NEW ORLEANS: AAP session told "Listen to Intactivists": Message unchanged after 42 years

October 24, 2012

Pediatrician tells AAP "Listen to Intactivists"

By Hugh Young
Tweets from within the American Academy of Pedriatrics Convention indicate the only presentation on circumcision included a pro-intact message.

While Dr Yves Homsy of Florida was presenting on "Pros and Cons of Doing Circumcisions", a session described as aiming "to explain what one needs to do in order to set up a program to do neonatal circumcisions and how one can become an expert circumciser" one of the audience, Dr Daniel Flanders of Toronto sent a picture of Dr Homsy's opening slide.


Since this is a standard pro-circumcision meme, Intactivists assumed Dr Homsy was toeing the AAP party line on circumcision, but Dr Flanders Tweeted:


Dr. Homsy: Those who oppose circumcision are conveying an important message and their voices should be heard

Queried that this was hardly the message in the session's abstract, Dr Flanders Tweeted: "I noticed that discrepancy as well. The lecture was not as described in the program. Focus was on medically necessary circ."

Challenged on his own views, he Tweeted: "My personal views are irrelevant. Professionally, I do not do circumcisions."

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42 years later, the message is unchanged

At the weekend in New Orleans, Jonathon Conte of San Francisco carried an inflammatory sign outside the American Academy of Pediatrics convention: "Sex Criminals for Hire: Inquire within".

Picture: James Loewen

It is the same message that pioneer Intactivist Van Lewis was arrested for carrying.

Van and his brother Ben were outside the Tallahassee Memorial Hospital on December 16, 1970. He and his brother Ben carried signs also saying "Infant Circumcision is a Sex Crime. Abolish it." "Abolish Infant Circumcision." and "Men's Liberation" outside the Tallahassee Memorial Hospital, Tallahassee, Florida. They were charged with disturbing the peace and spent a day in the cells.

In 2010, Van Lewis told James Loewen about his arrest:


Van Lewis died in Tallahassee, Florida on June 6, 2011 of pancreatic cancer. He was 68. But his soul goes marching on.

Earlier story

NEW ORLEANS: Intact America confronts AAP Convention: AAP tries to have them removed

Washington Post
October 23, 2012

Anti-circumcision activists confront pediatricians

By John Pope| Religion News Service [Religion?]

Intactivists demonstrate that circumcising babies harms the men they become, opposite the AAP convention Picture: James Loewen

NEW ORLEANS — Pediatricians gathered here for the American Academy of Pediatrics convention were greeted by protesters urging the medical group to rethink its position on an issue that makes most people squirm: the circumcision of newborn boys.

And although the American Academy of Pediatrics doesn’t recommend routine removal of infants’ foreskins — that has been its stance since 1999 — its report, released two months ago, does cite literature saying that the procedure can prevent [some] urinary-tract infections, cancer of the penis and sexually transmitted diseases, including AIDS.

Such benefits, the report says, justify its coverage by private insurance and Medicaid. But opponents, who call themselves “intactivists,” go beyond mere opposition to the circumcision of healthy infants.

Georgeanne Chapin J L

“We say that it’s a human-rights violation to tie down a baby and cut off part of his penis,” said Georganne Chapin, the founding executive director of Intact America, which held a press conference and rally outside the convention on Saturday (Oct. 20).

The AAP convention continues through Tuesday.

Moreover, she said, “There are absolutely no data suggesting that areas with high circumcision rates have healthier boys or areas with low circumcision rates have less healthy boys.”

Data suggest a decline in the percentage of American newborns undergoing the procedure.

...

Anthony Losquadro at the press conference Picture: Barefoot Intactivist

Anthony Losquadro of Brooklyn, N.Y., who spoke at Saturday’s rally at the convention center, said it represents a shift in public opinion.

“Like any change in culture, it takes time,” he said, “but I think people realize that babies are born intact and you don’t need to correct a perfectly functional body part with surgery.”

...

The authors did not take a position on whether newborns should be circumcised. [Everything but...] They also took pains to point out that the data they used didn’t include circumcisions performed outside hospitals, such as those required for boys born into Jewish and Muslim families.

But the reason for the procedure doesn’t matter, said Chapin, whose organization opposes all medically unnecessary circumcisions.

“Our organization is not going after Jews and Muslims,” she said. “We’re saying that all babies are entitled to protection.”

...

Among the speakers at Saturday’s protest were men who were circumcised days after they were born and still profess to be upset by it, even though the procedure occurred decades ago. [Way to dismiss their human rights! Have their foreskins grown back?]

“I do feel a sense that my rights were violated on my second day of life,” Losquadro said.

The foreskin has a role, he said, because it covers the tip of the penis — he likened this role to that of an eyelid — and because it has cells that alert the immune system to potential trouble.

“It evolved for a reason,” he said, “and it’s foolish for doctors to assume that it’s an unneeded flap of skin."

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Georgeanne Chapin writes:

Saturday, the second day of our protest, two AAP officials convened with police and security guards in front of the convention center. A couple of Intactivists were able to overhear some of the conversation. They asked the police if we could not be forced to leave the area. The police told them no, that we were marching on public property, and that we were breaking no laws.

I actually went up to the man, extended my hand, and introduced myself as Georgnne Chapin, executive director of Intact America. He refused to shake my hand and said, "So what?"

I said I just wanted to introduce myself and I would like to know his name. He said, "I don't agree with anything you do or say," turned on his heel, and walked away.

We had the equivalent of an outdoor, public booth across from the Center; it was a streetcorner, next to an outdoor parking lot, which was next to a Marriott Hotel. On Friday, we had received permission from the lot owner to hang our "I Did Not Consent" banner, and other signs on the chain link fence.


Picture: Intact Lousiana

Around an hour after the AAP officials' unsuccessful attempt to get rid of us, the valet from the Marriott came and told us that the owner of the parking lot said we were trespassing and had to take the banner and signs down.

Dan Bollinger asked to speak with the owner who "didn't have time" to talk with us, but asked the valet if he could give us the guy's number. Dan called him (turns out it was the manager, not the owner), and had a very pleasant conversation, which ended in him agreeing to extend the permission for us to have the signs up for two more days. (We paid him a small fee.)

We are certain that the AAP also had complained to the Marriott, which is what sparked them to contact the parking lot manager (who clearly felt he didn't owe the AAP anything). Very nice. All of that said, we had some good conversations, and I felt that by being on the street rather than in the convention exhibit hall, we were free to say all the things we believe.

Earlier story

NEW ORLEANS: Intact America on streets at AAP Convention: Pediatrics publishes another self-citing Morris letter

PRWeb.com
October , 2012

Intact America Calls on American Academy of Pediatrics to Rescind Pro-Circumcision Report that Violates Ethics, Human Rights of Baby Boys

By Georgeanne Chapin

Click to enlarge Intact America advertisement in New Orleans papers during the AAP Convention

Intact America, the nation’s leading intactivist organization critical of neonatal male circumcision, today called on the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) to reject a one-sided Task Force report that presses insurance companies and state Medicaid plans to pay for an unnecessary, and unethical surgery that even the task force cannot see its way clear to recommend.

“The AAP stacked its circumcision Task Force with pro-circumcision doctors and activists, and apparently is afraid to let its members learn the truth about the unnecessary, unethical, and risky surgery that U.S. doctors perform more than a million times a year on baby boys who cannot consent,” said Georganne Chapin, Executive Director of Intact America. The AAP had originally accepted Intact America’s application and payment for a booth at its exhibition hall but then cancelled it without warning after Intact America and others openly criticized the report of its Circumcision Task Force.

Intactivists, as critics of neonatal male circumcision are called, will be coming from around the United States and Canada to protest outside the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, where the AAP is holding its annual convention starting on October 20th. They include a number of men expected to express outrage that they were forced to undergo the surgery without their consent.

“They can kick us out of their hall, but they can’t escape the growing realization that they have trapped themselves in an ethical quagmire by seeking reimbursement for surgery the American Medical Association properly calls ‘non-therapeutic,’” Chapin said. “They know that growing numbers of American parents are saying no to the removal of healthy functioning tissue from the genitals of their baby boys in a surgery that is a gross violation of medical ethics and the baby’s basic human rights.”

The AAP action came shortly after Chapin authored an essay appearing in Huffington Post, arguing that the AAP was acting more like a trade association than a doctors’ organization that claims to be “dedicated to the health of all children.” In its report issued this summer, the AAP Task Force acknowledged that there were not enough benefits to justify recommending circumcision, but sought to win approval for reimbursement by insurance companies and the 18 states’ Medicaid programs – including Louisiana’s – where the surgery is currently not covered.

“Although health benefits are not great enough to recommend routine circumcision for all male newborns, the benefits of circumcision are sufficient to justify access to this procedure for families choosing it and to warrant third-party payment for circumcision of male newborns,” the report reads.

The AAP relied heavily on studies of sexually-active adult African men and the role circumcision might play in retarding female-to-male – but not male-to-female – transmission of the HIV virus linked to AIDS. The AAP and Centers for Disease Control correctly report there is no evidence circumcision plays any role in retarding male-to-male HIV transmission, which along with sharing intravenous needles is the predominant mode of HIV transmission in the United States.

“Ethical and scientific problems with the African research aside, trying to extrapolate from studies of sexually active adult African men to infant boys in America is bad science, bad medicine and bad health policy,” Chapin said. “Medical ethics requires necessity and informed consent for something as invasive as surgery. The foreskin is normal tissue, an integral part of the male anatomy; it protects the rest of the penis and plays an important role in sexual pleasure. Babies should be left alone. When they become men, they can make their own informed decision about whether they want to remove a part of their own penises.”

“Not only does the Task Force report blatantly ignore the ethical obligation of physicians to respect their patients' autonomy and do no harm, it repeatedly calls for doctors to be paid [by the taxpayer] for removing healthy, functioning tissue from somebody who cannot consent.” Chapin wrote.

While the male circumcision rate in the United States was around 80 percent 30 years ago, it has steadily dropped to around 50 percent today. In Europe, circumcision rates in most countries are well under 10 percent, and European physician groups and even courts are now calling for doctors to stop performing all child circumcisions that are not medically indicated.

The Royal Dutch Medical Association has recommended against routine male circumcision, the organization calling it a medically-unnecessary form of surgery.

"The patient has to give consent, but children can't give consent and we feel that is wrong and a violation of the child's right,” said Gert Van Dijk, an ethicist at The Royal Dutch Medical Association. "In our code of medical ethics, it states that you must not do harm to the patient, but with this procedure this is exactly what you're doing."

In Denmark, Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt has commissioned an investigation into whether non-medical circumcision procedures violate its health code. In Germany, a court ruled in June that non-therapeutic male circumcision amounted to bodily injury and violated human rights provisions of the country's laws. The judge explicitly ruled that the parents' religious freedom cannot override the child's right to physical integrity and self-determination. "The body of the child is irreparably and permanently changed by a circumcision," the judge wrote. "This change contravenes the interests of the child to decide later on his religious beliefs."

Following the German court's decision, hospitals in Austria and Switzerland suspended all medically-unnecessary infant circumcisions. Political discussion continues in Germany over whether religious circumcisions might be allowed, but no European physician organization is contending that there is any medical justification for routinely circumcising babies or children.

The AAP letter kicking Intact America out of the convention hall in New Orleans, sent from its Illinois headquarters and dated October 10th, cited content on the Intact America website and Intact America’s Facebook page for its actions. Intact America and other critics of circumcision have rented exhibition space for years without incident at AAP conventions.

“Pediatricians must be reminded that their patients are the babies,” Chapin said. “If we can’t remind them in the hall, we will remind them in the streets of New Orleans.”

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Meanwhile, the AAP has printed a second letter from Profressor Brian Morris in support of its policy, while withholding moderate, referenced letters in opposition. Professor Morris' letter cites three papers, all co-authored by himself.

Professor Morris's website still carries material headed with the Gilgal Society logo, and a verse written by the head of the Gilgal Society, Vernon Quaintance, convicted of possessing child pornography, though Professor Morris purged his material of most of the references soon after the conviction. The Gilgal Society continues to advertise Professor Morris's leaflets, though "a major computer failure" prevents them from being available from the site.

Earlier story