- 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." Mr Chegwidden was speaking at the 2013 International Symposium of Genital Autonomy, at Keele University, Staffordshire.
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."
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.
Monday, October 21, 2013
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:
Saturday, September 7, 2013
BOTSWANA: Men unwilling to be circumcised, funding stopped
Mmegi (Botswana)
August 29, 2013
Japan withdraw circumcision funds
by Onalenna Kelebeile
SELEBI-PHIKWE: A Japanese company JHPEGO, has withdrawn funding for Safe Male Circumcision (SMC) because the country failed to meet the target of 40 males per day. The programme known as SMC/MOVE was a national strategy that started in October 2012 and was supposed to go on for five years. The withdrawal of funding means that the programme stops less than a year after it started. Delivering the Urban Development Committee report recently Selebi-Phikwe District Officer Orishiwa Sitekia said the SMC/MOVE programme stopped due to lack of funds and the team halted work on August 15.
"Funds for this national strategy were withdrawn due to the programme failing to meet the set target of circumcising 40 males a day. "Only 10 males on average were circumcised in a day," she said.
Sitekia said SMC would continue to be done in local health facilities by the district health management teams.She said the SMC/MOVE under the Japanese company had a higher rollout than in the local health facilities Meanwhile, the urban development report shows that there was an insufficient supply of food in the local primary schools during the first quarter of 2013/14 financial year.
...
Ilajewe FM
August 7, 2013
The United States government through the President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has stopped funding Botswana’s Safe Male Circumcision (SMC) programme. Addressing residents of Khuduyamajako in Letlhakeng East recently, the Assistant Minister of Health, the Honourable Gaotlhaetse Matlhabaphiri, said this was due to the unwillingness of men to be circumcised. He pointed out that government planned to have circumcised thousands of men by the end of this year and was concerned about the low turnout they had experienced since the inception of the programme.
“At least during the school vacation, almost 4 000 school going boys were circumcised,” he noted. On other issues, the honourable Matlhabaphiri expressed concern about the growing number of defaulters enrolled on the ARV programme. He was also worried that such patients did not follow doctor’s instructions on how to take their medication.
...
August 29, 2013
Japan withdraw circumcision funds
by Onalenna Kelebeile
SELEBI-PHIKWE: A Japanese company JHPEGO, has withdrawn funding for Safe Male Circumcision (SMC) because the country failed to meet the target of 40 males per day. The programme known as SMC/MOVE was a national strategy that started in October 2012 and was supposed to go on for five years. The withdrawal of funding means that the programme stops less than a year after it started. Delivering the Urban Development Committee report recently Selebi-Phikwe District Officer Orishiwa Sitekia said the SMC/MOVE programme stopped due to lack of funds and the team halted work on August 15.
"Funds for this national strategy were withdrawn due to the programme failing to meet the set target of circumcising 40 males a day. "Only 10 males on average were circumcised in a day," she said.
Sitekia said SMC would continue to be done in local health facilities by the district health management teams.She said the SMC/MOVE under the Japanese company had a higher rollout than in the local health facilities Meanwhile, the urban development report shows that there was an insufficient supply of food in the local primary schools during the first quarter of 2013/14 financial year.
...
Ilajewe FM
August 7, 2013
US STOPS FUNDING CIRCUMCISION PROGRAMME.
The United States government through the President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has stopped funding Botswana’s Safe Male Circumcision (SMC) programme. Addressing residents of Khuduyamajako in Letlhakeng East recently, the Assistant Minister of Health, the Honourable Gaotlhaetse Matlhabaphiri, said this was due to the unwillingness of men to be circumcised. He pointed out that government planned to have circumcised thousands of men by the end of this year and was concerned about the low turnout they had experienced since the inception of the programme.
“At least during the school vacation, almost 4 000 school going boys were circumcised,” he noted. On other issues, the honourable Matlhabaphiri expressed concern about the growing number of defaulters enrolled on the ARV programme. He was also worried that such patients did not follow doctor’s instructions on how to take their medication.
...
IRAN: Some Jews circumcised "incorrectly"
The Jewish Press
August 29, 2013
by Yori Yanover
According to the website Ladaat, there is a concern that Iranian Jews who were circumcised in the city of Shiraz may not be properly circumcised according to Halacha, and may need to undergo a corrective procedure.
This alarming revelation is based on testimony by one Shiraz-born Jewish man, who is 56 today and goes by the name of Motti. In a get-together marking the month of Elul—a time of contemplation and repentance—which included Rabbi Yaron Amit of the Brit Yosef Yitzchak organization, the rabbi shared that there is a growing phenomenon of adult, observant Jews whose circumcision was not done in keeping with Jewish Law.
It turns out that there exists a less invasive method of circumcision, which does not fully remove the foreskin, and so, according to the law, despite the pain the subject of circumcision endures in the process, in the end he is not considered to be circumcised.
Motti, for reasons he does not share in the video, decided to go and be checked by Brit Yosef Yitzchak, and, just as he had suspected, his brit milah required some corrective surgery, which was performed on the spot.
Motti was circumcised at the age of 8 days, like every newborn Jewish baby, but the mohel-ritual circumciser did not finish the job.
According to the website, there has been a similar phenomenon in northern Israel a while back, and some children also required corrective surgery to complete their circumcision.
In Motti’s case the suspects are a father and son team of mohels who worked for years in Shiraz. If this is true, and Motti’s botched circumcision was not the exception, but merely one sample of the Shiraz “style” of circumcision, it could mean that a large number of men in their fifties and sixties from that city may require an examination.
["botched"? On the contrary.]
This is why Motti has gone to the trouble of shooting a video—in Hebrew—to alert his former neighbors to the possibility of the need for a recall.
This reporter inquired with immigrants from Iran, and it appears that the general impression of the Shiraz community is that it is more machmir-stringentin than many in their religious practice, and so the problem with the brit could not have stemmed from rejection of the custom.
August 29, 2013
Concern: Some Iranian Jews Improperly Circumcised
by Yori Yanover
According to the website Ladaat, there is a concern that Iranian Jews who were circumcised in the city of Shiraz may not be properly circumcised according to Halacha, and may need to undergo a corrective procedure.
This alarming revelation is based on testimony by one Shiraz-born Jewish man, who is 56 today and goes by the name of Motti. In a get-together marking the month of Elul—a time of contemplation and repentance—which included Rabbi Yaron Amit of the Brit Yosef Yitzchak organization, the rabbi shared that there is a growing phenomenon of adult, observant Jews whose circumcision was not done in keeping with Jewish Law.
It turns out that there exists a less invasive method of circumcision, which does not fully remove the foreskin, and so, according to the law, despite the pain the subject of circumcision endures in the process, in the end he is not considered to be circumcised.
Motti, for reasons he does not share in the video, decided to go and be checked by Brit Yosef Yitzchak, and, just as he had suspected, his brit milah required some corrective surgery, which was performed on the spot.
Motti was circumcised at the age of 8 days, like every newborn Jewish baby, but the mohel-ritual circumciser did not finish the job.
According to the website, there has been a similar phenomenon in northern Israel a while back, and some children also required corrective surgery to complete their circumcision.
In Motti’s case the suspects are a father and son team of mohels who worked for years in Shiraz. If this is true, and Motti’s botched circumcision was not the exception, but merely one sample of the Shiraz “style” of circumcision, it could mean that a large number of men in their fifties and sixties from that city may require an examination.
["botched"? On the contrary.]
This is why Motti has gone to the trouble of shooting a video—in Hebrew—to alert his former neighbors to the possibility of the need for a recall.
This reporter inquired with immigrants from Iran, and it appears that the general impression of the Shiraz community is that it is more machmir-stringentin than many in their religious practice, and so the problem with the brit could not have stemmed from rejection of the custom.
Normal foreskin to be coded as an abnormal - and billable - condition
ICD10data.com
by Hugh Young
A forthcoming diagnostic code proposes to make a normal baby's foreskin a "disorder" and its treatment - circumcision - billable.
When a boy is born, his foreskin has usually not separated from his glans (head), and it commonly takes several years to separate, sometimes not until puberty.
This seems to be an attempt to implement (by stealth?) the AAP Task Force on Circumcision's recommendation that non-therapeutic infant circumcision should regain Medicaid coverage, to stem the decline in unnecessary circumcisions.
How to make a disesease - and a "cure"
by Hugh Young
A forthcoming diagnostic code proposes to make a normal baby's foreskin a "disorder" and its treatment - circumcision - billable.
When a boy is born, his foreskin has usually not separated from his glans (head), and it commonly takes several years to separate, sometimes not until puberty.
ICD10Data.com
Home > 2013 ICD-10-CM Diagnosis Codes > Diseases of the
genitourinary system N00-N99 > Diseases of male genital organs
N40-N53 > Disorders of prepuce N47-
>
2013 ICD-10-CM Diagnosis Code N47.0
Adherent prepuce, newborn
ICD-10-CM N47.0 is part of Diagnostic Related Group(s) (MS-DRG v28.0):
Convert ICD-10-CM N47.0 to ICD-9-CM
The following ICD-10-CM Index entries contain back-references to ICD-10-CM N47.0:
|
This seems to be an attempt to implement (by stealth?) the AAP Task Force on Circumcision's recommendation that non-therapeutic infant circumcision should regain Medicaid coverage, to stem the decline in unnecessary circumcisions.
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
SOUTH CAROLINA: Surgery on intersexed child could be unconstitutional
Southern Poverty Law Center
August 23, 2013
by
For the first time, a federal court has concluded that a medically unnecessary sex-assignment surgery on a child with an intersex condition could be a violation of the Constitution. This marks an important step forward in seeking justice for “M.C.,” a young man who was needlessly subjected to the procedure as an infant in the care of the South Carolina Department of Social Services.
U.S. District Judge David C. Norton of the South Carolina Charleston Division denied a motion by the defendants to dismiss the case, ruling from the bench following oral arguments late yesterday.
"We applaud the court's decision and we are pleased that the court will have the opportunity to consider the deeply important constitutional issues at stake,” said Alesdair Ittelson, staff attorney for the SPLC. “By removing M.C.'s healthy body parts and trying to make him a girl absent any pressing reason, defendants violated M.C.'s constitutional rights. We look forward to the chance to make our case at trial and bring justice to M.C. and children like him."
M.C. was born with an intersex condition – a difference in reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn’t fit the typical definition of male or female. When he was just 16 months old and in the care of the South Carolina Department of Social Services, doctors and department officials decided the child should undergo sex assignment surgery to make M.C. a girl.
The defendants made this decision even though there was no way of knowing, at such an early age, whether M.C. would grow up to be a male or female. Defendants did not even provide a hearing to determine whether the procedure was in M.C.'s best interests. M.C. has since grown into a healthy 8-year-old boy, although he will never get back the phallus and testicle that were removed.
The SPLC and co-counsel, Advocates for Informed Choice and the private firms Janet, Jenner & Suggs LLC and Steptoe & Johnson LLP, filed lawsuits in both state and federal courts in May.
Earlier story
August 23, 2013
Federal court says sex-assignment surgery on child could violate U.S. Constitution, refuses to dismiss case
by
For the first time, a federal court has concluded that a medically unnecessary sex-assignment surgery on a child with an intersex condition could be a violation of the Constitution. This marks an important step forward in seeking justice for “M.C.,” a young man who was needlessly subjected to the procedure as an infant in the care of the South Carolina Department of Social Services.
U.S. District Judge David C. Norton of the South Carolina Charleston Division denied a motion by the defendants to dismiss the case, ruling from the bench following oral arguments late yesterday.
"We applaud the court's decision and we are pleased that the court will have the opportunity to consider the deeply important constitutional issues at stake,” said Alesdair Ittelson, staff attorney for the SPLC. “By removing M.C.'s healthy body parts and trying to make him a girl absent any pressing reason, defendants violated M.C.'s constitutional rights. We look forward to the chance to make our case at trial and bring justice to M.C. and children like him."
M.C. was born with an intersex condition – a difference in reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn’t fit the typical definition of male or female. When he was just 16 months old and in the care of the South Carolina Department of Social Services, doctors and department officials decided the child should undergo sex assignment surgery to make M.C. a girl.
The defendants made this decision even though there was no way of knowing, at such an early age, whether M.C. would grow up to be a male or female. Defendants did not even provide a hearing to determine whether the procedure was in M.C.'s best interests. M.C. has since grown into a healthy 8-year-old boy, although he will never get back the phallus and testicle that were removed.
The SPLC and co-counsel, Advocates for Informed Choice and the private firms Janet, Jenner & Suggs LLC and Steptoe & Johnson LLP, filed lawsuits in both state and federal courts in May.
Earlier story
Metzitzah: Two more babies with herpes
NewsOK
August 23, 2013
Two more infants have contracted the herpes virus after undergoing an ultra-Orthodoz Jewish type of circumcision, which has been linked to the spread of the potentially deadly virus to newborn boys, according to CNN.
The site reports the health department says the procedure is dangerous because the contact with the mouth could transmit diseases such as herpes.
“While HSV-1 in adults can cause the common cold sore, HSV-1 infection in newborns is very serious,” a department statement says.
Earlier story
August 23, 2013
Babies' herpes linked to circumcision practice
Two more infants have contracted the herpes virus after undergoing an ultra-Orthodoz Jewish type of circumcision, which has been linked to the spread of the potentially deadly virus to newborn boys, according to CNN.
The site reports the health department says the procedure is dangerous because the contact with the mouth could transmit diseases such as herpes.
“While HSV-1 in adults can cause the common cold sore, HSV-1 infection in newborns is very serious,” a department statement says.
Earlier story
NEW YORK: Western US circumcision rate falls dramatically
New York Times
August 22, 2013
by Hope Reeves
¶ The percentage of male newborns who are circumcised in United States hospitals has dropped drastically. Over a 32-year period, the number of male newborns circumcised in the hospital decreased nationally to 58.3 percent in 2010 from 64.5 percent in 1979, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
¶ But while that 10 percent decrease over all is statistically significant, the authors of the report say, what leaps out of the data is a 37 percent drop in the West. In that 13-state part of the country, the rate of newborns receiving routine circumcisions at birth fell to 40.2 percent in 2010, by far the lowest rate in the country, from 63.9 percent in 1979. That decline accounts for virtually all of the shift nationwide.
¶ In the Northeast the overall trend was flat across the 32 years, with a high of 69.6 percent in 1994 and a low of 60.7 percent in 2007. Rates in the Midwest had dropped 3.3 percentage points over the period studied, with a high of 82.9 percent in 1998 and a low of 68.8 percent in 2009. The South’s rate increased 2.6 percentage points and ranged between 66.1 percent in 1995 and 53.8 percent in 1988.
¶ The authors cannot explain why the numbers dropped so precipitously in the West, which comprises Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming, because the analysis did not factor in contextual data. (These figures do not represent circumcisions performed outside of the hospital setting — e.g., ritual circumcisions — or any following discharge from the birth hospitalization.)
¶ “That question is beyond the scope of this report,” Maria Owings, the lead author, said.
¶ But it remains an intriguing question. Why would that part of the country differ so much from the rest? Have parents there developed a new attitude toward circumcision and, if so, why?
[What needs to be explained is not why the rate has fallen in the West, but why it has failed to fall in the rest of the country.]
¶ The high-profile 2010-11 attempt to get a bill criminalizing the procedure on a San Francisco ballot might have provided an opportunity for opponents of the procedure to reach parents. The initiative — called the Prohibition of Genital Cutting of Male Minors — was ultimately quashed, but it did get 12,000 supporting signatures.
¶ “San Francisco is a bastion for new thinking and individual rights, which draws many people to the region; however, the entire West Coast — Washington, Oregon — also have very low infant circumcision rates,” said Lloyd Schofield, the leader of the San Francisco movement. “Certainly much of this comes from basic awareness and less insistence on the procedure from the medical industry.”
¶ Mr. Schofield said that “a huge driver of the decline” was the nonpayment for the procedure by private insurers, “but in particular coverage was removed from Medicaid here decades ago.”
¶ “When the money is gone,” he said, “it no longer serves a purpose … funny thing about that!”
¶ Marc Stern, a lawyer for the American Jewish Committee who worked against the initiative, suggested that, among other things, the larger population of immigrants from countries that do not routinely circumcise could account for the low rates in the West. “Different cultures in Asia and the Americas and different attitudes towards circumcision may help explain the West’s differential,” he said.
¶ Douglas Diekema, a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ task force on circumcision and a professor of pediatrics at Seattle Children’s Hospital, echoed Mr. Stern’s theory that the difference in circumcision rates could be a result of demographics, but he had another theory, too.
¶ “The West Coast has more immigrants from populations that don’t circumcise as commonly as we do in the U.S.,” he said. “The Hispanic culture is one of those, and since the West and Southwest are taking on” more Hispanics, one could assume there would be a drop.
¶ At the same time, Dr. Diekema said, West Coast residents tend to be more progressive.
¶“Ever since the founding of this country, the West Coast has attracted people who walk to the beat of their own drummer,” he said. “People here are more likely to question the standard and go a different way.”
August 22, 2013
Circumcision Rates in U.S. Drop Drastically in Western States
by Hope Reeves
¶ The percentage of male newborns who are circumcised in United States hospitals has dropped drastically. Over a 32-year period, the number of male newborns circumcised in the hospital decreased nationally to 58.3 percent in 2010 from 64.5 percent in 1979, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
¶ But while that 10 percent decrease over all is statistically significant, the authors of the report say, what leaps out of the data is a 37 percent drop in the West. In that 13-state part of the country, the rate of newborns receiving routine circumcisions at birth fell to 40.2 percent in 2010, by far the lowest rate in the country, from 63.9 percent in 1979. That decline accounts for virtually all of the shift nationwide.
¶ In the Northeast the overall trend was flat across the 32 years, with a high of 69.6 percent in 1994 and a low of 60.7 percent in 2007. Rates in the Midwest had dropped 3.3 percentage points over the period studied, with a high of 82.9 percent in 1998 and a low of 68.8 percent in 2009. The South’s rate increased 2.6 percentage points and ranged between 66.1 percent in 1995 and 53.8 percent in 1988.
¶ The authors cannot explain why the numbers dropped so precipitously in the West, which comprises Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming, because the analysis did not factor in contextual data. (These figures do not represent circumcisions performed outside of the hospital setting — e.g., ritual circumcisions — or any following discharge from the birth hospitalization.)
¶ “That question is beyond the scope of this report,” Maria Owings, the lead author, said.
¶ But it remains an intriguing question. Why would that part of the country differ so much from the rest? Have parents there developed a new attitude toward circumcision and, if so, why?
[What needs to be explained is not why the rate has fallen in the West, but why it has failed to fall in the rest of the country.]
¶ The high-profile 2010-11 attempt to get a bill criminalizing the procedure on a San Francisco ballot might have provided an opportunity for opponents of the procedure to reach parents. The initiative — called the Prohibition of Genital Cutting of Male Minors — was ultimately quashed, but it did get 12,000 supporting signatures.
¶ “San Francisco is a bastion for new thinking and individual rights, which draws many people to the region; however, the entire West Coast — Washington, Oregon — also have very low infant circumcision rates,” said Lloyd Schofield, the leader of the San Francisco movement. “Certainly much of this comes from basic awareness and less insistence on the procedure from the medical industry.”
¶ Mr. Schofield said that “a huge driver of the decline” was the nonpayment for the procedure by private insurers, “but in particular coverage was removed from Medicaid here decades ago.”
¶ “When the money is gone,” he said, “it no longer serves a purpose … funny thing about that!”
¶ Marc Stern, a lawyer for the American Jewish Committee who worked against the initiative, suggested that, among other things, the larger population of immigrants from countries that do not routinely circumcise could account for the low rates in the West. “Different cultures in Asia and the Americas and different attitudes towards circumcision may help explain the West’s differential,” he said.
¶ Douglas Diekema, a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ task force on circumcision and a professor of pediatrics at Seattle Children’s Hospital, echoed Mr. Stern’s theory that the difference in circumcision rates could be a result of demographics, but he had another theory, too.
¶ “The West Coast has more immigrants from populations that don’t circumcise as commonly as we do in the U.S.,” he said. “The Hispanic culture is one of those, and since the West and Southwest are taking on” more Hispanics, one could assume there would be a drop.
¶ At the same time, Dr. Diekema said, West Coast residents tend to be more progressive.
¶“Ever since the founding of this country, the West Coast has attracted people who walk to the beat of their own drummer,” he said. “People here are more likely to question the standard and go a different way.”
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