KENYA: Wife sends whole village to publicly cut husband

Diaspora Messenger (Kenya)
January 17, 2015

Wife sends a whole village to circumcise her husband in broad daylight

A man was forcefully circumcised in Chwele Market Bungoma county after his wife reported him to the elders.

A 39-year-old man woke up to the shock of his life when he found thousands of people gathered outside his house waiting to circumcise him.

The father of 11 is said to have had an argument with his wife when she decided to go and expose him to the elders on his state of manhood.

He was drugged out of his house and circumcised in front of a large multitude in Chwele market.

He was later awarded gifts and is expected to stay in isolation for four months before elders teach him on how to be a man, according to the Bukusu culture.

Social media was awash with critics some condemning the act while other praised the act under #GoCutMyHusband

TUNISA: Cutting leaves boy blind, paralysed (from the French)

Kapitalis 28 novembre, 2014 Un enfant, admis pour une circoncision, quitte la clinique aveugle et paralysé Mohamed Amine (2 ans), opéré dans une clinique aux Berges du Lac à Tunis pour une circoncision, perd la vue et l'usage de ses jambes. Le drame remonte à juillet dernier, au 27e jour du mois de Ramadan. Après une bataille judiciaire avec les responsables de la clinique, Islam et Sami Ghandouri, parents de la victime, ont décidé de médiatiser l’affaire et de la porter devant la justice. Ils crient à l’erreur médicale, justifiant cette affirmation par une absence totale d’analyse préopératoire: «L’équipe médicale n’a effectué aucune analyse avant d'opérer. Et c’est probablement l'anesthésie qui est la cause du drame», a affirmé Sami Ghandouri. Selon le père de l’enfant, l’opération a duré 3 heures – trop long pour une simple circoncision –, avant qu’un médecin ne le convoque pour l’informer que Mohamed Amine a été admis d'urgence en soins intensifs. «Il semble que votre enfant ait une maladie cardiaque, il a 2% de chance de survivre», a lancé le praticien aux parents. Le père poursuit son récit: «Mon fils est resté 5 jours dans le coma et, à son réveil, il était incapable de parler ou bouger. Il a été victime d'une erreur médicale, car si les médecins avaient effectué les examens nécessaires, ils auraient pu éviter le drame». Islam et Sami ont du vendre leurs biens (meubles et bijoux) pour payer 7.000 dinars, une partie des frais de l’hospitalisation. Après 2 mois d’acharnement médical, la clinique a décidé que l’enfant pouvait quitter l’établissement et demandé aux parents de régler 30.000 dinars. «La facture totale s’élève à 50.000, mais les médecins vous font cadeau de leurs honoraires. Vous nous devez donc 30.000 dinars», leur a indiqué, sans ciller, le responsable financier de la clinique, qui refuse de reconnaitre sa responsabilité dans l’état de l’enfant. Les parents dénoncent, également, le manque d’hygiène dans l’établissement sanitaire. Ils ont en effet remarqué que, durant l’hospitalisation de Mohamed Amine, des ouvriers peignaient les murs à l’intérieur même de la chambre de la réanimation. «La peinture dégoulinait de partout, l’odeur était insupportable et notre enfant était alité et sous machine. Le pire c’est qu’un médecin, surpris par notre remarque, a répliqué que la peinture est un antiseptique… Il nous prenait pour des imbéciles. Au manque de professionnalisme s’ajoute l’inconscience. N’ont-ils pas fait le serment d’Hippocrate? Sont-ils là pour amasser de l’argent ou pour soigner des gens», s’est interrogé le père. M. et Mme Ghandouri sont à bout et appellent à l’aide : «Amine est alité et survit grâce aux médicaments. Il a des crises de douleurs intenses et ne dort plus. S’il faut que nous passions sur un plateau télévisé, nous le ferons, mais de grâce, trouvons une solution pour soigner mon enfant», implore le père.

Machine translation, edited November 28, 2014 A child admitted for a circumcision left the clinic blind and paralyzed Mohamed Amine, aged 2, circumcised in a clinic in the Berges du Lac in Tunis, lost his sight and the use of his legs. The drama began last July, on the 27th day of the month of Ramadan. After a court battle with the leaders of the clinic, Islam and Sami Gaylord, the victim's parents, decided to publicize the case and bring it to justice. They point to medical error, justifying this statement by a total absence of preoperative analysis: "The medical team did no analysis before operating. And it is probably the anaesthesia which is the cause of the drama," said Sami Gaylord. According to the child's father, the operation lasted 3 hours - too long for a simple circumcision - before a physician would meet him to tell him that Mohamed Amine had been urgently admitted to intensive care. "It seems that your child has heart disease; he has a 2% chance of surviving," the practitioner abruptly told the parents. The father continues his story: "My son stayed for 5 days in a coma and when he awoke, he was unable to speak or move. He was victim of a medical error, because if doctors had made the necessary examination, they could have avoided the tragedy." Islam and Sami had to sell their property (furniture and jewelry) to pay 7,000 dinars, a portion of the costs of hospitalization. After 2 months of intensive care, the clinic has decided that the child could leave the facility and asked parents to settle 30,000 dinars more. "The total bill amounts to 50,000, but doctors make you gift of their fees. "You owe us 30,000 dinars," the clinc's financial manager told them without blinking. It refuses to recognize its responsibility for the child's condition. Parents also denounced the lack of hygiene in the health facility. They even noticed that, during the hospitalization of Mohamed Amine, workers painted the interior walls, even the resuscitation room. "Paint dripped everywhere, the smell was unbearable, and our child was bedridden and on a machine. The worst is that a doctor, surprised by our noticing, replied that the painting is an antiseptic... He was taking us for fools. This, added to the lack of professionalism, is unconscionable. Didn't they take the Hippocratic Oath? Are they there to raise money or to treat people," asked the father. Mr. and Mrs. Ghandouri are at the end of their tether and call for help: "Amine is bedridden and survives thanks to the drugs. He has attacks of intense pain and sleeps more. If we must expose our suffering on TV, we will, but for pity's sake, find a solution to cure my child," begs the father.

EASTERN CAPE: Nine boys lose penises in botched circumcisions

Times Live (Soth Africa)
February 14, 2014

At least 9 penis amputations after traditional circumcision

by Katharine Child
Initiates who needed medical attention during the traditional circumcision season were often stigmatised by their communities.

Some men in the Eastern Cape who developed infections refused to go to hospitals and some had parents who prevented them from accessing medical treatment.

This is according to the Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga departments of health that recently reported back to parliament on the 2013 circumcision deaths.

Despite interventions by health officials, this happened:

• 43 people died in the Eastern Cape from circumcisions last year;
• Nine had their penis amputated;
• There were 31 botched circumcision deaths in Mpumalanga;

In the Eastern Cape, the biggest loss of life was caused by infected penises, leading to septicaemia.
Dr Dingeman Rijken, who had worked in Pondoland , Eastern Cape, said traditional leaders were not interested in working with doctors . After meetings with them, chiefs spread messages that medical circumcision was bad.

A traditional nurse was successful in setting up three centralised circumcision schools in Western Pondoland in December. Negotiations to improve the situation in Eastern Pondoland fell flat.

COSTA RICA: Pastor circumcises "to remove a demon"

...a demon in his penis...


Tico Times San José, Costa Rica
July 28, 2013

Guanacaste pastor charged with 22 counts of sexual abuse

by Corey Kane

The charges date back to 2007, including one victim who alleged the pastor mutilated him during a circumcision performed to remove a demon in his penis.

The Costa Rican Prosecutor’s Office last week announced criminal charges against a Guanacaste pastor on 22 counts of sexual abuse allegedly involving three adult victims and one minor.

The charges, made public last Wednesday, range over a six year period from 2007 to 2013. The suspect, identified as A. Gutiérrez, was an evangelical pastor at the Iglesia Dios del Evangelio Completo in Santa Cruz, in the northwestern province of Guanacaste.

According to the daily La Nación, the pastor’s defense attorney said his client denied all charges. A spokeswoman for the Prosecutor's Office said Gutierréz could face up to 50 years in prison if found guilty on all counts.

La Nación reported the testimony of one of the alleged victims, a Nicaraguan man who said the relationship with Gutierréz began when he sought private counsel as a member of his congregation. The man alleged that Gutierréz touched his genitals in an act of blessing them 80 times, performed oral sex on him, and circumcised him with a pair of scissors.

“I told him that I wished I had a very large penis,” the alleged victim said, according to La Nación. “The pastor told me that God had revealed to him that I needed to be circumcised to remove the shape that it had. He also said that God had told him that I had a demon in my penis.”

The man also described a medical examination by the Judicial Investigation Police (OIJ): “They did the exam in the OIJ office, [and] the medic told me that what had happened was a mutilation.”

...

BOTSWANA: Hospital won't help after botch

The Voice (Botswana)
April 12, 2013

Circumcision Horror - Who Cares?

BOY (11) SUFFERS AFTER PROCEDURE GOES WRONG BUT AUTHORITIES FAIL TO HELP CLAIMS MUM

Like many mothers Lungisani Thini decided to have her 11-year-old son circumcised because she wanted him to have a healthier future.

Now she fears he may not have much of a future at all.

The distraught mum, 47, described how the boy’s penis was sliced open during the procedure that went terribly wrong at Tutume Primary hospital. She has now threatened to sue the government P5 million for negligence.

The botched procedure occurred in December last year, but Lungisani claims the hospital neither gave her an apology nor reacted urgently to repair the damage.

“I know mistakes do occur, but the way the hospital is handling my son’s case makes me feel they don’t care.

All I need now is compensation so that I can find medication and doctors to correct the blunder before it’s too late,” she said.

The mother of six revealed that the problem became evident shortly after the procedure when the boy experienced pain and difficulty when trying to urinate.

Although he was then referred to Nyangabgwe hospital, it soon became apparent that measures taken to repair the damage had been unsuccessful.

“When after a week they removed the pipe they had inserted in his penis they assured us that all would be well.

But before long the boy started complaining again.”

Lungisani went on to say that after returning to Nyangabgwe doctors said there was nothing they could do as her son urgently needed to see a specialist.

She told how he was then transferred to Maun, but claims all they are doing there is draining the urine twice every month from the pipe in his penis.

“As I speak, the boy’s education is being seriously affected because of the repeated journeys to hospital,” she added.

What upsets her most is the fact that apart from providing transport to Maun, the hospital does not assist the family financially for the numerous trips.

She also complained that the hospital has never counselled either her or her son.

“As a single mum it is very difficult for me to cope and since the people who are responsible don’t seem to care, I have decided to take legal action. Although I am poor, I will fight until I get justice,” Lungisani promised.

Taking up the case area councillor Moseki Mathodi said that he tried to follow up the matter, but was told it was none of his business.

“I went to the clinic where the operation was carried out, but the nurse in charge refused to talk to me regarding the case claiming confidentiality.

They even failed to liaise with the school regarding the boy’s problem until I personally went to alert the headmaster,” he said.

Tutume District Health Management Team (DHMT) Coordinator Dr Ntumba Kamayi, although acknowledging there was a problem, dismissed allegations that the hospital was not treating the matter with urgency.

“What happened is very sad, but mistakes do happen,” he said. [Medical mistakes are not supposed to happen; accidents should be dealt with.]

Kamayi went on to assure the public that such cases were rare, saying that at least 40 people a day were being circumcised at the Thini clinic. [Yes, and how many are botched?]

“Why the boy’s case went wrong is still a shock to me,” the doctor said.

OCEAN CITY, MD: Bloodstained Men create a stir

The Dispatch(Maryland Coast)
April 5, 2013

Roadside Protest Creates A Stir In Downtown OC

by News Editor, Shawn J. Soper

OCEAN CITY -- An otherwise quiet and peaceful post-holiday afternoon was marked by a rather unusual protest even for Ocean City standards when representatives of the “Bloodstained Men” activist group set up shop at the foot of the Route 50 bridge to get their message out.

Passersby on Route 50 at N. Division Street on Tuesday afternoon witnessed three men and one woman wearing white coveralls with a red paint splotch on the crotch symbolizing generations of male children circumcised at birth and called for the abolition of the centuries-old practice. The small group in Ocean City on Tuesday was an extension of a much larger event in Washington D.C. last week marking the 20th anniversary of Genital Integrity Awareness Week. The Ocean City protest on Tuesday also coincided with the 16th anniversary of a ban on female circumcision passed in the U.S. in 1997.

“We’re protesting to end forced genital cutting of male children here in the U.S. and worldwide and bring them into equality with female children,” said Delmarva Area Intactivist Group spokesperson Shelly Wright. “We’re trying to get the word out about circumcision because it shouldn’t be forced on male children. They should have the right to decide that when they are adults and can make decisions on their own.”

Wright was one of four protestors to set up shop at the busy intersection in Ocean City on Tuesday and was joined by three other activists from New Zealand, Texas and Sacramento, Calif., ironically just about under the mileage sign for his own hometown over 3,000 miles away at the western end of Route 50. Wright said the mock blood-stained coveralls were an attempt to force people to face the fact that infant circumcision inflicts permanent physical, psychological and sexual damage on male infants [tant]amount to mutilation.

The protestors held up signs with varied messages including “say no to penis cutting,” and “occupy foreskin,” for example. Wright’s own sign read “For Sale: $431, Infant Foreskin Sold by Hospitals.” She said it is a common practice for hospitals to sell the foreskin removed from circumcised infants, which, she said, is a major ingredient in many high-end anti-aging creams.

Generally, the protestors were met with some cheers, some jeers and more than a few honking horns. The Ocean City Police Department was hanging around close to the scene, but only interceded when one of the protestors briefly stood in the middle of N. Division Street facing oncoming traffic from the bridge.

USA: Renewed push for circumcision age-restriction

SFGate/PRWEb
January 15, 2013

American Effort to Ban Circumcision of Minors Kicks into High Gear

Genital integrity activists from across the country are demanding that lawmakers ban the practice of circumcising boys. Popularly known as “intactivists”, these children’s rights advocates submitted the Male Genital Mutilation (MGM) Bill proposal to more than 2,000 legislators this week in an effort to require gender neutrality in federal and state laws that regulate genital cutting.

As director of MGMbill.org’s Indiana state office in Indianapolis, Jeff Cowsert wants all boys to be able to grow up with their genitals left intact. “When I was eight years old, my religious friends told me about circumcision,” said Cowsert. “I was silently outraged, and for the remainder of my childhood I mourned the fact that I didn't have a complete body. I would not have chosen to be cut if given the choice, and I strongly feel that infant circumcision needs to be banned so that men can make their own choices about their own bodies when they are mature adults.”

Ending male circumcision is a goal shared by many women, as well. Shelley Wright-Estevam is a mother and business owner who serves as the group’s state office director in Selbyville, Delaware. “You shouldn’t have to be born female to be protected from genital cutting,” said Wright-Estevam, who has frequently been spotted spreading her message of intactivism on the boardwalk in nearby Rehoboth Beach. “I have heard some people argue that parents should be the ones to make that decision, but violence against a child is not a private matter. Circumcision is not just unnecessary; it also removes a male’s most sensitive body part. It's unethical, painful, harmful, and occasionally even fatal.”

Male circumcision was one of the top issues for lawmakers around the world in 2012. It started in January when a Helsinki district court convicted a man of assault and battery for circumcising two Muslim boys. The following month, the Swedish Pediatric Society issued a statement calling circumcision an “assault” that should be banned. Then, in June, the Centre Party in Norway called on the Red-Green coalition government to grant boys legal protection from circumcision.

Two months later in August, the Tasmanian Law Reform Institute recommended that the state impose a general prohibition on circumcision while Denmark opened an investigation to determine if circumcision violates its health code. And in October, Finland’s largest opposition party promised to introduce a bill that would criminalize circumcision of boys.

But the biggest news came out of Germany over the summer, when a Cologne district court ruled that circumcision of male children is a crime. Although Germany’s parliament later overrode the decision by passing a new law, the German Pediatric Association called for that law to be rejected, stating that boys have “the same basic constitutional legal rights to physical integrity as girls”.

Circumcision was a hot topic in America, as well, when children’s rights groups slammed an American Academy of Pediatrics policy statement that sanctioned parental access to newborn circumcision. New York City also implemented disclosure and consent rules regarding the practice of ritual circumcision after two baby boys died from contracting herpes during the procedure. And with H.R. 2400 (the “Religious and Parental Rights Defense Act of 2011”) failing to get past the House Energy and Commerce Committee, the path is now clear for state governments to prohibit circumcision of male minors within their own borders.

Matthew Hess, president of MGMbill.org, said lawmakers can’t hide from the issue forever. “There are too many people speaking out against circumcision now,” said Hess. “What once was a trickle of condemnation has now become a tidal wave. Modern parents are armed with information on the harmful effects of foreskin amputation, and circumcised men are much more willing to speak out against what was done to them as infants. I think the days of legalized childhood circumcision in this country are numbered.”

In addition to submitting the MGM Bill proposal to every member of the 113th Congress, the group’s representatives submitted similar bills to every state lawmaker in California, Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Virginia, and Washington.

Earlier story

WASHINGTON DC: Federal "Boxcutter" circumcision bill dies

Govtrack US
January 2, 2013

"Boxcutter circumcision" Bill dies

A bill that would have prohibited banning infant male circumcision in the United States, has died without being enacted

In fact, H.R. 2400 (112th): Religious and Parental Rights Defense Act of 2011, would have allowed anyone, trained or not, to circumcise any male up to the age of 18, so long as one parent consented.
The bill was proposed by Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) in June 2012 and co-sponsored by nine others. It was referred to the Senate's Energy and Commerce Committee, but lapsed in the new year.

TURKEY: Boy loses penis in circumcision

Hurriyet Daily News (Turkey)
January 2, 2013

Child's penis cut off in circumcision feast, family claims two million TL compensation

The family of a 3-year-old child whose penis was cut off during a collective circumcision feast in the southeastern province of Batman has demanded 2 million Turkish Liras [$US 1,120,000] in compensation from the Ministry of Health by applying to the Council of State.

The family of the boy sued the ministry in Batman's administrative court after the incident two years ago, with the local court awarding 600,000 Turkish Liras [$US 337,000] in damages.

However, not satisfied with this amount, the family is claiming that the boy may require further treatment, including treatment abroad. It is also claimed that the circumcision was not performed by a qualified doctor, but rather an unqualified member of hospital personnel.