ISRAEL: Court orders boy circumcised against mother's wish

Jewish Press
November 7, 2013

Court Forcing Divorcée to Circumcise Son

by Yori Yanover
A rabbinical court in Netanya this week forced a divorced woman to facilitate the performance of a Jewish circumcision for her son, Behadrei Haredim reported.

During the divorce process, which Israeli Jews contest in rabbinical court, the husband requested that the regional rabbinical court in Netanya, about 20 miles north of Tel Aviv, to compel his wife to give their son a legal circumcision. The court accepted his request.

The woman argued that the rabbinical court does not have jurisdiction over her son, and may not decide on what constitutes a dangerous medical procedure for him, especially since the boy is not a party to the divorce procedure. She argued that the authority to decide on this matter belongs exclusively in family court.

But the rabbinical judges, Rabbis Michael Amos, Sheur Pardes and Ariel Yanai, rejected the woman’s argument and determined that when a couple is in a dispute over the treatment of their son, the dispute may be resolve either in family or in rabbinical court. “The circumcision,” wrote the judges, “is a simple surgery which is conducted on every Jewish baby eight days or older, around the world, for thousands of years. Therefore, when one of the parents demands it, the other party may not prevent it unless a medical danger can be proven.”

The judges added: “The minor’s entire educational construct depends on the performance of the Brit Milah-circumcision; therefore the mother’s claim that the circumcision is unrelated the child’s guardianship and education is refuted and rejected. “The circumcision is the sign, the mark, the distinguishing detail of the Jewish identity of every Jew wherever he may be, and whatever his spiritual state. An uncircumcised Jew’s Jewish identity is incomplete and defective.”

Therefore, the mother’s request was rejected and the court ordered her to have the circumcision be performed within seven days, or suffer a financial penalty.

PROVIDENCE, RI: Another study finds no circumcision-HIV/HPV link

Another study finds no link


Brown Daily Herald
October 30, 2013

Link between HIV and HPV risk confirmed in men

by Phoebe Draper
While the link between human papillomavirus infection and human immunodeficiency virus has been studied in females in the past, a new study by University researchers in the Department of Epidemiology has found this link in males as well.

Examining data on 2,519 circumcised and uncircumcised men, researchers found HPV infection was associated with increased risk of HIV infection in males. Men who had recently had an HPV infection, or had persistent HPV infection, were at higher risk of HIV. Circumcision status was not found to have an effect.

The findings suggest that HPV should be an integral component of future HIV prevention measures, highlighting the need for future research into the specific mechanism by which HPV augments HIV risk, according to the study’s abstract.

GEORGIA: Early pain changes the brain

Science News
October 30, 2013

Early pain changes the brain

A new study has found that rats subjected to pain soon after birth undergo changes in their brains.
This may permanently alter their reaction to stress and pain in adulthood, Dr Anne Murphy of Georgia State University has found

More

CANBERRA: Senate committee; "Don't cut intersex without good cause"

Australian Senate/OII
October 30, 2013

Senate Committe: "Avoid unnecessary surgery on children"

An Australian Senate Committee has recommended that medical interventions on intersexed children should wherever possible wait until the person themself can give their informed consent.

The Community Affairs References Committee report on "Involuntary or coerced sterilisation of intersex people in Australia" has accepted many of the submissions of Organisation Intersex International (OII) Australia.

It recommends the terms "intersex" or "differences of sexual development" rather than "disorders of sexual development".
The committee recommends that all medical treatment of intersex people take place under guidelines that ensure treatment is managed by multidisciplinary teams within a human rights framework. The guidelines should favour deferral of normalising treatment until the person can give fully informed consent, and seek to minimise surgical intervention on infants undertaken for primarily psychosocial reasons.

Medical intervention should be deferred wherever possible until the patient is able to freely give full and informed consent; this is known as “Gillick competence”.
OII says the report raises major concerns about medical ethics and the human rights of intersex people in Australia.

"The committee acknowledges that surgeries intend to erase intersex traits from individuals and society, yet the underlying preconceptions are disturbing, and no research has been done to evaluate the benefits of alternatives," OII Australia president Morgan Carpenter said.

TEL AVIV: Knesset Members to lobby Europe: "Let us go on cutting babies!"

Jerusalem Post
October 23, 2013

MKs [Members of the Knesset] to traverse Europe to combat anti-circumcision proposals

by Lahav Harkov
MKs plan to travel through Europe in the coming weeks to battle anti-circumcision legislation.
On Wednesday, Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein called in 15 MKs who head caucuses for relations with different European countries to discuss how to fight a resolution that the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe passed earlier this month.

The resolution called male ritual circumcision “a violation of the physical integrity of children,” and said states should protect children “against violations of their physical integrity according to human rights standards.”

[And their rebuttal of these almost self-evident facts is...?]
 
At the meeting, Knesset diplomatic adviser Oded Ben-Hur recommended that the MKs visit European countries and ask their counterparts to sign a new draft resolution written by Israel that would reverse the PACE decision.

In addition, the MKs will check whether there are bills on the dockets of parliaments in Europe that are meant to outlaw circumcision, and work to block them by explaining the importance the ritual has for Jews and Muslims.

“This is a battle that unites religions. [Only religions that want to cut children's genitals...] The PACE decision is scandalous and can set Europe on fire,” Edelstein warned.

The Knesset speaker said that at that moment a European MP could be trying to pass the resolution as law in his or her country, and the MKs must do all they can to stop it.

MK Ahmed Tibi (United Arab List-Ta’al) said that although he did not usually travel with Knesset delegations, he would join this battle.

“I can’t imagine that circumcision will become illegal,” Tibi stated. “We [Jews and Muslims] have a joint interest of the first order, an interest that is supreme and moral. [!] We must fight together.”

DURBAN: Six circumcisions botched - without parents' consent

IoL News
October 20, 2013

R3m claim for six 'botched' circumcisions

by Amanda Khoza
Durban - The parents of six boys from Dassenhoek who were allegedly circumcised without consent are suing New Start clinic for R3 million [$US 305,000] in damages.

The clinic, which is managed by Society for Family Health and Thatenda Health Care, is a partnership with the Department of Health. It runs six male circumcision centres in KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng and Mpumalanga.

In May, the Sunday Tribune reported that parents of 19 boys, aged 11 to 19, from Dassenhoek, near Mariannhill, laid charges against New Start over circumcisions.

Some of the boys experienced post-operative complications, swelling or bleeding of the penis or infected wounds. A case of assault with grievous bodily harm was opened.

...

The boys were picked up in groups by a man in a vehicle bearing the New Start logo from April to May.

...

Busisiwe Ntiga, 29, was at work when her 11-year-son was circumcised. She alleges the KZN Department of Health offered them money for their silence.

“One official told us we can be paid before the matter goes any further. They tried to silence us with money but we refused,” said Ntiga.

The KZN Department of Health has failed to respond.

Attorney Naheem Rehman, for the parents, said: “In terms of the Children’s Act, consent is required by a health practitioner before undertaking any procedure. Circumcision of children under the age of 16 is strictly prohibited unless it is done for medical or religious purposes. Any one who contravenes this law faces a 10-year jail sentence or will be fined.”

He said the Society for Family Health had until this week to respond to the letter of demand or summons would be issued.

Director of the society’s South African branch, Scott Billy, said the organisation had not received the letter and they were not aware of the claim.

However, the Sunday Tribune has seen a copy of a registered letter signed on behalf of New Start clinic acknowledging the letter of demand.

...

The July edition of the KZN Health Bulletin boasted more than 239 000 KZN men had been successfully circumcised since 2010, with not a single death or botched procedure – even though the Sunday Tribune highlighted the case of the Dassenhoek boys.

...

Meanwhile, Wentzell Ngidi, 26, the fast food employee from Umlazi whose entire skin was removed from his penis during a botched circumcision on September 21, is recovering at St Aidan’s Hospital and awaiting plastic surgery.

“I am still in a lot of pain,” said Ngidi this week.

...

UPDATE: Circumstitions News Back from Hiatus

Activity at Circumstitions News was suspended for a few weeks. Here is a list of several important events that took place during that time:

• The Genital Autonomy Symposium at Keele was told by a London QC that infant circumcision is already contrary to the law. In a wide-ranging address, London Queen's Counsel James Chewidden demonstrated how non-therapeutic infant circumcision is in breach of natonal and international law.
  He cited cases, such as Re A (minors: conjoined twins), in which Lord Walker said:
  "Every human being's right to life carries with, as an intrinsic part of it, rights of bodily integrity and autonomy - the right to have one's own body whole and intact and (upon reaching an age of understanding) to take decisions about one's body."...and Re Marion [sterilisation of an intellectually handicapped girl]:"Conclusion relies on a fundamental right to personal inviolability existing in the common law, a right which underscores the principles of assault, both criminal and civil."
  McHugh J, a member of the majority in that case, had more to say:
  "The common law accepts that a person has rights of self-control and self-determination in respect of his or her body which other persons must respect. Thus, the legal requirement of consent to body interference protects the autonomy and dignity of the individual and limits the power of others to interfere with that person's body."
  Mr Chegwidden was speaking at the 2013 International Symposium of Genital Autonomy, at Keele University, Staffordshire.
  Only one judicial statement has ever claimed infant circumcision is legal, and that was in passing (in a 1994 case [R v. Brown 1AC 212] of adult men voluntarily wounding each other for sexual purposes), with no reference or precedent, though it has been cited in defence of circumcision many times since.
  
• Children's Ombudsmen of five Scandinavian countries, and several Danish political parties came out together against infant circumcision.
• The Council of Europe condemned infant circumcision as a human rights violation, with a predictible reaction. And on a lighter note,
• Any British royal circumcision tradition is thoroughly refuted.