan's Ann Arbor campus on Sunday, Dec. 7. from 1-4:30 p.m.

The presentation will include speakers like Robert Van Howe, MD, MS, FAAP. He's an anti-circumcision professor and Interim Chairman of Pediatrics at Central Michigan University College of Medicine. He has lectured and been published internationally on the topic of circumcision and has been a consultant to the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the World Health Organization, according to the release as well as John V. Geisheker, JD, LL.M, Director and General Counsel, Doctors Opposing Circumcision. He has practiced medico-legal law as an arbitrator, mediator, litigator, and law lecturer for over 30 years.

FLORIDA: Stay of execution for Chase

Chase's Guardians
November 18, 2014

Court Grants Ten-Day Extension For Appeal

by Jonathan Friedman
Chase's mother has been granted a ten-day extension to submit her notice of intent to appeal to the court. She now has until December 1st to file, but still seeks an appellate attorney to sit lead in the proceedings. Three veteran attorneys have volunteered to assist lead counsel in preparation of briefs and other work related to the appeal. This case has several troubling constitutional issues and the standard the court has applied in reaching their decision - whether the parental contract is valid, not whether the circumcision is in the best interest of a healthy 4 year old child - demands scrutiny. Please continue to donate and spread the word so that Chase's right to bodily autonomy can be protected.

Earlier story

FLORIDA: Time running out for Chase

Beyond the Bris
November 18, 2014

Upheld: Healthy Florida Boy to be Circumcised Against Mom's Wishes

by Rebecca Wald
The fight to save her four-year-old son from non-medically necessary circumcision recently got a lot tougher for a South Florida mom. On November 6 an appeals court upheld a ruling allowing the boy’s father to have him circumcised despite his mother’s deeply held belief that the procedure will be painful, damaging and emotionally harmful to him.

The mother, Heather Hironimus of Boynton Beach, and the father, Dennis Nebus of Boca Raton, had a brief relationship but never married. In January of 2012 the parents agreed to a court-ordered parenting plan which provided that the father would be responsible for scheduling and paying for the child’s circumcision. Although not initially opposed to the surgery, Hironimus says she later changed her mind after researching the procedure.

There are a number of very strange aspects to this case. The lower court judge Hon. Jeffrey Dana Gillian never appointed a Guardian ad Litem to advocate for the best interests of the child, and testimony by a child mental health professional was not allowed during trial. The lower court also placed a gag order on Hironimus preventing her from speaking about the case to the media or publicly raising funds for an appeal. She was also ordered not to tell her son that she opposes the procedure in any way, and to be separated from him for a period of weeks following the surgery.

Perhaps most disturbing is the age of the child. Circumcision beyond infancy is a more complicated procedure with an arguably greater risk of surgical complications. The boy will need need to be put under general anesthesia and intubated to facilitate ventilation of his lungs. At this age he will also be aware that his foreskin has been removed and will probably remember the event—including the court-mandated prolonged separation from his mother during this traumatic time.

No doubt in part due to the gag order on the mother, this case is not garnering much publicity, although Facebook and Twitter are buzzing and several celebrities have tweeted their support. Given that the case has already reached an appeals court, the chances of the mother prevailing at this point remain slim. Beyond the Bris will continue to follow this story and issue news updates as they happen.

In an interesting side note, an Orthodox Jewish website has condemned the ruling ordering the boy to be circumcised.

Earlier story

OAKLAND: Lawyers: gag order on Chase's mother "probably unconsitutional"

Gag-order "probably unconstitutional"

Attorneys for the Rights of the Child
November 17, 2014

Florida Mother Loses Appeal to Rescind Court-Ordered Circumcision of Four-Year-Old Boy

by Steven Svoboda
On November 6, 2014, an appeals court in Florida upheld a ruling ordering the circumcision of Chase, a healthy four-year-old boy. The boy's mother, Heather Hironimus, has been working to protect Chase from circumcision. The judge's original decision includes a remarkable, and probably unconstitutional, provision that his mother is not even allowed to inform Chase of her position on circumcision.

At four years old, Chase is a child who is fully aware of his body. He will experience and remember the pain of a circumcision, and he will be very aware that his body has been drastically changed.
Public figures such as Richard Dawkins, Russel Crowe, Alicia Silverstone and John Leguizamo have tweeted in favor of Chase.

Check our Facebook (www.facebook.com/ARCLAW) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/arclaw) accounts for the latest updates.

Earlier story: Chase, Crowe

SYDNEY: Islamic books advocate female genital cutting

news.com.au (Australia)
November 17, 2014

Peddling pages of barbaric savagery: Islamic shops still selling female mutilation books

by
AN Australian Muslim convert who edited a book advocating female genital mutilation (FGM) has disowned the tome and urged people not to buy it.

Prohibitions That Are Taken Too Lightly was one of several books bought from Sydney bookshops by The Daily Telegraph that advocate FGM, sometimes known as female circumcision. It was edited in 2001 by Islamic convert Shifa Lynette Vivienne Mustapha who lives in Queensland — and who now says she would not “give it to anyone”.

The book was written by Saudi scholar Muhammad Saalih Al-Munajjid, 54, who ­believes Mickey Mouse should be killed as one of “Satan’s soldiers”. It provides edicts on many behaviours it says are forbidden in Islam.

“If anyone asked if they should read it, I would say ‘don’t bother’,” said Ms Mustapha, who added that she took on editing the book through “naivety or ignorance” and that the section on FGM was added after she finished working on it.

“I’ve done years of study since then and no longer have anything to do with (the book),” she said.
Ms Mustapha has also spoken out strongly against FGM and has received threats as a result.

Another book bought by The Daily Telegraph is called Important Lessons For Muslim Women, which says FGM is “obligatory” if an unmarried woman’s desire is “so great”. NSW minister for women Pru Goward has condemned the promotion of the “abhorrent” practice.

In May the NSW government tripled the sentence for performing FGM to 21 years’ jail and introduced a new ­offence of removing a woman or girl from NSW to have it performed.

But books promoting the barbaric practice remain on sale in the Bukhari House ­Islamic Bookstore in Auburn, and The Islamic Bookstore in Lakemba.

“I am a supporter of freedom of speech, but whether it is from behind a lectern or on a page, the promotion of this inhumane and illegal practice is unacceptable,” Ms Goward said. “I would be calling on booksellers themselves to pull any book ­encouraging female genital mutilation off the shelf.”

Eman Sharobeem, head of the Immigrant Women’s Health Service, said: “To hear that there are books promoting female circumcision is shocking.”

Another book bought by The Daily Telegraph, Instructions Of Shari’ah For Women, wants to ban Western education for women. Others say women should not drive, should not work with men and must have sex if their husbands demand it.

A worker behind the counter at The Islamic Bookstore in Lakemba said he did not agree with FGM but he “could not read all 10,000 books here”.

Sydney Muslim leader Jamal Rifi said FGM did not have a part in the Muslim religion, but added that discussing these issues was better than banning books. “A lot of bullshit is written in these books but it doesn’t mean we are so stupid to follow it,” he said.

FGM involves the removal of parts or all of the external female genitalia.

Originally published as Store’s female genital mutilation shame

Monday, November 17, 2014

PHILIPPINES: 11-year-old forcibly circumcised, videoed

Zamboanga Today (Philippines)
November 15, 2014

Boy circumcised against his will

by Nonong Santiago
An 11-year-old boy complained against four jobless invividuals who forcibly circumcised him against his will last November 7, 2014 in Barangay Canelar this city.

The boy, name withheld, identified the four suspects as Tony Carpio, 46; Noel Cabato, 32; Marlon Maceda, 25; and Manuel Mortera, 21.

He said the suspects all are residents of Acapulco Drive, Barangay Canelar.

The victim, a grade 3 pupil of Canelar Elementary School, said two of the four suspects tied the boy’s hands with a towel while Carpio cut his penis with a “Gillete” blade while Mortera was videoing the event using his cellphone. [...for sale to circumfetishists?]

His auntie Jocelyn Paraiso went to complain to kagawad [Counciller] Jesus Balan and immediately the suspects were hauled by the village leaders to the barangay [district] hall for confrontation.

The suspects agreed to pay the medical expenses incurred at the hospital and asked forgiveness to the boy’s auntie.

Paraiso said she is still contemplating whether to file the case in court against the four suspects, who are his neighbors.

HOLLYWOOD: More celebs tweet support for leaving Chase intact

November 14, 2014

More celebs weigh in over forced genital cutting

by Hugh Young
Two more celebrities have joined Russell Crowe's condemnation of a Florida judge's ruling that a four-year old boy should be circumcised against his mother's wishes.

Russell Crowe, who tweeted against genital cutting in 2011, re-tweeted Caprica is Burning's tweet:
Mom court-ordered to circumcise 4yo is under gag-order. Help needed!
- with the URL of a crowd-sourcing fund. Alicia Silverstone and John Leguizamo also retweeted:
Mom court-ordered to circumcise 4yo is under gag-order. Help needed!
Mom court-ordered to circumcise 4yo is under gag-order. Help needed!
Leguizamo also re-tweeted Caprica's:
Reearch the foreskin, frenulum & ridged band. Circumcision is designed to be harmful.
The crowdfunding site referred to has closed Caprica's account, but another is still accepting donations.

Earlier story

Saturday, November 15, 2014

HOLLYWOOD: Russell Crowe tweets support for leaving Chase intact

Mobile News (Australia)
November 12, 2014

Russell Crowe tweets in support of mother trying to stop circumcision of son

RUSSELL Crowe looks to have weighed in on the circumcision debate yet again, tweeting in support of a mother trying to stop her son from being circumcised.

The actor re-tweeted a tweet which is trying to raise support and money for the mother who has been given a gag order by the courts.

Heather Hironimus is trying to stop her four-year-old son, Chase, from having a circumcision, an operation she feels is unnecessary and a risk to his health.

A Florida court decided to rule against her and allow the procedure to go ahead[. H]owever she has since been granted an emergency motion to stay by a West Palm Beach court.

YouCaring, a free online fundraising site has taken up Hironimus’s cause, aiming to draw attention to her plight and to provide a place for people to contribute financially for the appeal.

As Hironimus has been prohibited from fundraising for her appeal, the site is doing it for her without her participation they claim.

According to court records, in December 2011, Heather Hironimus signed a parenting agreement which gave Chase’s father, Dennis Nebus, permission to have their (then) baby boy circumcised.

The procedure wasn’t carried out while he was still an infant and Hironimus decided that “as he (Chase) became older the surgery, and anaesthesia, were fraught with additional risks”.

She argues that the surgery is purely cosmetic and the parenting plan no longer pertains to a now older, and more aware, boy.

Paediatric urologist Charles Flack told the judge that circumcision is not medically necessary.

It’s no surprise that Crowe has sided with Hironimus’s case having previously criticised the practice of circumcision.

The gladiator actor got into an angry exchange on Twitter in 2011 telling Jewish people to “stop cutting your babies”.

The debate started when one of his fans called @picknic11 asked him, “My son is due soon. Do you think I should get him circumstanced? [sic]”

Crowe tweeted back “Circumcision is barbaric and stupid. Who are you to correct nature? Is it real that GOD requires a donation of foreskin? Babies are perfect.”

“Many Jewish friends, I love my Jewish friends, I love the apples and the honey and the funny little hats but stop cutting yr babies.

“I will always stand for the perfection of babies, I will always believe in God, not man’s interpretation of what God requires.

“Last of it, if u feel it is yr right 2 cut things off yr babies please unfollow and f--- off, I’ll take attentive parenting over barbarism.”

His outburst provoked numerous responses from his followers with one saying, “There’s actually a scientific reason for [circumcision], u should google it.”

In response Crowe tweeted, “My friend, “human” science has caused too much damage, don’t be a moron.”

Another follower told him, “I disagree on Circumcision, It’s more hygienic and nobody remembers it”, to which Crowe responded “Hygienic? Why don’t you sew up your a-- then?”

Crowe also apparently likened circumcision to human sacrifice, when another follower asked, “You are comparing sexual mutilation w/ a jewish ceremonial act?!”

He replied, “Can you actually read the words you just typed “ a ceremonial act” F--- that. The Mayans had ceremonial acts too.”

He later apologised for his comments saying, “I realize that some will interpret this debate as me mocking the rituals and traditions of others”.

“I am very sorry.” And in another post, he declared, “I have a deep and abiding love for all people of all nationalities ...”

Earlier story

TUSCALOOSA, AL: Brother K accused of "indecent exposure"

Cent News
November 9, 2014

Picketer Arrested for Public Indecency Explains Stand against Circumcision

by James Carvin
Tallahassee, FL, United States (4E) - A man dressed in white with a blood stain painted on his groin was arrested yesterday, interrupting his tour to protest the practice of circumcision. The group he leads claims he was taken into custody because a passerby said he was exposing his genitals in public. Bloodstained Men is touring the Bible Belt picketing on crowded street corners to put an end to a practice it says is harmful, cruel and should be illegal under the 14th amendment.

Brother K wants attention and is dressed for the part. "Take a picture! Take a picture," he yelled to his similarly clad companions yesterday as he was being handcuffed in Tuscaloosa. [No, he wanted a record, in case the police misbehavied.]

They were in Tallahassee on a busy block by Florida's capitol complex the day before. "We protested in Denver last summer. We protested in San Diego at a Doctors' Convention last month. We're gonna be in Texas in March" … "it's all on our website, Bloodstainedmen.org" explained Brother K Saturday in an interview with 4E correspondent, James Carvin.

"The 14th Amendment says that the law has to be applied equally; that you cannot have a law that favors one class of people. Right now we have a Female Genital Mutilation Law (Federal) that favors women. They are protected from birth against any form of genital surgery; even just a pin-prick of blood. Under the 14th Amendment, boys should be - and actually, are; entitled to that same respect of their body that girls are."

Carvin was led to Brother K by fellow picketer David Atkinson who explained, "The 14th Amendment requires equal protection under the law. Female Genital Mutilation is illegal in the United States up until the age of 18. Outlawing male circumcision is a matter of equal rights."
Brother K pointed out, "intent alone to circumcise your daughter outside the United States is a felony." He hopes to see the practice end globally as with FGM.

Doing so will require a head to head clash with three major religions and a battle in the USA over 1st Amendment rights. Both Judaism and Islam practice circumcision. Although the Qur'an does not require it as the Torah does, some Hadith's call it a "fitra" (ideal). Christians have mixed views on adherence to Old Covenant law. Most do not feel obligated but circumcise young boys for medical reasons.

Brother K was graphic in debunking what he believes are medical myths about the health of circumcision.

"Circumcision is a devastating wound, both physically, psychologically, and spiritually to any human being, and it's the same with girl circumcisions. There are several extraordinarily destructive effects of circumcision. Perhaps, if I had to pick the one, at the top of the list, the glans penis by nature is covered with a foreskin whose interior lining is a mucous membrane, like the inside lining of your eyeball, or like the inside lining of your mouth. Imagine that your tongue had to live outside your mouth all your life."
...

Earlier story

TUSCALOOSA, AL: Brother K arrested for "obstructing governmental operations"

AL.com (Alabama)
November 10, 2014

Anti-circumcision 'intactivist' arrested in Tuscaloosa while wearing 'blood' painted pants

by Stephen Dethrage
TUSCALOOSA, Alabama -- The leader of a group of protesters wearing white suits with fake blood painted on their groins was arrested in Tuscaloosa Saturday after he allegedly interfered with police trying to issue the group a citation.

The activists were on the corner of 15th Street and McFarland Boulevard, one of the city's busiest intersections, to protest circumcision Saturday afternoon.

Sgt. Brent Blankley, a spokesman for the Tuscaloosa Police Department, said officers responded to the intersection because the group did not have a permit granting them permission to use the city's right of way as the site of their protest.

The group's leader, who legally changed his name to 'Brother K' to cast off the name he associated with his birth and circumcision, began interfering with the officers trying to issue the citation, Blankley said.

The 67-year-old 'intactivist' was ultimately arrested and charged with obstructing governmental operations. He was briefly booked in the Tuscaloosa County Jail, but left on bond and was no longer in police custody Monday afternoon.

The protest drew a lot of attention in the Druid City Saturday, ...

IRELAND: Pressure on doctors to circumcise fraudulently

Medical Independent (Ireland)
October 23, 2014

GPs being pressurised on infant circumcision

by Catherine Reilly
Some families are pleading with GPs to indicate pathological phimosis in an attempt to access circumcision for cultural reasons, according to a Specialist Registrar in Urology.

Dr Fardod O’Kelly told the Medical Independent (MI) that public hospitals generally only have provision for circumcision for pathological phimosis, for which there are “huge” backlogs for adults and children.
[Pathological phimosis is not a disease of children, since the foreskin may not be mobile until puberty. It seems doctors are already gaming the system.]

The HSE intercultural strategy acknowledged that early circumcision of infant males is an expected cultural or religious duty in some ethnic minority groups. However, due to lack of provision, some families are pressuring their GPs to indicate medical need.

“Some families would try to go privately to get [cultural circumcision] done because there are some surgeons that might have more space on their lists in the private sector,” Dr O’Kelly told MI. “Other families are trying to get primary care physicians to actually suggest there is a problem with the foreskin — that it is pathological — to get seen in the first place.”

Some had been successful in having their GP make a referral to an OPD to put forward their case. Dr O’Kelly said he did not envy the predicament of GPs on this issue, particularly given “they are under so much pressure themselves”.

He said there was also a danger that some families may turn to unlicensed individuals, as occurred in 2003, when a young baby of African background died following a ‘home cultural circumcision’ in Waterford.
[There is an equivalent danger of girls being genitally cut by unlicenced practitioners, but nobody thinks about providing that "service".]

More widely, provision of paediatric circumcision in Ireland is challenged by a trend towards its non-performance by younger consultant general surgeons, with it increasingly viewed as a urological responsibility, according to a paper Dr O’Kelly co-wrote in the Irish Journal of Medical Sciences (IJMS).

Dr O’Kelly said surgical sub-specialisation and gradual lack of exposure to paediatric surgery had meant that many newer general surgeons were no longer in a position to undertake the procedure, with the burden of cases left to urologists and paediatric surgeons, especially outside Dublin.
Significant manpower issues would be exacerbated by retirements of older, more classically-trained general surgeons, noted the IJMS paper.

Dr O’Kelly told MI that, ideally, paediatric circumcision could be performed on specific lists, under sterile conditions, by appropriately-trained surgeons and this did not necessarily have to occur in an acute hospital.
[Ideally, non-therapeutic paediatric circumcision would not be performed at all. Where are their ethics?]

FALKLAND ISLANDS: Move to regulate non-medical circumcision

after the Falkland Islands News Network
October 31, 2014

Falkland Islands considers law against male cutting

The Falkland Islands Legislative Assembly has considered adding male genital cutting to a law against female cutting.

Dr the Hon Barry Elsby MLA moved that clauses of the Crimes Bill concerning FGC be removed from it and brought back later in conjunction with a Bill on Male Circumcision.

"Ritual circumcision in baby boys for non-medical reasons is something that this Bill singularly fails to address in its present form," he said. "I fully support the outlawing of the horrible, barbaric practice of Female Genital Mutilation."

"However, as the ‘children’s champion’ I have a duty to speak up on behalf of children and try to ensure that their needs are listened to. It was shocking to hear an interview on the BBC World Service last week with a lady from Sudan who had been conducting these mutilations for many years. I would suggest that her inability to realise that girls have the right to be protected from such practices, even if they are based on religion or tradition is mirrored by the reluctance of many countries to effectively deal with the practice of ritual circumcision on baby boys by non-medically trained people.

"The United Nations Convention on the Right of the Child provides that the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration and require the state to take all appropriate measures to protect the child from all forms of physical or mental violence, inhuman treatment, injury or abuse ... . It also provides that state parties shall take all effective and appropriate measures with a view to abolishing traditional practices that are prejudicial to the health of children."

"There are no proven health benefits for routine circumcision in an ... eight day old baby boy but there are risks of harm and of deaths from this procedure."

"In 2012, a Muslim child having a circumcision in Germany for religious reasons was seriously harmed. The case went to the [Cologne] Regional Court where the judge found that the practice was a breach of a child’s human rights. The Government did not challenge the Court’s decision, presumably because they knew the judge was correct. What they did instead was to pass a new law that made circumcision for religious reasons legal. ...

"Later in 2012 the council of Europe passed a resolution condemning male circumcision as – and I quote – “a violation of the physical integrity of children” and called for a total ban.

"... Last year the children’s commissioners from Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Holland, Iceland and Australia amongst others called for a ban on non-medical circumcision in boys. The professional medical bodies in almost all of those countries have also called for a ban. ...

Though several other Legislative Assembly Members were sympathetic to the purpose of Dr Elsby's motion to add a clause regulating ritual circumcision, it failed.

READING, UK: Boy dies after Zimbabwe circumcision

The Mirror (UK)
October 31, 2014

Boy aged 10 dies from infection 'caused by circumcision' during school holidays

by Marcus Chippindale
A ten-year-old schoolboy died from an infection which could have been caused by a circumcision carried out in Africa, an inquest heard today.

Stanley Chola had the procedure carried out in Zimbabwe during the school summer holidays.

Stanley Chola
Stanley Chola

But nearly two months later the youngster - from Reading - went into septic shock and died in hospital.

An inquest heard today that officials looking into Stanley's death concluded it was possible that the circumcision could have been the start of the infection.

The day before Stanley died, he was due to see a doctor about his condition but his mother failed to take him to the appointment - a decision described as a "pivotal" moment.

"If they had been able to come down I think we could have admitted him to hospital and treated him," said Dr Jeremy Lade, director of the Westcall out-of-hours GP service in Berkshire, told the inquest.

Stanley, a pupil at New Christ Church School in Reading, went with his family to Zimbabwe during the summer holidays last year and was circumcised on August 23.

However, he was absent during the first week of the new term and his step-father, Malik Issa, told a member of school staff this was because he had developed an infection from the circumcision.

On October 7 his mother, Ellen Gomes, took Stanley to the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading, with her son complaining about a knee problem caused while playing football...

... {On October 14] a paramedic was scrambled to the family home at around 7.40pm after Stanley started having breathing difficulties.... .

His condition rapidly deteriorated and doctors twice performed CPR before Stanley was declared dead at 11.35pm.

Dr Lade told the inquest it was not uncommon for children with sepsis to die very quickly.

"They will walk into a ward and then suddenly pass away a short time afterwards," said Dr Lade.

It was thought the infection might also have been caused by an injury to his knee, either from being hit with a hockey stick by another pupil or while playing football.

However, a leading doctor said the two latter theories were "very unlikely" to be the case.
...


Daily Mail
October 31, 2014
... Today, a coroner delivered a narrative verdict of Stanley's death, ...

Discussing the possibility that the circumcision was the cause of Stanley's death, which is disputed by his mother, Mr Bedford said: 'That evidence is, I think, at best confusing. It is certainly not definitive. That is the less likely explanation.'

LONDON: Paedophile Quaintance maintains circum-fetish website from prison

October 29, 2014

Imprisoned paedophile maintains circum-fetish website

by Hugh Young
An imprisoned paedophile is the registered owner of a circumcision-fetish website.

Vernon Quaintance, 71, is serving a two year sentence for offences against boys and possession of offensive material (thousands of images of boys being circumcised). The prosecution told his trial that the circumcision-promoting "Gilgal Society" of which he was the head, was "just a facade" for his paedophilic activity.

The Gilgal website froze when Quaintance was first convicted of possessing indecent images in April 2012, but it was replaced by a very similar one, the "Circumcision Helpdesk", at the same time as Quaintance's second trial began.

It turns out that the Circumcision Helpdesk site is registred in the name of Vernon Quaintance. It is not known whether Quaintance has access to the website from prison.

Like the Gilgal Society, one of the main activities of the Circumcision Helpdesk site is to give access to leaflets promoting circumcision written by Professor Brian Morris of the University of Sydney.

The Circumcision Helpdesk site links through its "Reference Centre" to a leaflet called "Preparation for Infant or Childhood Circumcision, An Introductory Guide".
It includes this text.


"The frenulum is an ‘elastic band’ type of structure which sits in the groove on the underside of the glans. ... [B]ecause the removal of the foreskin renders it redundant, the frenulum is usually (but not always) removed as part of the circumcision."
In fact, the frenulum is a remnant of the richly innervated ridged band running round the inside of the foreskin, and for that reason circumcised men (but only they) call it their "G-spot".

The authors are given as "Inter-Circ Moderation Team, Medical Reviewer John Murray M.D." It is dated July 2014, and copyrighted by "The International Circumcision Forum © Inter-Circ". Inter-Circ is the public face of the circumfetish group Circlist. One of its four suggested links is to circinfo.net, Professor Morris's site.

Earlier story

SAVANNAH, GA: Walmart, Sears and Amazon bow to public horror at DIY Plastibell sales

WOTC
October 24, 2014

Asked and Answered: In-home circumcision kit

by
SAVANNAH, GA (WTOC) - It seems you can buy almost anything on the Internet, but one product being sold on popular store websites is raising a few eyebrows, and even led to a petition drive.

This isn't exactly the normal news story, but a WTOC viewer asked if a device show in a picture they sent was safe.

The device in question is a circumcision device meanr for babies, and at the time it was being sold on Walmart's website.

Since the message was sent, Walmart has discontinued selling the Plasti-Bell Circumcision Device after a petition and write-in campaign by angry customers. However, other retailers, including Sears and Amazon, also sold the item.

Now the item is no longer on Amazon or Sears. WTOC spoke with Dr. Dudley Stone of Coastal Pediatrics, who was pretty stunned after checking into the devices.

“It's scary because what's next?” he said. “People will be doing all sorts of things at home.”
He said no device sold in a store or online should be used in a procedure [at] home as sensitive and potentially dangerous as a circumcision, whether it's a child or an adult.

“At home circumcision is an unusual concept,” Stone said. “It's not something recommended by medical professionals and should be done by trained medical staff. To do it at home is not an acceptable technique, and this kit being sold is really intended for trained medical professionals.” [Someone should tell that to AAP Circumcision Task Force member Dr Andrew Freedman, who by his own admission, circumcised his own son on his parents' kitchen table.]

Stone called it a sign of the times; people want to save money and do it at home without seeing a doctor. He said the procedure is not one to fool around with and you should see a doctor.

ZAMBIA: Circumciised man with HIV misses the point

The Post (Zambia)
October 23, 2014

Circumcised activist with HIV cautions men

by Fridah Nkonde
A 56-YEAR-OLD activist says he contracted HIV despite having been circumcised since birth.

Supporting musician Danny Siulapwa's statement that some young men are rushing to get circumcised for the wrong reasons, Danny Lungu said being circumcised does not exempt one from contracting HIV.
[The question arises whether it has any effect whatsoever.]

"You can contract HIV and AIDS even if you are circumcised. Here I am, I was circumcised when I was a baby but I am living with the virus. I contracted HIV when I was 25 years old.

The information I had that 'when you are circumcised, you cannot contract HIV' misled me," he said. "I used to womanise in the 1990s but I got infected and I came to learn that whether you are circumcised or not, you can still contract HIV."
[So one of the reasons he got HIV was that he was circumcised....]

Lungu, who is married with five children who are all free of the virus, has been living with HIV for the past 24 years and has been on antiretroviral treatment for 14 years.

"My advice to young people is that being circumcised does not give them a passport to sleep around because they can still contract HIV. If you are not circumcised, get circumcised and then continue using condoms," he advised. "There is information on HIV and circumcision everywhere now. In the 90s, we had no such information on issues of HIV and circumcision. I think that somehow contributed to me contracting the virus."

He said circumcision only reduces one's chances of contracting HIV and that it is not a preventive measure.

"It is not automatic that when you are circumcised, you cannot contract HIV. Young ones should go for circumcision and have safe sex by always using condoms or abstaining. We still need the new generation," said Lungu.

Danny observed that some men think they cannot contract HIV once they get circumcised.

BERLIN : Turkish circumcision play misses the point

Worldcrunch
October 23, 2014

Foreskin, The Play: Circumcision As Art For A Turkish Playwright

A Turkish immigrant playwright in Germany explores the meaning and theater of a religious rite that divides modern society.
by Igal Avidan
BERLIN - A quiet New Year's Eve in the maternity ward of a Berlin hospital. The doctor, a woman of Turkish descent, pours sparkling wine for herself and a blonde nurse. But the quiet ends when a fit, young, undershirt-clad macho man arrives pushing his pregnant wife Ela in a wheelchair. His name is Abraham B. Schneider. Pronounced in German, B. Schneider comes out as Beschneider, meaning "circumcisor."

His brother-in-law, an elegantly dressed real estate mogul named Mohammed Habibi Nassir, enters with them. Before the baby boy is even born, both men are vigorously insisting that he must be circumcised, after being pressured to do so by Ela's domineering Turkish mother Elif. When the only German family member, Christian Eichelmann [another pun, Eichel meaning "glans"] arrives, the other men try to bribe him into a pro-circumcision stance. Eichel, though, feels he has to defend "Europe's last firewall" and "the oppression of the German majority."

Is this comedy playing at a Berlin theater payback for the national debate that took place two years ago about forbidding circumcision? At the time, a German court ruled that when carried out for purely religious reasons, circumcision was an act of bodily harm. After further discussions and deliberations [and direct pressure from Israel's President Shimon Peres], the country's national parliament passed by a wide margin a regulation stating that parents had the right to have their sons circumcised shortly after birth, but only if certain standards are observed and if a religious circumcisor can carry out the procedure.

Lead dramatist Tunçay Kulaoglu claims the idea for the play, which is called Vorhaut ("Foreskin"), actually predated all that. It was the product, he says, of a barroom powwow among the actors, who, when the topic popped up "out of the blue," started swapping their own circumcision stories. "We were curious since this was hardly a daily subject of conversation. So we asked each other, 'Hey, how was it with you?'" Bremen-based director Miraz Bezar recalls.

... Did he want to be circumcised? "I was eight years old at the time," he says. "Working on the play, we had heated discussions about when a boy is fully able to decide that for himself."...
Those personal experiences inspired certain aspects of the play. ...

Other elements of the work, however, were drawn from the 2012 national debate on circumcision, which occurred after the actors came up with the original idea, ...

COPENHAGEN : Parliament to consider cutting age-restriction

The Local
October 22, 2014

Denmark to once again look at circumcision ban

Nearly three fourths of Danes are in favour of banning [infant] male circumcision, a new poll revealed.

In a survey of over 1,000 Danes conducted by YouGov for Metroxpress newspaper, 74 percent of respondents wanted a full or partial ban on the practice while just ten percent supported giving parents the right to circumcise their sons.

The poll results come as parliament prepares to hold a hearing on the practice of circumcision on Wednesday. Left-wing party the Red-Green Alliance (Enhedslisten) and libertarian party Liberal Alliance are in favour of a ban, while other parties report internal disagreement on the issue.

The debate about circumcision is a frequent topic in Denmark. Following extensive media coverage in both 2012 and 2013, the Danish Health and Medicines Authority (Sundhedsstyrelsen) carried out a study on the potential health risks and benefits of circumcision. In June 2013, the agency determined that there was neither enough risk to justify outlawing circumcision nor enough documentation of its benefits to generally recommend the practice.

Despite the health authorities’ findings, Wednesday’s hearing in parliament may be the first step toward an eventual ban.

“We will handle this topic politically within a few years. As I see it, it goes against the [UN’s] Convention on the Rights of the Child to circumcise children. I’m leaning toward a ban until the person is of legal age,” Venstre MP Hans Christian Schmidt, a former health minister, told Metroxpress.

According to Sundhedsstyrelsen, somewhere between 1,000 and 2,000 circumcisions are performed in Denmark each [year], primarily on Jewish and Muslim boys. Male circumcision is almost universal in the Muslim world and highly prevalent in many African countries. It is also a popular practice in the United States where more than half of all boys are circumcised and in Canada, where a 2007 survey put the percentage at 31.9 percent.

Jair Melchior of the Jewish faith group Mosaisk Troessamfund cautioned politicians to not let opinion polls affect their stance on circumcision.

“The problem is that there are so many assertions in the debate on circumcising boys. If it was so dangerous, the Jewish community would have been the first to stop it. But it’s not,” Melchior told Metroxpress. [On the contrary, religion is the one reason that can override concerns of safety. Rabbis would earnestly debate how many brothers might be allowed to die of genital cutting before one might be spared, but only recently have any said "None".]

Like Denmark, neighbouring Sweden and Norway have also been discussing a ban on male circumcision. Following intense debate in 2012, Germany passed a law allowing religious circumcision.

Female circumcision is illegal in Denmark.

Earlier story

COPENHAGEN : 3 out of 4 Danes want a cutting age-restricted

Copenhagen Post
October 22, 2014

Danes want circumcision banned

75 percent want an end to the practice
by Christian Wenande
Three out of every four Danes want to ban the circumcision of boys, unless it's for medical reasons. AYouGov survey for Metroxpress newspaper revealed that 74 percent of the over 1,000 Danes asked want to completely or partially ban the circumcision of boys, while just 10 percent want the practice to remain legal.

“Circumcision is cutting a healthy part of the body from a boy,” Lena Nyhus, the founder of Intact Danmark, an association against the circumcision of children, told Metroxpress. “Denmark ought to be a pioneer when it comes to children's rights. We need an age limit of 18 years.”

On the political agenda
While it is illegal to circumcise girls in Denmark, about 1,000-2,000 Danish primarily Jewish and Muslim boys are circumcised every year. In comparison, about every second boy in the US is circumcised.

The only political parties that want it banned are Enhedslisten and Liberal Alliance, but the entire political sphere will discuss the issue today in parliament.

Danish health authorities have said that circumcision presents very little risk if done by the right doctors. From 2003-2010, the patient ombudsman Patientombudet registered only 20 cases involving complications associated with circumcision.

ZAMBIA: Cut men think they don't need condoms


October 19, 2014

Young men are getting circumcised for wrong reasons - Danny

by Abigail Sitenge
Danny Siulapwa, also known as Danny Kaya, says young men are rushing to get circumcised for wrong reasons.

Danny, a father of three, observed that most men think they cannot contract HIV once they get circumcised.

“I’m an open person hence I talk to many young people who tell me they don’t need to use condoms during sexual intercourse because they are circumcised. But that’s very wrong. I think there is need to sensentise people more on this issue,” he says.

Danny wonders what type of message is being put across regarding circumcision. He urges young men to avoid practicing unprotected sex regardless of whether they are circumcised or not.

A few years ago, Danny who is deemed a controversial artiste in Zambia, released a hit song called Live which advocates the use of condoms.

He says because of such perceptions, the number of people being infected with the virus has kept on rising.

He has since called on people spearheading male circumcision campaigns to emphasise the fact that the practice did not obliterate the chances of contracting HIV but merely reduced them.

“Personally I’m not liking the way the anti-HIV campaigns are being done, suddenly there is this hype of male circumcision. It is a good practice but what is ringing in most young people’s minds is that once they are circumcised, they cannot contract HIV,” he says. ...

ZIMBABWE: Men resist being cut

Weekend Post
October 17, 2014

Men still hesitant to be circumcised

by Wendy Muperi
GOVERNMENT has bemoaned limited demand for voluntary medical male circumcision half a decade after its introduction.

Owen Mugurungi, director AIDS and TB Unit in the ministry of Health, said thousands of men are still avoiding the nip owing to false beliefs surrounding the procedure — making the fulfilment of national targets a tall order which demands community involvement.

“The programme experiences limited demand in some areas due to religious, cultural issues as well as some misconceptions regarding male circumcision,” said Mugurungi.

“The responsibility is not for the ministry alone. If we rally behind male circumcision as part of the HIV prevention strategy we have in Zimbabwe, we will jointly be able to, not only meet the target, but influence the reduction in HIV incidence”.

A number of weird stories about circumcision have widely been circulated in Zimbabwe. Recently, the ministry allayed fears that foreskins are being illicitly sold to the global cosmetics industry and traditional healers which are rife in Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe launched the programme in 2009 to circumcise 1, 3 million young men in eight years in an effort to reduce HIV infections — which stand at 57 000 annually.

As of June, a total of 98 245 males aged 13 years and above got circumcised against an annual target of 217 800.

Since the programme’s inception in 2009, a total of 302 555 males have been circumcised against a 2017 target of 1, 3 million men.

A report by UNAids and the World Health Organisation (WHO) said the risk of HIV infection among men could be reduced by 60 percent.

Currently, the country has 1, 2 million people living with the virus....

GHANA: Scores of baby penises amputated

GhanaWed
October 14, 2014

Penile amputation cases rise; doctors concerned

The number of baby boys who are suffering as a result of their penises being cut off during circumcision is rising.

Three months ago, when JOY News first broke the story in the hotline documentary titled “Borrowed Manhood”, about 76 children who reported at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) were affected.

Despite the awareness creation, the number of cases of penile amputation during circumcision of baby boys has continued to rise.

Dr. Kwaku Addai Arhin of KATH’s Urology Department has deplored the rise in circumcision-related injuries.

According to him, the number has risen to 86 in less than three months and the urologist warns of more cases if immediate steps are not taken to deal with the situation.

“The problem has not been resolved. The issues we raised have not been tackled. The first documentary we made was meant to raise public awareness, but nothing else has been done.”

To buttress his point, the Urologist mentioned a recent case where a one-week-old boy endured an almost complete mutilation of his glans during an operation by a “qualified” nurse.

He indicated the need for workshops to educate all circumcision practitioners (wanzams), nurses and even doctors on the subject.

“Until that is done, we cannot be safe. We cannot say we have achieved anything.”

Dr. Arhin called for a National policy on circumcision, insisting that “We need first and foremost to identify all those who conduct circumcisions and give them hands-on training so they can do safe [circumscision].”

In Ghana, male infants are circumcised when they are a few days old. The practice can be traced to Abrahamic tradition and uncircumcised boys usually, suffer stigmatisation.

This delicate operation is conducted either in a hospital or by traditional surgeons locally referred to as “wanzams”.

UGANDA: Men resist being cut

Aids Ark
October 9, 2014

Uganda's flagging male circumcision drive

SHAREKAMPALA, 8 October 2014 (IRIN) – Limited funding and personnel, as well as misconceptions and cultural beliefs, are some of the challenges hindering Uganda’s goal of circumcising at least 4.2 million men by 2015 in a bid to lower the country’s HIV/AIDS incidence.

Just 26 percent, about 1.4 million, of the men targeted under the Safe Male Circumcision (SMC) programme – launched in September 2010 – had been circumcised by the end of 2013, according to Uganda’s AIDS Commission (UAC) mid-term review report of the National HIV/AIDS Strategic Plan (2011-2015).

The US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) indicate that circumcising 4.2 million Ugandan men in 2011-2015 could help to halve the country’s HIV incidence. Uganda’s HIV prevalence rate has risen from 6.4 to 7.3 percent over the past five years.

The 4.2 million target represents 80 percent of the estimated number of uncircumcised men in Uganda. “I don’t think we will achieve the 80 percent target by 2015. The service is limited to a few areas mainly because of the limited funding from donors and government. PEPFAR contributes the biggest portion of this fund out of the many donors supporting health related projects,” Sylvia Nakasi, policy and advocacy officer, Uganda Network of AIDS Service Organizations (UNASO), told IRIN.

“Other factors affecting demand are the mixed messages on SMC, limited coordination of the private and public SMC service providers which affects timely reporting and quality assurance of the service provided, limited training of health workers to do SMC surgery, inadequate SMC supplies, lack of SMC champions and limited health workers.”

According to the UAC report, about 14 districts (out of 112) had reported no SMC activities by March 2013.

“We have had challenges in building capacity and putting systems in our health facilities for the service,” Joshua Musinguzi, the programme manager of the AIDS Control Programme at Uganda’s Ministry of Health, told IRIN. “We are now focused to consolidate and scale up SMC to try to achieve our target. We have harmonized communication materials to create demand, uptake, fight behavioural disinhibition and dispel myths.”

Myths and misconceptions
The UAC report noted that limited mass awareness on SMC may lead to risky sexual behaviour. “Disinhibition” implies the loss of inhibition on behaviour that had been restrained.

“The circumcision disinhibition might cause men to abandon previous risk reduction behaviours such as partner reduction or condom use. There are reports of local misperceptions that SMC is a magic bullet to prevent HIV, a belief that is likely to inhibit safe sex practices,” it stated.

The report added that the preference for traditional circumcision among some ethnic groups, such as the Bamasaba and the Bakakonjo, is affecting government efforts to scale up SMC. SMC is medically carried out under hygienic conditions to prevent the spread of infectious diseases, which are risk factors in traditional circumcision.
...

Myths abound. “There are many misconceptions and myths which surround this intervention. It’s also [a] frightening procedure. Men think of the risks involved, the pain and how long it will take them to heal,” added Sarah Kayagi, the chairperson of Uganda’s HIV/AIDS parliamentary committee. “Some women don’t want their husbands circumcised on grounds that they will become sexually weaker… Some think it’s meant to convert people to Islam."

[Not to mention - never to mention - that men may refuse to be circumcised because they know the value of their foreskins and that the claimed benefits are insufficient to justify it.]
...

GLASGOW: 60-year-old circumcised "by accident"

Not nearly enough...

Metro (UK)
October 8, 2014

Doctors gave patient a circumcision by accident

A hospital patient who went in to have his penis straightened was circumcised without his permission.

David Duffy, 60, came round from his operation to discover that he had 11 stitches in place of his foreskin.

He’s now been given £2,000 [USD3,222] in compensation from Glasgow Royal Infirmary, according to The Sun.

Saying he felt violated, David said: ‘My penis was bending to the left. It wasn’t painful but it didn’t look right.

‘I had an operation to straighten the bend. Nothing was ever said about circumcision.’
The straightening operation was a success.

A spokesman for NHS Greater Glasgow said the hospital had apologised, adding: ‘If Mr Duffy has further concerns, we would be happy to look into them.’

CROYDON, UK: Circumfetishist paedophile Quaintance gets 2 years: Gilgal Society "just a facade"

Gilgal Society "just a facade"

Croydon Advertiser
October 3, 2014

Upper Norwood circumcision fetishist jailed for asking schoolboys to show him their private parts

A CIRCUMCISION fetishist and Catholic clergyman from Upper Norwood who targeted young boys and asked them to expose themselves has been locked up for more than two years.

Vernon Quaintance, 71, lured schoolboys for a drive in the countryside before asking them to drop their trousers under the pretence of inspecting whether or not they were circumcised.

The paedophile confessed to a string of offences against five young boys as young as 10 in the 1960s and 1970s.

The pervert, who was a member of Catholic society the Order of Malta, had also accumulated an archive of vile images.

Thousands of images were unearthed from his computer, many showing bloody and ritualistic circumcisions in the Brazilian rainforest.

Quaintance was a leader of pro-circucision group the Gilgal Society, a group claiming to promote male circumcision and 'its benefits in terms of health, sexual satisfaction and self-image'.

But this was just a facade for the 'distribution of images of young boys' for erotic and paedophilic use, Southwark Crown Court heard today (Friday).

Gilgal is a Biblical site in Jericho and was also known in Hebrew as Gibeath-haaraloth - the Hill of the Foreskins.

He has served as a sacristan in the church in the Hospital of St John and St Elizabeth, north London, where the Order of Malta conduct their masses.

Jailing him for two years and four months Judge Anthony Leonard QC said Quaintance used his interest in the surgical procedure to look at young boys.

"In my judgement, while I accept that you have had a lifelong interest in circumcision, the reason that you took those young boys to a secluded spot and asked to see their private parts - while it may have been inspired by your own interest - was clearly for sexual gratification," he said.

"You are now 71 and in reasonable but not robust health.

"I can make some very limited allowance for your age but it does in particular assist you to the extend that I am able to judge that this offending did not continue in your later years."

The first boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was just ten years old in 1966 when Quaintance approached him while he was knocking on doors for his Cubs group on a 'Bob a Job' round.

Quaintance, who was in his 20s at the time, asked if he wanted to go for a drive in the Surrey countryside.

"It was during that drive that the defendant began to talk about circumcision," said prosecutor Jonathan Turner.

"This led to the defendant to describe what circumcision was and when they came to a secluded area in the countryside, the car was parked and the defendant asked the complainant to show him his penis to determine whether it was circumcised or not."

The "scared" boy refused and Quaintance drove him home.

Two boys, aged 10 and 11, were targeted at St Bartholomew's Church in Clapham, south London, where he worked as an alter server.

Quaintance took an 11-year-old altar boy on a drive in the countryside after gaining the trust of his parents.

He joked about circumcision and convinced him to expose himself.

He asked how far back he could pull his foreskin and if he wanted to see an example of a circumcised penis.

The child was left "horrified and sickened" by the "abuse of trust" for many years after the incident.

The deviant also pursued two brothers, aged just 12 and 10, while working as a BT engineer.

There was a photo studio and dark room at the premises in London which Quaintance lured two children to in the 1970s.

"The defendant claimed he was a member of a photography club, as a consequence he induced him [a complainant] to go," said Mr Turner.

"He took him to the dark room under the pretence of being taught photography.
"Once there he introduced the topic of circumcision and invite the complainant to take down his trousers.'

The boy, who had initially agreed, grew scared when he saw the look on Quaintance's face as he approached him and refused to expose himself.

His brother, also lured into speaking about circumcision with Quaintance alone, was so distressed by Quaintance's sick request he went to the toilet and cried.

Gudrun Young, defence counsel, said Quaintance's "life work" was the promotion of circumcision and pressed he had a 'genuine interest' in the procedure.

"He maintains that he wasn't acting out of sexual motivation at the time," she added.

Quaintance dodged jail in 2012 after he was found guilty of possessing nine hours of child pornography on video tapes.

The retired telephone engineer walked free with a suspended sentence, despite a judge pouring scorn on the claim he derived 'no sexual enjoyment' from the clips.

Faced with a series of new charges, he admitted nine offences just moments before his jury trial was due to begin earlier this year.

Quaintance, of Hetley Gardens, Upper Norwood pleaded guilty to five charges counts of indecency with a child between 1966 and 1976 and four counts of possession of indecent images.

He was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment for one count of indecency with a child.

He was jailed for a further 10 months for three remaining indecency charges to run concurrently with each other and consecutively to the 18 months sentence.

Quaintance was handed a one month sentence for possession of indecent photographs which were all graded at Level One to run concurrently to the other terms.

An additional count of sexual assault on a child was left to lie on file.

[The Gilgal Society website reopened soon after Quaintance's conviction, rebranded as the "Circumcision Helpdesk". It remains to be seen whether it too is "only a facade".]

Earlier story

ATLANTA: Mother sues for botch

AJC.come (Atlanta, Georgia)
Septemer 29, 2014

Lawsuit filed claiming botched Clayton County circumcision

by Rhonda Cook
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A Clayton County mother is suing a clinic and a nurse midwife claiming they botched the circumcision of her newborn, allegedly scarring him to the extent that he cannot normally urinate and most likely will be unable to have sex once he is an adult.

According to the attorney who filed the lawsuit in Clayton County State Court, the tip of the baby’s penis was amputated, leaving a stump.

“They cut through his urethra,” attorney Jonathan Johnson told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Monday.

He said child’s body is reacting to the wound by sealing up and they are “continuing having to go and have holes punched in that wound so he can urinate.”

The mother of the 1-year-old said she has to insert an instrument in the hole three times a day to prevent it from closing.

“He will be deprived for the rest of his life. Our society is so judgmental,” Stacie Willis said about her son, the youngest of three boys she and her husband have. “This may be a kid who never wants to have intercourse or kids, or will be ashamed. He may be suicidal or depressed. Nobody knows.”
His medical bills so far have total $20,000, some of it covered by insurance.

Johnson said psychiatric care for the child is expected to total at least $1 million over his lifetime.
Willis says doctors still don’t know if any future surgeries can repair the damage.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday, says the boy was disfigured because of negligence of Life Cycle Pediatrics, nurse midwife Melissa Jones, who performed the circumcision on Oct. 3, 2013, and Anne Sigouin, owner of Life Cycle OB/GYN.
...

Willis said there was an extraordinary amount of blood during the procedure, and she immediately took her son to a nearby emergency room.

“That’s when I found out the tip of his glans (had been severed) and urethra was seriously damaged,” Willis said. “His penis will never be normal. He’ll have to go through (more) surgeries for the rest of his life.”