Links to Other Sites
About ethicist Dr. Margaret Somerville
Dr. Margaret Somerville is the founding director of the Centre for Medicine, Ethics and Law at McGill University, where she holds the Samuel Gale Chair in the Faculty of Law and is a professor in the Faculty of Medicine. As a consultant to numerous government and non-governmental bodies, she has worked with the World Health Organization, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and UNESCO. She Has received a number of honorary doctorates in law, is the recipient of many awards, including the Order of Australia, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Dr. Somerville is a well-known speaker and writer, both nationally and internationally.Find out more about Dr. Somerville.
Go to selected publications by Margaret Somerville.
Dr. Somerville has recently released a book called The Ethical Canary: Science, Society and the Human Spirit, in which an entire chapter is devoted to the ethics of infant male circumcision.
The excerpt of this chapter can be found here.
A review of her book by the McGill Reporter can be found here.
In March of 2001, the book was nominated by a blue-ribbon jury for a the inaugural $10,000 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing. The prize, named after the popular MP from Windsor who died in 1998, and sponsored by CTV, will be awarded at a ceremony in Ottawa May 2, 2001. The finalists are deemed to have written a "non-fiction book of outstanding literary merit [published in 2000 that] enlarges our understanding of contemporary Canadian political and social issues."
In March, The Ethical Canary was also nominated for Canada's top science book prize. The award, sponsored by the Canadian Science Writers' Association, includes a $1,000 prize. The winner will be announced on Canada Book Day, April 23.
Click here to read the article in The Globe and Mail on the Canadian Science Writers' Association nomination.
Her two letters to Dr. C Robin Walker, Member, Fetus and Newborn Committee, Canadian Paediatric Society, and a co-author of the Society¹s 1996 position statement on neonatal circumcision.
Between these two letters, which complement one another, one finds perhaps the most complete yet succinct treatment of the ethical and legal problems with non-therapeutic male infant circumcision.
Other Somerville letters concerning male circumcision, all together at:
http://www.cirp.org/library/legal/Canada/somerville- Somerville to Justice Minister Kim Campbell, June 10, 1992
- Justice Minister Kim Campbell to Somerville, December 15, 1992
- Somerville to Justice Minister Blais, January 28, 1993
- Somerville to Bettie Malofie, October 17, 1995, re: Justice Minister Allan Rock's comments
- Somerville to Geoffrey Falk, March 21, 1996, re: Justice Minister Allan Rock's comments, etc.:____________________________________________
Attorneys for the Rights of the Child has been actively participating as both attorneys of record and a legal support center on circumcision issues in cases chosen to advance the struggle to secure equal protection for, and broaden judicial and public recognition of, children’s legal and human rights to bodily integrity and self-determination. www.arclaw.org
________________________________________The Association for Genital Integrity proposes a legal challenge to section 268 of the Criminal Code of Canada on the grounds that this section is discriminatory within the meaning of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The basis of the challenge would be that Section 268 of the Criminal Code—which prohibits all forms of female genital mutilation (FGM)—fails to protect males equally. The Association for Genital Integrity maintains the Court Challenge site which also has an extensive database of correspondence with Canadian authorities on the issue.
http://www.courtchallenge.com
________________________________________The Circumcision Information Resource Centre is a non-profit organisation located in Montréal, Québec, Canada which provides information about non-religious infant circumcision and related topics, in English and French.
http://www.infocirc.org
_________________________________________The following new website provides scientific information about the anatomy and function of the “ridged band,” the name given recently by Dr. John R. Taylor to a unique part of the human male foreskin. Dr. Taylor is a Canadian medical researcher, anatomic pathologist, and the co-author of two anatomical studies of the foreskin; he and his colleagues first described the ridged band in the British Journal of Urology in 1996. Dr. Taylor is the co-author of this site, which is aimed at medical professionals, journalists, and the general public.
The Ridged Band—Specialized Sexual Tissue (http://research.cirp.org/)Related:
Click here to see the 1997 medical study
Click here to see the 1999 medical study
Click here to see Taylor's letter to Pediatrics News
_________________________________________Doctors Opposing Circumcision (D.O.C.) is an organization of physicians and others who are opposed to routine neonatal circumcision. D.O.C. has members in 50 States, 12 Canadian Provinces and Territories, and in nations on six continents. These doctors recognize that no one has the right to forcibly remove sexual body parts from another individual. They also believe that doctors should have no role in this painful, unnecessary procedure inflicted on the newborn.
http://faculty.washington.edu/gcd/DOC/_________________________________________
Re: Legal issues raised by non-therapeutic male infant circumcision:
Van Howe RS, Svoboda JS, Dwyer JG, Price CP. Involuntary circumcision: the legal issues. BJU International 1999; 83, Suppl. 1:63-73.
http://www.cirp.org/library/legal/vanhowe5/
And, specifically, Canadian legal issues can be found at:
http://www.cirp.org/library/legal/Canada/___________________________________________
Circumcision Resource Center is a nonprofit educational organization with the purpose of informing the public and professionals about the practice of circumcision. Their mission is to raise awareness and facilitate healing. The Center is a valuable source of circumcision information for parents and children's advocates; childbirth educators and allied professionals; medical, mental health, and academic people; Jews; and others. (includes information on the debate which has surfaced within the Jewish community)::
http://www.circumcision.org
Tel.: (617) 523-0088
Dr. Ronald Goldman (psychologist), Executive Director, as well as Founder, Jewish Associates of CRC. Author of:Circumcision, The Hidden Trauma: How an American Cultural Practice Affects Infants and Ultimately Us All (Vanguard Publications, Boston,1997),
and
Questioning Circumcision: A Jewish Perspective (Vanguard Publications, Boston,1997)In the former book, Dr. Goldman outlines the psychological impact of infant circumcision.
For another perspective, see therapist Tom Golden's article, Do men "remember" the trauma of circumcision? Therapist Tom Golden was shocked and amazed to find out that many do at:
http://www.vix.com/menmag/circtom.htm
Tom Golden is also an international expert on men and grief, and featured expert on MenWeb's Men and Grief section.
__________________________________________Jews Against Circumcision (JAC)
http://www.jewsagainstcircumcision.org
From their website:
JAC, Jews Against Circumcision, is a diverse group of Jews from every english-speaking country on the planet. We range in observance from Secular Jews to Orthodox. We even have some Rabbis in our group. We also consist of people from every socio-economic class and education level.
We have come to realize that mutilating a male's genitalia in the name of religion is not acceptable. We are not superstitious and uneducated people anymore. No loving God would demand this. It is ridiculous to think so.
As you read through this website, you will see the various arguments, medical, Jewish, sexual, etc. to not circumcise. Please read and think about the content of this website. You'll be doing a mitzvah.
Brit Shalom, Covenant of Peace, is the only acceptable naming ceremony in the modern age.
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National Organization of Circumcision Information Resource Centres (NOCIRC) is a non-governmental organization (NGO) in roster status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.
http://www.nocirc.org
_________________________________________A link to a site on Hanny Lightfoot-Klein, a social psychologist and one of the leading authors and researchers on FGM. Ms Lightfoot-Klein began writing about FGM in 1979 during a 32 months travel and work in Africa. Her book "Prisoners of Ritual" is still widely considered to be one of the most important books ever written on the issue of FGM.
http://www.fgmnetwork.orgMs Lighttfoot-Klein delivered the paper Similarities in Attitudes and Misconceptions Toward Infant Male Circumcision and Female Genital Mutilation at The Fourth International Symposium on Sexual Mutilations: Global Perspectives on Male and Female GenitalMutilation: Circumcision, Ethics, and Human Rights, in Lausanne, Switzerland, August 9-11, 1996.
A related article, Similarities in Attitudes and Misconceptions toward Infant Male Circumcision in North America and Ritual Female Genital Mutilation in Africa can be found at:
http://www.fgmnetwork.org/intro/mgmfgm.html_______________________________________
A site on FGM can be found at:
http://www.fgmnetwork.org/Under Frequently Asked Questions, this site answers the question: Why is there information about male circumcision on a site devoted to FGM? by saying: Because the discussion of one without the other is biased and incomplete. Both issues need to be understood from a historical, biological, religious and especially cultural perspectives. The two issues have a lot of similarities in the way they are approached from the medical establishment and from culture.
To see the full text, go to:
http://www.fgmnetwork.org/faq2.html
_________________________________________National Organization to Halt the Abuse & Routine Mutilation of Males (NOHARMM) is a non-profit, educational and direct-action men's network organized against circumcision of healthy male infants and children.
http://www.noharmm.orgWhose Body, Whose Rights?, the award-winning children's rights documentary, is now available for online viewing. This is the only circumcision-related video that explores important issues not addressed in other programs. The program is available to both high-speed DSL and 56K Dial-Up users. The viewing format is QuickTime, although a Windows Media Player version will be available soon.
To learn more, visit: www.circumcisionvideos.com/onlinewbwr.htm
___________________________________________A Jewish organization in Israel that opposes the religious ritual brit milah, can be found at:
http://www.af-mila.org.il/
__________________________________________Jews against circumcision, an organization of "educated and enlightened Jews who realize that the barbaric, primitive, torturous, and mutilating practice of circumcision has no place in modern Judaism." (from their site)
http://www.jewsagainstcircumcision.org
Specifically, they have a circumcision litigation flyer at:
http://www.jewsagainstcircumcision.org/flyer.pdf
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Work by ethicist Dr. Eike-Henner Kluge.
Dr. Eike-Henner Kluge is Chair of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Victoria, British Columbia. He is a member of the Advisory Committee on Ethical Issues in Health Care to the British Columbia Ministry of Health, and a former Director of Ethics and Legal Affairs at the Canadian Medical Association. Dr. Kluge is the author of books and articles in medical ethics, history of philosophy and other areas of philosophy. Kluge¹s analysis of female and male circumcision, entitled Female circumcision: When medical ethics confronts cultural values, was published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, January 15, 1993. It can be found online at:
http://www.courtchallenge.com/papers/kluge1.html____________________________________________
Jacqueline Smith, researcher at the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (SIM), Utrecht, wrote Male Circumcision and the Rights of the Child In: Mielle Bulterman, Aart Hendriks and Jacqueline Smith (Eds.), To Baehr in Our Minds: Essays in Human Rights from the Heart of the Netherlands (SIM Special No. 21). Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (SIM), University of Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands, 1998.It can be found at:
http://www.cirp.org/library/legal/smith/____________________________________________
Dr. Dean Edell, one of the first physician broadcasters in the US, is the host of America's second most popular syndicated radio talk show, The Dr. Dean Edell Show, heard in more than 400 radio stations, as well as the anchor of Medical Minutes, a series of ten weekly radio medical reports. He is also the host of the daily 90-second Medical Report seen in 75 television markets. Dr. Edell is known for translating complicated medical information into concise, easy-to-understand reports and for tackling topics that are obscure, unusual and often controversial. Dr. Edell has answered many of the questions that people have about circumcision. A compendium of his comments on circumcision can be found at:
Dr. Dean Edell on Circumcision
________________________________________A review of David L. Gollaher's book:
Circumcision: A History of the World's Most Controversial Surgeryby Dr. Hanoch Ben-Yami, Ph.D., Philosophy department, Tel-Aviv University, can be found at:
http://spinoza.tau.ac.il/hci/dep/philos/segel/hanoch2-britmila-eng.html
________________________________________Some proponents of circumcision claim that cancer of the penis does not exist in circumcised men because circumcision completely protects against this disease.
This is false.About cancer of the penis in circumcised men:
http://www.cirp.org/library/disease/cancer/vanhowe1/The American Cancer Society says:
Whether circumcision is a risk factor is a controversial issue. However, penile cancer risk is low in some uncircumcised populations, and circumcision is strongly associated with other socioethnic practices that are associated with lessened risk. The consensus among studies that have taken these other factors into account is that circumcision alone is not the major factor preventing cancer of the penis [emphasis added]. It is important that the issue of circumcision not distract the public's attention from avoiding known penile cancer risk factors—having unprotected sexual relations with multiple partners (increasing the likelihood of human papilloma virus infection) and cigarette smoking.
You can see the full document at:
http://www.cancer.org/docroot/cri/content/cri_2_4_2x_what_are_the_risk_factors_for_penile_cancer_35.asp
In another document, Misleading Information—Dispelling Miscommunications, the American Cancer Society points out that it is a misconception that cancer of the penis and of the cervix are related to the intact penis, and they point out that some of these misconceptions are circulated via the internet. They point out that:
- The American Cancer Society does not have a formal guideline statement on circumcision.
- Penile cancer is extremely rare in the United States and accounts for less than one half a percent of cancers diagnosed among men and less than one tenth of a percent of cancer deaths among men.
- The penile cancer risk is low in some uncircumcised populations, and the practice of circumcision is strongly associated with socio-ethnic factors, which in turn are associated with lessened risk. The consensus among studies that have taken these other factors into account is circumcision is not of value in preventing cancer of the penis.
Click on the link below to read the entire text:
http://www.cancer.org/docroot/nws/content/nws_1_1x_misleading_information.asp________________________________________
A highly interesting web site containing hundreds quotes from the medical literature, 1860 to the present, on circumcision, masturbation, etc. is:
http://www.circquotes.tilted.com/index2.html(specifically) and its Home Page,
http://www.circquotes.tilted.com/
____________________________________________A web site for Uncut Entertainment, which seeks to establish a force in the film industry that promotes basic human rights and the beauty of the natural body. It is their goal to create quality media that is both entertaining and thought provoking. To achieve this, the most qualified human beings are hired to employ their creative ability in the making of motion pictures.
http://www.uncutentertainment.net/main.html____________________________________________
Ihsan Huzmeli has developed the first intactivist site in Turkish. The authors write that "All the material in this site is from the other sites in the internet. There is no original content. Turks have very poor knowledge of other languages, so this site is good for that." The websites homepage begins with "what is cut and thrown away in circumcision is not a useless piece of skin, but a functioning body part which contains approximately half the amount of the nerves in the sexual organ, and thereby half the sensitvity, secreting substances with the glands it contains that are necessary for protection of the body and sexual activity, unique in human body, irreplaceable, specailized tissue."
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