MEDICAL FRAUD and the criminal assault of boys
Incredible Comments Regarding Circumcision
"I cannot begin to tell you the great joy when I discovered that there was someone out there fighting against the evil of circumcision I did not realize how horrible this barbaric practice was until I met the man that was to become my husband. I had never imagined in God's great world that such horrible mutilation was ever possible. And the doctors talk about "acceptable" rates of mistakes in routine circumcision I tell you, no botched circumcision is "acceptable" if you are married to it. If there are any kind of support groups where "broken" men like my husband can find, please tell me about them." - P.P.
"I am a 64 year old male who requested circumcision at the age of 22, believing the old wive's tales about cancer, diseases, etc. Now that I have the real facts at hand I regret that decision every day of my life. I would like to thank you and your organization for helping to stop this outrage.
I recently became a grandfather, and thank God I had the perseverance needed to convince my daughter and son-in-law of the truth about circumcision in time; that it is a senseless, painful, abusive operation that has no place whatever in a rational society.
Unfortunately, ignorance still has the upper hand. I pray every night that people will start taking heed of societies like yours and work to abolish circumcision from the face of the earth." -A.B
"Deb tells a story however that is very frightening. It seems that a few hours after her delivery and while she was still sedated a nurse came into her room and told her that she had forgotten to sign a consent from regarding her baby. She took the paper and fortunately was able to read and understand it before she signed it. It was a consent form for circumcision She informed the nurse that she had not forgotten to sign it. She and her husband had refused to sign it because they did not want the surgery performed on their son. The nurse then asked, "Don't you want your baby to be normal?" Deb said she told the nurse, "Yes, we want our baby to be normal, that is why we do not want his healthy normal body violated and I would suggest that you do some reading and research on what is and what is not normal in the care of an infant male." Can you imagine, just how close this came to violating their wishes. It makes me wonder how often this might be a standard rather than an exception".- H.D.F
"I am the father of a circumcised son, unfortunately he is one of those little boys in which "no reliable statistics" are known, he suffered complications from surgery. A hospital-born infection entered at the circumcision site, the result was seizures and profound brain damage. I'll watch my son go to be a man in a wheelchair, he does not speak, he does not see.
Dr. O failed to address the real benefit of circumcision; it's parked in the circumciser's driveway. Today circumcisers have the audacity to charge $150 for a fifteen minute procedure, one hour's work will make monthly payments on the B.M.W.
Medical insurance groups are wisely dropping the procedure from their health plans. The mutilations will stop when we TAKE THE PROFIT OUT OF CIRCUMCISION.
Time does not heal all wounds."- G.S.
"In the 1950's we had annual school checkups by a visiting doctor and nurse. For reasons I have never been able to elicit, my folks had NOT had me routinely circumcised. While we are only 7 and 8 years old, it was nevertheless very embarrassing to line up stripped off and examined; no matter how briefly. After the first year's checkup I had to take home a note which I later fathomed was the doctor's suggestion I should be circumcised. Nothing came of this, but the following year at the annual medical, the examining nurse (or could have been a lady doctor) glanced at my genitals and remarked to the other doctor ( a male): "Good Lord, another boy needing circumcision." I didn't know exactly what it all meant, but sensed it involved something less than pleasant.
Briefly, it seems the medical examiners more or less demanded that all boys must be circumcised for hygiene reasons. Within a couple of weeks, I was dispatched to the local doctor's surgery in our suburb with little explanation other than along the lines that ..."and they just trim a little bit of loose skin away so you will feel nice and clean....etc." I can still remember much of it all, suffice to say it was incredibly painful, and apart from howling for a couple of days in resentment, I found it most uncomfortable even some weeks later back at school. Three or four other boys from my class and the adjacent one also underwent circumcisions at the same time.
Not much else I can tell you about my experience, except to say that I believe that it would be far more comfortable to have a foreskin. After I was circumcised (age 9) and during teen years, and even into the early 20's, I found great discomfort was caused by continual stimulation of clothing. The resultant frequent erections were not only maddening, but most embarrassing I can assure you. However, from the little I have since discovered, many circumcised men also have this problem, and find the lifelong discomfort becomes a burden that one has to accept. My cousin has also experienced this during the past 10-15 years. I had thought it is really that constant stimulation at every slightest movement, etc. There is probably a lot that has yet to be discussed and learned about the mainly negative results of circumcisions, and I hope that your organization and others can continue. My wife and I realize it is still not a "nice" subject to discuss in some circles, but seeing it has affected so many (and for so many years) it is time the facts were made available.
We agree it is wrong for parents to have children circumcised, however, we do feel that if an adult (say over 18) wants circumcision in any form for social or cosmetic reasons, they should be allowed to make up their own mind given all the data and facts about it. To push it for poor little boys though, is so totally inhumane and wrong." -W & J.H.
"I am against routine circumcision (now more than ever) for many reasons. It is good to know that there are some in the medical community that do not recommend this procedure. One of the simplest reasons against circumcision lies in the old saying "if it's not broke, don't fix it." I wonder what the people who speak of birth trauma think about circumcision? What a paradox if they worry about slapping the upside down newborn baby on the butt, but go right ahead with the circumcision procedure in the next step." - W.N. T.
"The other day, I noted in the local paper where Senator Jesse Helms is active in the abortion issue along with Sen. Lowell Weicker, so I wrote to him commending him on his interest in the infant before he was born, and forgetting the "next three days" when, if it is a boy, he will quite likely be circumcised? So you shrug it off and say that circumcision is a parent's prerogative, but what about the rights of the son? He has a right NOT to have it done." - J.C.C.
"I remember as a very small child playing with several of my same age cousins who were intact (never circumcised) and the terrible feeling I had that a part of my penis was missing and I didn't know why. It was very traumatic and as a result I have never felt O.K about being circumcised or my masculinity, despite an outward, seeming acceptance of my condition.
Until I was twelve or thirteen I had difficulty urinating. I have had repeated episodes of unexplained urethritis and painful skin problems with the end of my penis. It was only after reading about the connection between infant circumcision and abnormal narrowing of the urinary opening (meatal stenosis) did I begin to realize the true extent of the physical and emotional harm circumcision has caused me. The last several months of my life have been almost impossible. I feel that I have been raped and robbed of much of my manhood, and that I am partnerless mainly due to having been circumcised. I have grown to resent my mother for allowing me to be circumcised, and this has driven a permanent wedge between us....My grief over ruined past relationships and intense rage toward society for doing this to me are and have been sheer agony, but out of it all has come a firm commitment to work toward ending routine circumcision" - L.R.S.
"Routine neonatal circumcision while lower incidence in Canada than the USA, is still a major problem (compared with Europe and Scandinavia where it has never been in practice.) It is a paradox if we raise women's consciousness to refuse episiotomy for themselves, while they go on to have their sons circumcised. Whereas there is no extra charge for an episiotomy, there is an incentive to incise the penis. Doctors get paid for it. E.N. Massachusetts
I personally had my perfectly normal, functional, significant and beautiful foreskin amputated at age 9 years, during a "routine" tonsillectomy, and was not forewarned that my penis would be involved in the surgery. I did know, and consent to the tonsillectomy, and it was supposed to limit my severe and painful earaches. It did not limit my earaches. I awoke in the hospital with a huge bloody dressing to my penis. I was horrified, humiliated, and felt anger, sorrow and deep personal loss. I now feel that I was raped, or at least sexually abused. I was unable to wear underwear for the whole summer. Any cloth or touch to the tender glans was painfully sensitive. I was left with ugly skin tags, skin bridges and emotional scars which remain with me nearly 30 years later. To this day I am apprehensive if anyone sees, touches, or becomes intimate with my penis. I have had a lifetime of inability to form a sexual relationship. - A .D. S - RN
"When our son was born the nurse came into the room to get him. I asked what she was going to do. She replied that the doctor is going to circumcise him before we take him home. I told her that my wife and I had not been consulted about that and that we did not agree to have the baby circumcised. I told her that we are not of that religious belief and that we do not want the boy circumcised. In spite of my protest, she continued to move toward the door with the baby. Seeing that she was not paying attention to what I was saying, I moved to block her from exiting through the door. She told me it was doctor's orders and that the doctor was waiting. I told her very firmly, "NO". She left the baby and walked off much disturbed. After a short time the doctor contacted me. He told me that it was hospital policy to circumcise all male babies before they left for home. I politely told him that this is one baby that they are not going to circumcise. I further told him to prepare the mother and the baby to go home at once. He then proceeded to tell me about all the problems that can occur if circumcision is not performed. It was a very long list of terrible things. He was surprised when I told him that I had never been circumcised and that I have not experienced any of those or any other problems. Again, I told him to have the nurse prepare the mother and the baby to leave immediately or I am taking them just as they are. I was told that I would not be allowed to take the baby home without circumcision I stood my ground, "Get them ready to go!" He then said that the baby must stay in the hospital until the bill is paid. Where upon I took my cheque book from my pocket and asked how much the bill was. I had to go down to the business office to pay the bill. On the bill was a charge for circumcision I told them that the boy was not circumcised and that they should deduct the fee for that. After some argument they finally took the fee for circumcision off.
We never saw the doctor again. However, we did receive calls from his office stating that they had made arrangements for us to take the baby to a pediatrician. we told them WE would decide what to do, not them."- Dr. C.P.
"I became a firm enemy of circumcision when I read an account of a lawsuit brought by a parents of a little boy who had the head of his penis cut off by a slip of a surgeon's knife. The article said that this isn't all that uncommon.
I know quite a bit about little boys, having been one, and being the father of three of them. I started thinking about what it must be like for that little boy to grow up in our sex-crazed world with a mutilated penis. I thought about what it must be like for him when he first realizes that he is different, about the cruel jokes of children, about nicknames and locker-room agony at school, about being forever an outsider in high school and college. Like Dostoyevsky, I concluded that all the supposed hygienic and ritualistic advantages of circumcision piled together on the scale of justice could not pay for the suffering caused to that one little boy with his mutilated penis."
Custom, Not Medicine "I applaud your efforts to eliminate this barbaric ritual that hides under the guise of a medically indicated procedure. I disagree with the American Academy of Pediatrics' (of which I am a fellow) passive stance on circumcision They totally missed the fact that most parents don't have their sons circumcised for medical reasons, it is done instead out of 'social custom'. As a neonatologist...I will not allow circumcision to be performed on boys born in this area since we began our 'campaign' all those years ago, Marilyn!" -J. M.,California
Violated I am a 42 year old physician who was circumcised at birth. I now feel that my body was violated and my phallus mutilated. The work you are doing is admirable and the strength you have demonstrated in questioning the purpose of this barbaric ritual demonstrates undaunting courage. Please provide me information on foreskin restoration and support groups for unhappy males." - Dr. S.M. , California
Bruised Penis "We had a harrowing experience with our 4 year old son who had a bruised penis from playing "ruff wrestling' at a picnic party with 8 other boys his age. we took him to the local emergency room because he kept screaming. The doctor's advice was to circumcise him within the hour! We left the hospital. Our son is fine and intact. we learned a great deal from our experience. Please send information to this doctor so he can keep on learning, too - L.W., Ohio
Child Abuse I recommend the books by Alice Miller for anyone who is interested in the various forms of child abuse, their origins and the reason why parents and other adults take the side of adults at the terrible expense to children. We are all damaged as children and when we grow up, we act it out on society or on ourselves by self-destructive behavior (addictions, suicide, self mutilations, etc.) I believe circumcision is a major wound to males which is acted out by battering, wars, rape, child abuse, and random violence. " - M. L. Illinois.
It's Just Not the Same "I would like to have information on reconstruction of a prepuce for myself before approaching my doctor to get this procedure done. I was circumcised when I was 12 and I just flat do not feel the same. my father insisted it be done. I would give just about anything to get a prepuce reconstructed. I have felt naked." - E.E., North Carolina
Doctor Changed His View "I am not surprised that more people are concerned about their childhood circumcision and have decided to restore their foreskins. I became interested in this problem two years ago when a young, intelligent, rational male was concerned that he had no foreskin and wanted restoration. His sincerity had a major impact on me. I now see circumcision as an abuse and an assault without consent." A.O. M.D., California
It's Those Screams Again "It makes me so happy that some organization is working to prevent the mutilation of infant males. The screams I've heard in various hospitals make me shiver." Dr. R.H.F. , Ohio
Body Ownership Rights "I am totally against circumcision and have great resentment about it being done to me. I feel it should be a personal decision. It is my body, therefore it should have been my choice, not my parents or some doctor's." -S.B. Colorado.
Efforts Acknowledged "Your campaign to put a stop to the unnecessary mutilation of small boys in the USA is well known and applauded by thinking people in this country. A lot of men who, like me, were circ'ed unnecessarily have been led to seek restorative techniques to relieve a distress which is not recognized by an otherwise enlightened medical establishment here. The fact that it may cause deep and abiding unhappiness and even psychiatric disorder, is of no consequences to them- or is just not understood." J.E., Bedford, England
"What Hurt the Most... is not my own circumcision, but the knowledge that other boys are still being circumcised.. I was lucky in that I was not horribly damaged beyond repair, however I still feel bitter & angry at the loss of my normal healthy foreskin." J.W., Brooklyn N.Y.
Hands Off! "My parents not only resisted medical advice for circumcision but also let my foreskin loosen at its own slow rate. I was about 12 years before my urethral meatus was visible and 16 before I saw the corona of my glans. Even with this slow loosening of the foreskin, I never expected irritation or inflammation. Before becoming sexually active, I spent a few minutes each day over a period of months gradually stretching the foreskin by hand until it would easily retract. This approach was simple, painless, and effective. There is a wide normal range, and my own experience convinces me that there is no reason to be too quick with the knife." H.M. , Illinois
I personally had my perfectly normal, functional, significant and beautiful foreskin amputated at age 9 years, during a "routine" tonsillectomy was not forewarned that my penis would be involved in the surgery. I did know, and consent to the tonsillectomy, and it was supposed to limit my severe and painful earaches. It did not limit my earaches. I awoke in the hospital with a huge bloody dressing to my penis. I was horrified, humiliated, and felt anger, sorrow and deep personal loss. I now feel that I was raped, or at least sexually abused. I was unable to wear underwear for the whole summer. Any cloth or touch to the tender glans was painfully sensitive. I was left with ugly skin tags, skin bridges and emotional scars which remain with me nearly 30 years later. To this day I am apprehensive if anyone sees, touches, or becomes intimate with my penis. I have had a lifetime of inability to form a sexual relationship. --D.S. Hawaii
As a man who was once a baby boy, I am responding to the letter "Family Decision" in the January 1992 Bulletin.
I have never read a letter or article written by a man on the subject of his own circumcision. for many years, I have thought of writing such an article, but I have not, because the hurt is too intense. But someone must write this.
Removal of a man's foreskin is mutilation, and it is a one-way trip. That it is common in our society does not change this fact. I read in a parent's advice column the following question: My son wants a tattoo. Should I go with him? The answer? "When he is old enough, he is old enough to go alone." This should be good advice for the removal of the foreskin, too. If circumcision were not common in our society, it would be considered assault and battery. I was two days old when it happened to me. When I have sex, I often experience pain, and occasionally I bleed, right near the old scar. Fairly often, I cannot reach climax. I had no sex life until after 40; I was held back by fear and shame.
Over the past few years, I have discovered suppressed anger. If I could roll back time, I would kill to protect myself from this "quick, painless, common procedure." At the age of 2 days, I was not able to understand what was being done, or to object or resist.
Am I alone? Are there mothers out there who can explain who I am full of baloney? Will this letter be a priceless gift to others who suffer silently, alone?
One time I was at a maternity ward, admiring a baby boy. Tied to him was a bright red ribbon marked "DO NOT CIRCUMCISE". Is this the only operation where we need such a device? I looked for a long time while the thoughts surged through my head.
You have my permission to publish this. Once in the mail, my hard part will be done.
J.D./ Medical Doctor Md.
THE ABOVE EXCERPTS WERE PRINTED FROM LETTERS TO NOCIRC NEWSLETTER
P.O. Box 2512, San Anselmo,CA 4979-2512
Equality of Rights Guaranteed ?
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms states: 15 (1) "Every individual is equal before and under the law and has to right to equal protection and equal benefits of the law without discrimination based on race, national or ethnic origin, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability."
The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that only a female had the sole right to decide what was in the best interests of her body.
The Supreme Court of Canada has removed a major barrier for childhood incest victims who want to sue their abusers. In a 7-0 ruling they said that incest victims often don't discover the harm they have suffered until well into adulthood. The time period should start only when the victims are reasonably capable of discovering the injury from the attacks. The damages wrought often surface "slowly and imperceptibly," so that the victim may only come to realize the harms she has suffered and their cause long after the statute of limitations has expired.
Victims of circumcision have stated that they were often not aware that they were circumcised or had suffered physical damage as a result of their circumcisions until well into adulthood. We are wondering if the justices are just as willing to give males victims of unwanted circumcision or male victims of physical damage sustained during their circumcision the same type of consideration?
The Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons asked the Federal Government to outlaw non-doctors from performing female circumcisions and other forms of genital mutilations. Recently the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Saskatchewan issued directives to doctors warning them against routine circumcision. Doctors were instructed that as medical professionals they were not obliged to perform circumcisions because parents requested them.
As concerned males who view male circumcision as a total violation of our individual rights as guaranteed by the Charter, we are asking government legislators and judges if in fact the provisions provided by the Canadian Charter of Rights is a legal document, and applies equally to all individuals, regardless of age or sex, or if provisions stated only protect females as appears to be the indication?
If the Charter of Rights and Freedoms provides equal protection, we are requesting that the equal application of the rights to equal protection and equal benefit of the law, as stated in the Charter be applied to males as well as females.
If the Charter does not provide males with equal protection, do males have an obligation to respect the charter as a meaningful document?
Either the Rights in the Charter apply to both sexes equally regardless of age, or these rights are clearly discriminatory in nature. If rights are meaningful then they must be applied equally. You can't have it both ways.
We believe in equality or rights. Politicians , Do you? If you do, then why is this type of discrimination permitted? And if not, of what value is the Charter? America males have similar rights guaranteed by their Constitution.
The Joy of Uncircumcising
Restore Your Birthright and Maximize Sexual Pleasure
Jim Bigelow Ph.D
Published by HOURGLASS BOOK PUBLISHING P.O. Box 171 Aptos, CA 95001 (Now out of print.) Used copies are available through Amazon and this book can now be downloaded online via NORM website. (See Link Page)
Many males have become deeply resentful and angry to discover that they were victims of unwanted circumcision and who were deprived of a great part of their sexuality because of it.
Jim Bigelow describes the myths given to promote circumcision and the damage which males have sustained as a result of circumcision
He also describes several techniques which males can use in order to restore a foreskin amputated during circumcision. New hope has been given to males who believed that the damage was irreversible.
"I grew up believing that I was the only circumcised kid who wished it hadn't been done to him. I wondered why it had been done to me, and I wondered what doctor did with it after he cut it off.
...the feelings of loss and violation never went away, neither did the wish that I had my foreskin back. But, of course I knew that was impossible.
..And so this book is written to bring hope to those circumcised men who have always believed there was no hope or healing for either their physical or their psychological wounds."
Thousands and probably millions of males deeply resent their circumcision and are afraid to speak out against it. After reading this book and the heart rendering statements of victims, you too will speak out against this barbaric, and dehumanizing practice.