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Circumcision controversies

January 31, 2023

This article is about male circumcision. For female circumcision, see Female genital mutilation. For the female circumcision controversy in Kenya in 1929–1932, see Female circumcision controversy (Kenya, 1929–1932).

Male circumcision has been a subject of controversy for a number of reasons including religious, ethical, sexual, and medical.[1][2][3][4][5]

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the primary justification for circumcision was to prevent masturbation and intentionally reduce male sexual pleasure,[4][3][6] which was believed to cause a wide range of medical problems.[1][4][3][7][8][6][9] Modern proponents say that circumcision reduces the risks of a range of infections and diseases, and confers sexual benefits.[1][4][2][10] By contrast, some opponents, particularly of routine neonatal circumcision, question its utility and effectiveness in preventing such diseases,[1][4][2][3][11][12] and object to subjecting newborn males, without their consent,[5][2][3][11][12] to a procedure they consider to have dubious and nonessential benefits,[5][2][3][11][12] significant risks, and a potentially negative impact on general health and later sexual enjoyment, as well as violating their human rights.[5][3][11][13][14]

In Classical and Hellenistic civilization, Ancient Greeks and Romans posed great value on the beauty of nature, physical integrity, aesthetics, harmonious bodies and nudity, including the foreskin[15][16][17] (see also Ancient Greek art), and were opposed to all forms of genital mutilation, an opposition inherited by the canon and secular legal systems of the Christian West and East that lasted at least through to the Middle Ages, according to Frederick Hodges.[15] Traditional branches of Judaism, Islam, Coptic Christianity, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, and the Eritrean Orthodox Church still advocate male circumcision as a religious obligation.[18]

Religious and cultural conflicts

Ancient Near East

 
Circumcision of Abraham's son Isaac. Regensburg Pentateuch, Israel Museum, Jerusalem (c. 1300).

The Book of Genesis explains circumcision as a covenant with God given to Abraham,[Gen 17:10] In Judaism it "symbolizes the promise of lineage and fruitfulness of a great nation,"[19] the "seal of ownership and the guarantee of relationship between peoples and their god."[20] Some scholars look elsewhere for the origin of Jewish circumcision. One explanation, dating from Herodotus, is that the custom was acquired from the Egyptians, possibly during the period of enslavement.[21] An additional hypothesis, based on linguistic/ethnographic work begun in the 19th century,[22] suggests circumcision was a common tribal custom among Semitic tribes (Jews, Arabs, and Phoenicians).

The Jewish and Islamic traditions both see circumcision as a way to distinguish a group from its neighbours.[23] The Bible records "uncircumcised" being used as a derogatory reference for opponents[1Sam 17:26] and Jewish victory in battle that culminated in mass post-mortem circumcision, to provide an account of the number of enemy casualties.[1Sam 18:27] Jews were also required to circumcise all household members, including slaves[Gen 17:12-14] – a practice that would later put them into collision with Roman and Christian law (see below).

Classical civilization

In 167 BCE Judea was part of the Seleucid Empire. Its ruler, Antiochus IV Epiphanes (175–165 BCE), smarting from a defeat in a war against Ptolemaic Egypt, banned traditional Jewish religious practices, and attempted to forcibly let the Jews accept Hellenistic culture.[24] Throughout the country Jews were ordered, with the threat of execution, to sacrifice pigs to Greek gods (the normal practice in the Ancient Greek religion), desecrate the Shabbat, eat unkosher animals (especially pork), and relinquish their Jewish scriptures. Antiochus' decree also outlawed Jewish circumcision,[24] and parents who violated his order were hanged along with their infants.[9][1Mac 1:46-67] According to Tacitus, as quoted by Hodges, Antiochus "endeavoured to abolish Jewish superstition and to introduce Greek civilization."[15]

According to rabbinical accounts, he desecrated the Second Temple of Jerusalem by placing a statue of Olympian Zeus on the altar of the Temple;[25] this incident is also reported by the biblical Book of Daniel,[25] where the author refers to the statue of the Greek god inside the Temple as "abomination of desolation".[25] Antiochus' decrees and vituperation of Judaism motivated the Maccabean Revolt;[26][27] the Maccabees reacted violently against the forced Hellenization of Judea,[26] destroyed pagan altars in the villages, circumcised boys, and forced Hellenized Jews into outlawry.[28] The revolt ended in the re-establishment of an independent Jewish kingdom under the Hasmoneans,[26][27] until it turned into a client state of the Roman Republic under the reign of Herod the Great (37–4 BCE).

Classical, Hellenistic, and Roman culture found circumcision to be cruel and repulsive.[15][17][29] In the Roman Empire, circumcision was regarded as a barbaric and disgusting custom.[15][30][29] The consul Titus Flavius Clemens was condemned to death by the Roman Senate in 95 CE for, according to the Talmud, circumcising himself and converting to Judaism. The Emperor Hadrian (117–138) forbade circumcision.[15][30][31] Overall, the rite of circumcision was especially execrable in Classical civilization,[15][30][29] also because it was the custom to spend an hour a day or so exercising nude in the gymnasium and in Roman baths, therefore Jewish men did not want to be seen in public deprived of their foreskins.[15][24][30][29]

As for the anti-circumcision law passed by Hadrian, it is considered by many[who?] to be, together with his decision to build a Roman temple upon the ruins of the Second Temple and dedicate it to Jupiter, one of the main causes of the Bar Kokhba revolt (132–135 CE), which was brutally crushed;[32] according to Cassius Dio, 580,000 Jews were killed and 50 fortified towns and 985 villages razed.[32][33] He claimed that "Many Romans, moreover, perished in this war. Therefore, Hadrian, in writing to the Senate, did not employ the opening phrase commonly affected by the Emperors: 'If you and your children are in health, it is well; I and the army are in health.'"[32] Because of the great loss of life in the war, even though Hadrian was victorious, he refused a triumph.

Hadrian's policy after the rebellion reflected an attempt to root out Judaism: he enacted a ban on circumcision,[15][31] all Jews were forbidden to enter Jerusalem upon pain of death, and the city was renamed Aelia Capitolina, while Judea was renamed Syria Palaestina. Around 140, his successor Antoninus Pius (138-161 CE) exempted Jews from the decree against circumcision, allowing them to circumcise their sons, although they were forbidden to do the same on their slaves and proselytes.[15][31] Jewish nationalists' (Pharisees and Zealots) response to the decrees also took a more moderate form: circumcisions were secretly performed, even on dead Jews.[9]

However, there were also many Jews, known as "Hellenizers", who viewed Hellenization and social integration of the Jewish people in the Greco-Roman world favourably,[15][27][30] and pursued a completely different approach: accepting the Emperor's decree and even making efforts to restore their foreskins to better assimilate into Hellenistic society.[15][16][24][27][30] The latter approach was common during the reign of Antiochus, and again under Roman rule.[15][30] The foreskin was restored by one of two methods, that were later revived in the late 20th century; both were described in detail by the Greek physician Aulus Cornelius Celsus in his comprehensive encyclopedic work De Medicina, written during the reign of Tiberius (14-37 CE).[30][34] The surgical method involved freeing the skin covering the penis by dissection, and then pulling it forward over the glans; he also described a simpler surgical technique used on men whose prepuce is naturally insufficient to cover their glans.[30][34] The second approach, known as "epispasm",[15][17][30][34] was non-surgical: a restoration device which consisted of a special weight made of bronze, copper, or leather (sometimes called Pondus Judaeus, i. e. "Jewish burden"),[15][30][34] was affixed to the penis, pulling its skin downward. Over time, a new foreskin was generated, or a short prepuce was lengthened, by means of tissue expansion.[15][30][34] Martial also mentioned the instrument in Epigrammaton (Book 7:35).[34]

The Apostle Paul referred to these practices in his letters,[15][30][34] saying: "Was a man already circumcised when he was called? He should not become uncircumcised."[1Cor 7:18] But he also explicitly denounced the forcing of circumcision upon non-Jews, rejecting and condemning those Judaizers who stipulated the ritual to Gentile Christians, labelling such advocates as "false brothers"[Gal 2:4] (see below). In the mid-2nd century Rabbinical Jewish leaders, due to increasing cases of foreskin restorations in Roman Empire, introduced a radical method of circumcision, the periah, that left the glans totally uncovered and sew the remaining skin. The new method became immediately the only valid circumcision procedure, to ensure that a born Jew will remain circumcised for all his life and to make mostly impossible restoring the foreskin.[34] Operations became permanent and irreversible like today.

Under the first Christian emperor, Constantine, the two rescripts of Antoninus on circumcision were re-enacted and again in the 6th century under Justinian. These restrictions on circumcision made their way into both secular and Canon law and "at least through the Middle Ages, preserved and enhanced laws banning Hebrews from circumcising non-Hebrews and banning Christians or slaves of any religious affiliation from undergoing circumcision for any reason."[15]

Christianity

Main article: Circumcision controversy in early Christianity
Further information: Religious male circumcision § Christianity
 
The Christian sacrament of baptism, in covenant theology, is seen as fulfilling the Israelite rite of circumcision.

Circumcision has also played a major role in Christian history and theology.[35][36] While the circumcision of Jesus is celebrated as a feast day in the liturgical calendar of many Christian denominations.[36] There was debate in the early Church on whether Gentiles needed to be circumcised in order to join the communities; some Jewish Christians insisted that it was necessary. As such, the Council of Jerusalem (50 CE) was held, which decreed that male circumcision was not a requirement for Gentiles, which became known as the "Apostolic Decree".[37] This was one of the first acts differentiating Early Christianity from Judaism.[38] Covenant theology largely views the Christian sacrament of baptism as fulfilling the Israelite practice of circumcision, both being signs and seals of the covenant of grace.[39][40]

Today, many Christian denominations are neutral about ritual male circumcision, not requiring it for religious observance, but neither forbidding it for cultural or other reasons.[41] While in some African and Eastern Christian denominations (such as the Coptic, Ethiopian, and Eritrean Orthodox Churches) male circumcision is an established practice,[18][42] and require that their male members undergo circumcision shortly after birth as part of a rite of passage.[18]

Male circumcision is widely practiced among Christian communities in the Anglosphere countries, Africa, Oceania, the Middle East, South Korea and the Philippines.[43][44][45][46] The United States and the Philippines are the largest Christian countries in the world to extensively practice male circumcision.[47] While countries with majorities of Christian adherents in Europe and South America have low circumcision rates.[48]

Islam

Main article: Khitan (circumcision)
Further information: Islamic hygienical jurisprudence

In the early 7th century, Muhammad welded together many Semitic tribes of the Arabian peninsula into the kernel of a rapidly expanding Muslim movement. Male and female circumcision were already well established among these tribes, and probably had been for more than 1,000 years, most likely as a fertility rite. Herodotus had noticed the practice among various Semite nations in the 5th century BCE, and Josephus had specifically mentioned circumcision as a tradition among Arabs in the 1st century CE.[22] There are some narrations attributed to Muhammad in which he approves of female circumcision; many scholars believe that these narrations are weak and lack authenticity.[49][50]

The practice of circumcision is sometimes characterized as a part of fitrah as mentioned in the hadith (Prophetic narrations).[51][52]

Judaism

See also: Brit milah § Criticism and legality

Around 140 CE, the Tannaim made circumcision requirements stricter, in order to make the procedure irreversible.[53]

During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries many Jewish reformers, doctors, and physicians in Central and Eastern Europe proposed to replace circumcision with a symbolic ceremony, while others sought to ban or abolish circumcision entirely,[54] as they perceived it as a dangerous, barbaric and pagan ritual of genital mutilation[54] that could transmit infectious diseases to newborns.[54] The first formal objection to circumcision within Judaism occurred in 1843 in Frankfurt.[54][53] The Society for the Friends of Reform, a group that criticized traditional Jewish practices, said that brit milah was not a mitzvah but an outworn legacy from Israel's earlier phases, an obsolete throwback to primitive religion.[53] With the expanding role of medicine came further opposition; certain aspects of Jewish circumcision such as periah and metzitzah (drawing the blood from the circumcision wound through sucking or a cloth) were deemed unhygienic and dangerous for the newborns.[53][54] Later evidence that syphilis and tuberculosis – two of the most feared infectious diseases in the 19th century – were spread by mohels,[54] caused various rabbis to advocate metzitzah to be done using a sponge or a tube.[53] Among the secular, non-observant Jews who chose to not circumcise their sons there was also Theodor Herzl.[55]

Ephron reports that non-Jews and also some Jewish reformers in early 19th-century Germany had criticized ritual circumcision as "barbaric" and that Jewish doctors responded to these criticisms with defences of the ritual or proposals for modification or reform. By the late 19th century some Jewish doctors in the country defended circumcision by saying it had health advantages.[56] Today the Rabbinical Council of America, the largest group of Modern Orthodox rabbis, endorses using a glass tube as a substitute of metzitzah.[57]

However, a growing number of contemporary Jews and Intactivist Jewish groups in the United States and Israel, both secular and religious, started to question overall long-term effects, psychological and psychophysical consequences of trauma caused by circumcision on Jewish children,[58] and choose not to circumcise their sons.[7][58][59][60][61] They are assisted by a small number of Reform, Liberal, and Reconstructionist rabbis, and have developed a welcoming ceremony that they call the Brit shalom ("Covenant [of] Peace") for such children,[7][58] also accepted by Humanistic Judaism.[60][62]

Middle Ages to the 19th century

Judaism and Christianity

Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologica questioned why, if under Jewish doctrine circumcision removed original sin, Jesus was circumcised – as Jesus had no original sin. Steve Jones suggests there is a theological tradition that Jesus regained his foreskin at the Ascension. "Had he failed to do so, the Saved would themselves have to be operated upon in Paradise so as not to be more perfect than their Saviour."[63]

The Jews were expelled from England by Edward I in 1290, ostensibly over social tensions concerning usury. But the public imagination had been gripped by blood libel since at least the 12th century: "So pervasive was the belief that Jews circumcised their victims ... that Menasseh ben Israil, the Dutch Rabbi who sought from Cromwell the readmission of the Jews in 1656, had to dwell at considerable length in his Vindiciae Judaeorum at refuting the claim."[64]

In 15th-century Spain, most Jews and Muslims were expelled and the Spanish Inquisition monitored and prosecuted converts to Christianity to ensure they were not secretly practising Judaism, consorting with Jews or engaging in Jewish practices such as circumcision.[65]

Mesoamerican cultures

See also: Bloodletting in Mesoamerica

In 1521, Cortés defeated the Aztec empire in Mesoamerica, which was followed by a large influx of Spanish clergy, whose writings provide most of information about pre-conquest Aztec life and customs largely assembled from interviews with those who survived the invasion and subsequent epidemics, and their descendants. Diego Durán, a Dominican friar, was convinced that the Aztecs were one of the lost tribes of Israel, with a crucial piece of supporting evidence being that they had practised circumcision.[66]

So influential was this notion that 300 years later Bancroft in his monumental Native Races[67] began his discussion of circumcision by writing: "Whether the custom of circumcision, which has been the great prop of argument in favor of the Jewish origin of the Aztecs, really obtained among these people, has been doubted by numerous authors," concluding that it probably existed in a "certain form among some tribes" (p278). The key being "a certain form", since Bancroft makes clear in a footnote that the majority of his sources, including Clavigero, Ternaux-Compans, Carbajal Espinosa, Oviedo y Herrera, and especially Acosta, believed Durán and others "confounded the custom of drawing blood from the secret organs with circumcision", and "the incision on the prepuce and ear to have been mistaken for circumcision", adding that this blood-letting rite[68] was "chiefly performed upon sons of great men" (p279). The case was not helped by the fact no reports of seeing a circumcised adult Aztec existed in the literature. Remondino says it is "a matter of controversy" whether the foreskin had actually been removed (p46).[9]

In regard to the Mayans, Bancroft says that in 1858 Brasseur de Bourbourg reported finding "traces" [69] of circumcision in the sources, despite Cogolludo having reported that "circumcision was unknown to the Indians of Yucatan" (pp279, 679).[67] But in 1864 Brasseur published his French translation of Diego de Landa's recently recovered 1556 ethnographic manuscript, which decisively rejected the notion of Mayan circumcision, and in a footnote he acknowledged there had probably been a "mistake", an admission that never found its way into the English-language literature[70] although modern ethnography has long since understood the nature of these rituals.[71] However, the Aztecs and Mayans are included by many authors from other disciplines among the list of pre-modern people who practised circumcision. Examples of such sources include UNAIDS,[72] Kaplan,[73] and Weiss.[74]

Later times

Countries that do not circumcise have often held antipathy for those that do. Being circumcised was often seen as a sign of disgrace.[9] According to Darby, it was also seen as a serious loss of erogenous tissue: "During the Renaissance and 18th century the centrality of the foreskin to male sexual function and the pleasure of both partners was recognised by anatomists Berengario da Carpi, Gabriello Fallopio and William Harvey, in popular sex manuals like Aristotle's master-piece, and by physicians like John Hunter, who also appreciated the importance of the foreskin in providing the slack tissue needed to accommodate an erection."[75]

In 1650, English physician John Bulwer in his study of body modification, Anthropometamorphosis: Man Transform'd, or the Artificial Changeling, wrote of the loss in sexual pleasure resulting from circumcision: "the part which hangeth over the end of the foreskin, is moved up and down in coition, that in this attrition it might gather more heat, and increase the pleasure of the other sexe; a contentation of which they [the circumcised] are defrauded by this injurious invention. For, the shortnesse of the prepuce is reckoned among the organical defects of the yard, … yet circumcision detracts somewhat from the delight of women, by lessening their titillation." The English historian Edward Gibbon, author of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, referred to the practice as "a painful and often dangerous rite", and a "singular mutilation" practiced only by Jews and Turks.

Modern debates

Ethics

Main articles: Ethics of circumcision and Forced circumcision
 
A protest against non-therapeutic infant circumcision in connection with the annual meeting of the American Academy of Pediatrics at the Washington Convention Center

The ethical view of circumcision varies by country. In the United States, which has a high circumcision rate, the American Medical Association stated in 2011 that they "will oppose any attempts to intrude into legitimate medical practice and the informed choices of patients".[76] In 2012, the American Academy of Pediatrics released a technical report and a policy statement on non-therapeutic infant circumcision, stating that preventive health benefits of elective circumcision of male newborns outweigh the risks of the procedure, although the health benefits are not great enough to recommend routine circumcision for all male newborns, and that parents ultimately should decide whether circumcision is in the best interests of their male child.[10]

After the release of the position statement, a debate appeared in the journal Pediatrics and the Journal of Medical Ethics.[12][77] In 2013, a group of 38 Northern European pediatricians, doctors, surgeons, ethicists, and lawyers co-authored a comment stating that they found the AAP's technical report and policy statement suffered from cultural bias, and reached recommendations and conclusions different from those of physicians in other parts of the world;[11] in particular, the group advocated instead a policy of no-harm towards infants and respect for their rights of bodily integrity and age of consent.[11] Two authors stated that, in their view, the AAP's 2012 analysis was inaccurate, improper, and incomplete.[77] The AAP received further criticism from Intactivist groups that oppose circumcision.[78][79] The AAP responded to these criticisms in the Journal of Medical Ethics, calling for respectful and evidence-based debate.[80]

In 2017, the American Medical Association's Journal of Ethics published two articles challenging the morality of performing non-therapeutic infant circumcision.[81][82]

History

Circumcision spread in several English-speaking nations from the late 19th century, with the introduction of anesthesia and antisepsis rapidly expanding surgical practice.[citation needed] Doctors such as Sir Jonathan Hutchinson in England wrote articles in favour of the procedure.[83] Peter Charles Remondino, a San Diego physician, wrote a History of Circumcision from the Earliest Times to the Present: Moral and Physical Reasons for Its Performance (1891), to promote circumcision.[citation needed] Lewis Sayre, a prominent orthopedic surgeon at the time, was another early American advocate.[84] However, the theories on which many early claims were made, such as the reflex theory of disease and the alleged harmful effects of masturbation, have long since been abandoned by the medical profession.[84]

Dr. John Harvey Kellogg recommended circumcision of boys caught masturbating, writing: "A remedy for masturbation which is almost always successful in small boys is circumcision, especially when there is any degree of phimosis. The operation should be performed by a surgeon without administering anaesthetic, as the pain attending the operation will have a salutary effect upon the mind, especially if it be connected with the idea of punishment." But he was opposed to routine circumcision of infants: "It is doubtful, however, whether as much harm as good does not result from circumcision, since it has been shown by extensive observation among the Jews that very great contraction of the meatus, or external orifice of the urethra, is exceedingly common among them, being undoubtedly the result of the prolonged irritation and subsequent cicatricial contraction resulting from circumcision in infancy."[85]

An early British opponent of circumcision was Herbert Snow, who wrote a short book called The barbarity of circumcision as a remedy for congenital abnormality in 1890.[86] But as late as 1936, L. E. Holt, an author of pediatric textbooks, advocated male and female circumcision as a treatment for masturbation.[87] The first serious questioning of the practice did not occur until late 1949, when the Scottish neonatologist and pediatrician Douglas Gairdner published The Fate of the Foreskin in the British Medical Journal;[citation needed] according to Wallerstein, this began to significantly affect the practice of circumcision in the United Kingdom.[4]

According to Darby and Cox, the persistence of circumcision in the US has led to more vigorous protest movements.[88] A 1980 protest march at the California State Capitol was reported in an Associated Press article.[89] The National Organization of Circumcision Information Resource Centers (NOCIRC) was formed by Marilyn Milos, R.N., in 1985.[citation needed] The organization's stated objective is to secure the birthright of male, female, and intersex children and babies to keep their sex organs intact. Protest rallies have been held in the US and other areas. NOCIRC have consistently criticised the American medical community's circumcision guidelines.[90] According to Milos and Donna Macris, "The need to defend the baby's right to a peaceful beginning was brought to light by Dr. Frederick Leboyer in his work, Birth Without Violence".[90]

This period also saw the formation of anti-circumcision organizations in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and South Africa. Activists began creating websites in the mid-1990s, and this process has continued. One such organization distributed questionnaires to circumcised men. The complaints included prominent scarring (33%), insufficient penile skin for comfortable erection (27%), erectile curvature from uneven skin loss (16%), and pain and bleeding upon erection/manipulation (17%). Psychological complaints included feelings of mutilation (60%), low self-esteem/inferiority to intact men (50%), genital dysmorphia (55%), rage (52%), resentment/depression (59%), violation (46%), or parental betrayal (30%). Many respondents reported that their physical/emotional suffering impeded emotional intimacy with their partner(s), resulting in sexual dysfunction.[91] Prominent men known to be unhappy about being circumcised include Sigmund Freud,[92] A E Housman, W.H. Auden, Geoffrey Keynes and his brother John Maynard Keynes, the economist.[88] In 1996 the British Medical Journal published a letter by 20 men saying that "we have been harmed by circumcision in childhood"; they argued that "it cannot be ethical for a doctor to amputate normal tissue from a normal child".[88] Dr. Benjamin Spock (1903 – 1998), whose Baby and Child Care is the biggest selling American single-author book in history, originally supported circumcision but changed his mind near the end of his life.[93]

Medical controversies

United States medical view

 
A restraining device used to immobilize infants during circumcision

In the United States, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), which collaborated to produce the 2012 statements issued by the AAP, position paper as of 2012 stated:[94]

In cases such as the decision to perform a circumcision in the newborn period (where there is reasonable disagreement about the balance between medical benefits and harms, where there are nonmedical benefits and harms that can result from a decision on whether to perform the procedure, and where the procedure is not essential to the child's immediate well-being), the parents should determine what is in the best interest of the child. In the pluralistic society of the United States, where parents are afforded wide authority for determining what constitutes appropriate child-rearing and child welfare, it is legitimate for the parents to take into account their own cultural, religious, and ethnic traditions, in addition to medical factors, when making this choice.[95]

Genital integrity

See also: Bodily integrity and Prevalence of circumcision

The term "genital integrity" refers to the condition of having complete and unaltered genital organs. Genital integrity is the norm in Latin America and the Caribbean, all European states except for three countries in the Balkans with large Muslim populations: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo, and in most Asian countries.[96]

 
A lobby against routine infant circumcision on Chicago's Pride Parade

T Hammond (1999) is of the view that every person has a right to a whole intact body and that, where minors are concerned, "the unnecessary removal of a functioning body organ in the name of tradition, custom or any other non-disease related cause should never be acceptable to the health profession." He opines that such interventions are violations of individual bodily rights, and "a breach of fundamental medical ethics principles".[91] Many opponents[who?] of circumcision see infant circumcision as unnecessary, harmful, and unethical;[citation needed] some want the procedures prohibited.[97]

Others also see the genital cutting of children as a human rights and children's rights issue,[98] opposing the genital modification and mutilation of children, including circumcision, female genital mutilation (FGM), and intersex genital surgeries; a number of anti-circumcision organizations oppose sex assignment surgeries on infants with ambiguous genitalia.[97][99][100][101][third-party source needed]

Current laws in many countries, and both United States federal law as well as laws in several U.S. states, prohibit the genital modification and mutilation of female minors, with some exceptions based on medical need. Opponents of male circumcision assert that laws against genital modification and mutilation of minors should apply equally to males and females.[citation needed]

 
Women protest against routine infant circumcision in front of the White House in 2013; captions read: "All Babies Are Born Perfect. Keep Them This Way."

However, linking male circumcision to FGM is highly controversial. Organizations actually involved in combating FGM have been at considerable pains to distinguish the two, as this UNICEF document explains: "When the practice first came to be known beyond the societies in which it was traditionally carried out, it was generally referred to as 'female circumcision'. This term, however, draws a direct parallel with male circumcision and, as a result, creates confusion between these two distinct practices."[102] This stance has been largely echoed by Western medical and political authorities.[citation needed] A Royal Dutch Medical Association viewpoint says that the form of female genital mutilation that resembles non-therapeutic circumcision the most is rejected unanimously throughout literature. The Association also says "FGM takes many forms. There is the most severe form, infibulation, in which the inner and outer labia are stitched together and the clitoris is removed. However, there are also much milder forms of FGM, in which only the foreskin of the clitoris is removed."[103]

In the United States, the organization MGMbill.org has sent a proposed bill to the US Congress and 15 state legislatures every year since 2004 in order to extend the prohibition on genital modification and mutilation of minors to include male and intersex children.[97]

In U.S. politics

See also: Circumcision and law

Though the issue of infant circumcision is generally not discussed by U.S. politicians,[104] circumcision controversies have occasionally arisen in the U.S. political system.

In 2011, anti-circumcision activists in San Francisco gathered over 12,000 signatures to put a measure on the city's ballot in November that would ban circumcisions of males under 18.[105] Proponents of the ban argued that circumcision is not medically necessary and that the choice should be left up to the child rather than the parents, while opponents of the ban, such as the American Civil Liberties Union and the American Jewish Committee, argued that circumcision is a recognized medical procedure with clear health benefits and that the measure would violate religious freedoms and cause unnecessary religious strife.[106][107] The measure was ultimately removed from the ballot, as a court ruled that it would violate a state law leaving the regulation of medical procedures up to the state rather than cities. Following this, California governor Jerry Brown signed a law preventing localities in California from banning circumcision.[108]

In 2019, then-candidate for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination Andrew Yang declared himself "[a]gainst the practice" of routine infant circumcision.[109] This received coverage from several outlets, as major politicians discussing circumcision has been rare, with Yang being the only candidate for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination to talk about it. Though Yang said he would push for giving parents more information about this decision if elected, he also stated that he supported the parents' choice to have their child circumcised for religious or cultural reasons, and would not support a ban on the practice. Intact America's Georganne Chapin speculated that Yang's support of parental choice was likely a result of political pressure.[104]

Other contemporary controversies

Controversy in Israel

Opposition to circumcision[110] exists among Jews in Israel. Protests for children's rights have occurred there.[111] Even though there is often pressure from family on parents to circumcise their sons, "more and more families" are preferring to abstain from circumcision.[112]

Controversy in South Africa

In the Xhosa areas of South Africa, the large death toll from traditional circumcision provides a constant source of friction between traditional leaders, who oppose medicalised procedures, and health authorities. In 2009 in the Eastern Cape Province alone, 80 boys died and hundreds were hospitalized after attending initiation schools.[113] The controversy looked set to spread in 2010 to the Zulu, whose present-day king Goodwill Zwelithini has called for the reintroduction of customary circumcision after it was banned by Zulu king Shaka in the 19th century.[114] Similar issues, though on a smaller scale, have arisen with traditional circumcision of Aborigines in remote areas of central Australia.[115]

Controversy in Germany

On 26 June 2012, a court in Cologne, Germany, ruled that circumcision was "inflicting bodily harm on boys too young to consent", deciding that the practice contravenes the "interests of the child to decide later in life on his religious beliefs".[116] The decision was based on the article "Criminal Relevance of Circumcising Boys. A Contribution to the Limitation of Consent in Cases of Care for the Person of the Child"[117] published by Holm Putzke, a German law professor at the University of Passau.[118][119] The court's decision that a child's right to physical integrity trumps religious and parental rights applied only within the jurisdiction of that court, the city of Cologne. The ruling was condemned by Jewish and Muslim groups in Europe.[120] A broad majority of German lawmakers passed a resolution asking Angela Merkel's government to clarify the ruling so as to allow Jews and Muslims to continue to practice their religion. On 12 December 2012, following a series of hearings and consultations, the Bundestag adopted a law explicitly permitting non-therapeutic circumcision to be performed under certain conditions by a vote of 434–100, with 46 abstentions.[121]

Anti-circumcision movement

Further information: Bodily integrity § Genital integrity
See also: Children's rights
 
Anti-circumcision protest at Capitol Hill in 2011
 
Secular Israeli Jews (Hilonim) protest against ritual circumcision (brit milah) in Tel Aviv

Some anti-circumcision activists, sometimes called intactivists (a portmanteau of intact and activist),[122] compare circumcision to genital mutilation, while others celebrate the foreskin.[122] Various organisations have been set up specifically for the purpose, and other organisations have stated their support for the movement. Some anti-circumcision activists have participated in LGBT pride parades since 2006.[123]

Name Founded Region served Notes
Bloodstained Men & Their Friends (BSM)[124] 2012   United States Known for public protests in white overalls with bloodstains around their crotches.[125]
Circumcision Resource Center 1991   United States Our nonprofit educational organization raises awareness, helps healing, and informs about sexual, psychological, and traumatic effects, medical issues, and cultural bias.
Genital Autonomy America (GAA) 1985   United States Merged with Intact America in 2021. Previously called National Organization of Circumcision Information Resource Centers (NOCIRC). Based in San Anselmo, California.
Genital Autonomy Legal Defense and Education Fund (GALDEF) 2022   United States Genital autonomy advocates and legal professionals pursuing impact litigation to protect children's bodily integrity rights.
Jews Against Circumcision (JAC) 2011   World
Justice for Men & Boys (and the women who love them) (J4MB) 2013   United Kingdom Circumcision has been the political party's primary campaigning issue since 2014, and the topic is covered in the party's 2015 general election manifesto.[126]
Intaction[127] 2010   United States Based in Brooklyn, New York.
Intact America 2008   United States Intact America is the largest organization working to end child genital cutting. Based in Tarrytown, New York.
Men Do Complain (MDC)[128] 2012   United Kingdom Based in London.
NORM-UK, operating as "15Square"[129][130][131] 1994   United Kingdom Based in Stone, Staffordshire.[132]
intaktiv e.V. – eine Stimme für genitale Selbstbestimmung (German: A Voice for Genital Autonomy) 2013   Germany Is a registered charity since November 2013 Based in Mainz.[133]
Your Whole Baby 2014   United States

See also

References

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External links

Opposition to circumcision

  •   Media related to Anti-circumcision at Wikimedia Commons
  • Intact America's official website
  • Genital Autonomy America's official website
  • Doctors Opposing Circumcision
  • Nurses for the Rights of the Child
  • Attorneys for the Rights of the Child
  • Circumcision Resource Center
  • Genital Autonomy Legal Defense and Education Fund (GALDEF)
  • Intaction's official website
  • Cockfight
  • Your Whole Baby

Neutral

January 31, 2023
circumcision, controversies, this, article, about, male, circumcision, female, circumcision, female, genital, mutilation, female, circumcision, controversy, kenya, 1929, 1932, female, circumcision, controversy, kenya, 1929, 1932, this, article, multiple, issue. This article is about male circumcision For female circumcision see Female genital mutilation For the female circumcision controversy in Kenya in 1929 1932 see Female circumcision controversy Kenya 1929 1932 This article has multiple issues Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page Learn how and when to remove these template messages The neutrality of this article is disputed Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page Please do not remove this message until conditions to do so are met October 2022 Learn how and when to remove this template message This article s factual accuracy is disputed Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page Please help to ensure that disputed statements are reliably sourced October 2022 Learn how and when to remove this template message Some of this article s listed sources may not be reliable Please help this article by looking for better more reliable sources Unreliable citations may be challenged or deleted October 2022 Learn how and when to remove this template message Learn how and when to remove this template message Male circumcision has been a subject of controversy for a number of reasons including religious ethical sexual and medical 1 2 3 4 5 During the late 19th and early 20th centuries the primary justification for circumcision was to prevent masturbation and intentionally reduce male sexual pleasure 4 3 6 which was believed to cause a wide range of medical problems 1 4 3 7 8 6 9 Modern proponents say that circumcision reduces the risks of a range of infections and diseases and confers sexual benefits 1 4 2 10 By contrast some opponents particularly of routine neonatal circumcision question its utility and effectiveness in preventing such diseases 1 4 2 3 11 12 and object to subjecting newborn males without their consent 5 2 3 11 12 to a procedure they consider to have dubious and nonessential benefits 5 2 3 11 12 significant risks and a potentially negative impact on general health and later sexual enjoyment as well as violating their human rights 5 3 11 13 14 In Classical and Hellenistic civilization Ancient Greeks and Romans posed great value on the beauty of nature physical integrity aesthetics harmonious bodies and nudity including the foreskin 15 16 17 see also Ancient Greek art and were opposed to all forms of genital mutilation an opposition inherited by the canon and secular legal systems of the Christian West and East that lasted at least through to the Middle Ages according to Frederick Hodges 15 Traditional branches of Judaism Islam Coptic Christianity the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and the Eritrean Orthodox Church still advocate male circumcision as a religious obligation 18 Contents 1 Religious and cultural conflicts 1 1 Ancient Near East 1 2 Classical civilization 1 3 Christianity 1 4 Islam 1 5 Judaism 1 6 Middle Ages to the 19th century 1 6 1 Judaism and Christianity 1 6 2 Mesoamerican cultures 1 6 3 Later times 2 Modern debates 2 1 Ethics 2 2 History 2 3 Medical controversies 2 3 1 United States medical view 2 4 Genital integrity 2 5 In U S politics 2 6 Other contemporary controversies 2 6 1 Controversy in Israel 2 6 2 Controversy in South Africa 2 6 3 Controversy in Germany 3 Anti circumcision movement 4 See also 5 References 6 External links 6 1 Opposition to circumcision 6 2 NeutralReligious and cultural conflicts EditAncient Near East Edit Circumcision of Abraham s son Isaac Regensburg Pentateuch Israel Museum Jerusalem c 1300 The Book of Genesis explains circumcision as a covenant with God given to Abraham Gen 17 10 In Judaism it symbolizes the promise of lineage and fruitfulness of a great nation 19 the seal of ownership and the guarantee of relationship between peoples and their god 20 Some scholars look elsewhere for the origin of Jewish circumcision One explanation dating from Herodotus is that the custom was acquired from the Egyptians possibly during the period of enslavement 21 An additional hypothesis based on linguistic ethnographic work begun in the 19th century 22 suggests circumcision was a common tribal custom among Semitic tribes Jews Arabs and Phoenicians The Jewish and Islamic traditions both see circumcision as a way to distinguish a group from its neighbours 23 The Bible records uncircumcised being used as a derogatory reference for opponents 1Sam 17 26 and Jewish victory in battle that culminated in mass post mortem circumcision to provide an account of the number of enemy casualties 1Sam 18 27 Jews were also required to circumcise all household members including slaves Gen 17 12 14 a practice that would later put them into collision with Roman and Christian law see below Classical civilization Edit In 167 BCE Judea was part of the Seleucid Empire Its ruler Antiochus IV Epiphanes 175 165 BCE smarting from a defeat in a war against Ptolemaic Egypt banned traditional Jewish religious practices and attempted to forcibly let the Jews accept Hellenistic culture 24 Throughout the country Jews were ordered with the threat of execution to sacrifice pigs to Greek gods the normal practice in the Ancient Greek religion desecrate the Shabbat eat unkosher animals especially pork and relinquish their Jewish scriptures Antiochus decree also outlawed Jewish circumcision 24 and parents who violated his order were hanged along with their infants 9 1Mac 1 46 67 According to Tacitus as quoted by Hodges Antiochus endeavoured to abolish Jewish superstition and to introduce Greek civilization 15 According to rabbinical accounts he desecrated the Second Temple of Jerusalem by placing a statue of Olympian Zeus on the altar of the Temple 25 this incident is also reported by the biblical Book of Daniel 25 where the author refers to the statue of the Greek god inside the Temple as abomination of desolation 25 Antiochus decrees and vituperation of Judaism motivated the Maccabean Revolt 26 27 the Maccabees reacted violently against the forced Hellenization of Judea 26 destroyed pagan altars in the villages circumcised boys and forced Hellenized Jews into outlawry 28 The revolt ended in the re establishment of an independent Jewish kingdom under the Hasmoneans 26 27 until it turned into a client state of the Roman Republic under the reign of Herod the Great 37 4 BCE Classical Hellenistic and Roman culture found circumcision to be cruel and repulsive 15 17 29 In the Roman Empire circumcision was regarded as a barbaric and disgusting custom 15 30 29 The consul Titus Flavius Clemens was condemned to death by the Roman Senate in 95 CE for according to the Talmud circumcising himself and converting to Judaism The Emperor Hadrian 117 138 forbade circumcision 15 30 31 Overall the rite of circumcision was especially execrable in Classical civilization 15 30 29 also because it was the custom to spend an hour a day or so exercising nude in the gymnasium and in Roman baths therefore Jewish men did not want to be seen in public deprived of their foreskins 15 24 30 29 As for the anti circumcision law passed by Hadrian it is considered by many who to be together with his decision to build a Roman temple upon the ruins of the Second Temple and dedicate it to Jupiter one of the main causes of the Bar Kokhba revolt 132 135 CE which was brutally crushed 32 according to Cassius Dio 580 000 Jews were killed and 50 fortified towns and 985 villages razed 32 33 He claimed that Many Romans moreover perished in this war Therefore Hadrian in writing to the Senate did not employ the opening phrase commonly affected by the Emperors If you and your children are in health it is well I and the army are in health 32 Because of the great loss of life in the war even though Hadrian was victorious he refused a triumph Hadrian s policy after the rebellion reflected an attempt to root out Judaism he enacted a ban on circumcision 15 31 all Jews were forbidden to enter Jerusalem upon pain of death and the city was renamed Aelia Capitolina while Judea was renamed Syria Palaestina Around 140 his successor Antoninus Pius 138 161 CE exempted Jews from the decree against circumcision allowing them to circumcise their sons although they were forbidden to do the same on their slaves and proselytes 15 31 Jewish nationalists Pharisees and Zealots response to the decrees also took a more moderate form circumcisions were secretly performed even on dead Jews 9 However there were also many Jews known as Hellenizers who viewed Hellenization and social integration of the Jewish people in the Greco Roman world favourably 15 27 30 and pursued a completely different approach accepting the Emperor s decree and even making efforts to restore their foreskins to better assimilate into Hellenistic society 15 16 24 27 30 The latter approach was common during the reign of Antiochus and again under Roman rule 15 30 The foreskin was restored by one of two methods that were later revived in the late 20th century both were described in detail by the Greek physician Aulus Cornelius Celsus in his comprehensive encyclopedic work De Medicina written during the reign of Tiberius 14 37 CE 30 34 The surgical method involved freeing the skin covering the penis by dissection and then pulling it forward over the glans he also described a simpler surgical technique used on men whose prepuce is naturally insufficient to cover their glans 30 34 The second approach known as epispasm 15 17 30 34 was non surgical a restoration device which consisted of a special weight made of bronze copper or leather sometimes called Pondus Judaeus i e Jewish burden 15 30 34 was affixed to the penis pulling its skin downward Over time a new foreskin was generated or a short prepuce was lengthened by means of tissue expansion 15 30 34 Martial also mentioned the instrument in Epigrammaton Book 7 35 34 The Apostle Paul referred to these practices in his letters 15 30 34 saying Was a man already circumcised when he was called He should not become uncircumcised 1Cor 7 18 But he also explicitly denounced the forcing of circumcision upon non Jews rejecting and condemning those Judaizers who stipulated the ritual to Gentile Christians labelling such advocates as false brothers Gal 2 4 see below In the mid 2nd century Rabbinical Jewish leaders due to increasing cases of foreskin restorations in Roman Empire introduced a radical method of circumcision the periah that left the glans totally uncovered and sew the remaining skin The new method became immediately the only valid circumcision procedure to ensure that a born Jew will remain circumcised for all his life and to make mostly impossible restoring the foreskin 34 Operations became permanent and irreversible like today Under the first Christian emperor Constantine the two rescripts of Antoninus on circumcision were re enacted and again in the 6th century under Justinian These restrictions on circumcision made their way into both secular and Canon law and at least through the Middle Ages preserved and enhanced laws banning Hebrews from circumcising non Hebrews and banning Christians or slaves of any religious affiliation from undergoing circumcision for any reason 15 Christianity Edit Main article Circumcision controversy in early Christianity Further information Religious male circumcision Christianity The Christian sacrament of baptism in covenant theology is seen as fulfilling the Israelite rite of circumcision Circumcision has also played a major role in Christian history and theology 35 36 While the circumcision of Jesus is celebrated as a feast day in the liturgical calendar of many Christian denominations 36 There was debate in the early Church on whether Gentiles needed to be circumcised in order to join the communities some Jewish Christians insisted that it was necessary As such the Council of Jerusalem 50 CE was held which decreed that male circumcision was not a requirement for Gentiles which became known as the Apostolic Decree 37 This was one of the first acts differentiating Early Christianity from Judaism 38 Covenant theology largely views the Christian sacrament of baptism as fulfilling the Israelite practice of circumcision both being signs and seals of the covenant of grace 39 40 Today many Christian denominations are neutral about ritual male circumcision not requiring it for religious observance but neither forbidding it for cultural or other reasons 41 While in some African and Eastern Christian denominations such as the Coptic Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox Churches male circumcision is an established practice 18 42 and require that their male members undergo circumcision shortly after birth as part of a rite of passage 18 Male circumcision is widely practiced among Christian communities in the Anglosphere countries Africa Oceania the Middle East South Korea and the Philippines 43 44 45 46 The United States and the Philippines are the largest Christian countries in the world to extensively practice male circumcision 47 While countries with majorities of Christian adherents in Europe and South America have low circumcision rates 48 Islam Edit Main article Khitan circumcision Further information Islamic hygienical jurisprudence In the early 7th century Muhammad welded together many Semitic tribes of the Arabian peninsula into the kernel of a rapidly expanding Muslim movement Male and female circumcision were already well established among these tribes and probably had been for more than 1 000 years most likely as a fertility rite Herodotus had noticed the practice among various Semite nations in the 5th century BCE and Josephus had specifically mentioned circumcision as a tradition among Arabs in the 1st century CE 22 There are some narrations attributed to Muhammad in which he approves of female circumcision many scholars believe that these narrations are weak and lack authenticity 49 50 The practice of circumcision is sometimes characterized as a part of fitrah as mentioned in the hadith Prophetic narrations 51 52 Judaism Edit See also Brit milah Criticism and legality The neutrality of this article is disputed Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page Please do not remove this message until conditions to do so are met December 2018 Learn how and when to remove this template message Around 140 CE the Tannaim made circumcision requirements stricter in order to make the procedure irreversible 53 During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries many Jewish reformers doctors and physicians in Central and Eastern Europe proposed to replace circumcision with a symbolic ceremony while others sought to ban or abolish circumcision entirely 54 as they perceived it as a dangerous barbaric and pagan ritual of genital mutilation 54 that could transmit infectious diseases to newborns 54 The first formal objection to circumcision within Judaism occurred in 1843 in Frankfurt 54 53 The Society for the Friends of Reform a group that criticized traditional Jewish practices said that brit milah was not a mitzvah but an outworn legacy from Israel s earlier phases an obsolete throwback to primitive religion 53 With the expanding role of medicine came further opposition certain aspects of Jewish circumcision such as periah and metzitzah drawing the blood from the circumcision wound through sucking or a cloth were deemed unhygienic and dangerous for the newborns 53 54 Later evidence that syphilis and tuberculosis two of the most feared infectious diseases in the 19th century were spread by mohels 54 caused various rabbis to advocate metzitzah to be done using a sponge or a tube 53 Among the secular non observant Jews who chose to not circumcise their sons there was also Theodor Herzl 55 Ephron reports that non Jews and also some Jewish reformers in early 19th century Germany had criticized ritual circumcision as barbaric and that Jewish doctors responded to these criticisms with defences of the ritual or proposals for modification or reform By the late 19th century some Jewish doctors in the country defended circumcision by saying it had health advantages 56 Today the Rabbinical Council of America the largest group of Modern Orthodox rabbis endorses using a glass tube as a substitute of metzitzah 57 However a growing number of contemporary Jews and Intactivist Jewish groups in the United States and Israel both secular and religious started to question overall long term effects psychological and psychophysical consequences of trauma caused by circumcision on Jewish children 58 and choose not to circumcise their sons 7 58 59 60 61 They are assisted by a small number of Reform Liberal and Reconstructionist rabbis and have developed a welcoming ceremony that they call the Brit shalom Covenant of Peace for such children 7 58 also accepted by Humanistic Judaism 60 62 Middle Ages to the 19th century Edit Judaism and Christianity Edit Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologica questioned why if under Jewish doctrine circumcision removed original sin Jesus was circumcised as Jesus had no original sin Steve Jones suggests there is a theological tradition that Jesus regained his foreskin at the Ascension Had he failed to do so the Saved would themselves have to be operated upon in Paradise so as not to be more perfect than their Saviour 63 The Jews were expelled from England by Edward I in 1290 ostensibly over social tensions concerning usury But the public imagination had been gripped by blood libel since at least the 12th century So pervasive was the belief that Jews circumcised their victims that Menasseh ben Israil the Dutch Rabbi who sought from Cromwell the readmission of the Jews in 1656 had to dwell at considerable length in his Vindiciae Judaeorum at refuting the claim 64 In 15th century Spain most Jews and Muslims were expelled and the Spanish Inquisition monitored and prosecuted converts to Christianity to ensure they were not secretly practising Judaism consorting with Jews or engaging in Jewish practices such as circumcision 65 Mesoamerican cultures Edit See also Bloodletting in Mesoamerica In 1521 Cortes defeated the Aztec empire in Mesoamerica which was followed by a large influx of Spanish clergy whose writings provide most of information about pre conquest Aztec life and customs largely assembled from interviews with those who survived the invasion and subsequent epidemics and their descendants Diego Duran a Dominican friar was convinced that the Aztecs were one of the lost tribes of Israel with a crucial piece of supporting evidence being that they had practised circumcision 66 So influential was this notion that 300 years later Bancroft in his monumental Native Races 67 began his discussion of circumcision by writing Whether the custom of circumcision which has been the great prop of argument in favor of the Jewish origin of the Aztecs really obtained among these people has been doubted by numerous authors concluding that it probably existed in a certain form among some tribes p278 The key being a certain form since Bancroft makes clear in a footnote that the majority of his sources including Clavigero Ternaux Compans Carbajal Espinosa Oviedo y Herrera and especially Acosta believed Duran and others confounded the custom of drawing blood from the secret organs with circumcision and the incision on the prepuce and ear to have been mistaken for circumcision adding that this blood letting rite 68 was chiefly performed upon sons of great men p279 The case was not helped by the fact no reports of seeing a circumcised adult Aztec existed in the literature Remondino says it is a matter of controversy whether the foreskin had actually been removed p46 9 In regard to the Mayans Bancroft says that in 1858 Brasseur de Bourbourg reported finding traces 69 of circumcision in the sources despite Cogolludo having reported that circumcision was unknown to the Indians of Yucatan pp279 679 67 But in 1864 Brasseur published his French translation of Diego de Landa s recently recovered 1556 ethnographic manuscript which decisively rejected the notion of Mayan circumcision and in a footnote he acknowledged there had probably been a mistake an admission that never found its way into the English language literature 70 although modern ethnography has long since understood the nature of these rituals 71 However the Aztecs and Mayans are included by many authors from other disciplines among the list of pre modern people who practised circumcision Examples of such sources include UNAIDS 72 Kaplan 73 and Weiss 74 Later times Edit Countries that do not circumcise have often held antipathy for those that do Being circumcised was often seen as a sign of disgrace 9 According to Darby it was also seen as a serious loss of erogenous tissue During the Renaissance and 18th century the centrality of the foreskin to male sexual function and the pleasure of both partners was recognised by anatomists Berengario da Carpi Gabriello Fallopio and William Harvey in popular sex manuals like Aristotle s master piece and by physicians like John Hunter who also appreciated the importance of the foreskin in providing the slack tissue needed to accommodate an erection 75 In 1650 English physician John Bulwer in his study of body modification Anthropometamorphosis Man Transform d or the Artificial Changeling wrote of the loss in sexual pleasure resulting from circumcision the part which hangeth over the end of the foreskin is moved up and down in coition that in this attrition it might gather more heat and increase the pleasure of the other sexe a contentation of which they the circumcised are defrauded by this injurious invention For the shortnesse of the prepuce is reckoned among the organical defects of the yard yet circumcision detracts somewhat from the delight of women by lessening their titillation The English historian Edward Gibbon author of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire referred to the practice as a painful and often dangerous rite and a singular mutilation practiced only by Jews and Turks Modern debates EditEthics Edit Main articles Ethics of circumcision and Forced circumcision A protest against non therapeutic infant circumcision in connection with the annual meeting of the American Academy of Pediatrics at the Washington Convention Center The ethical view of circumcision varies by country In the United States which has a high circumcision rate the American Medical Association stated in 2011 that they will oppose any attempts to intrude into legitimate medical practice and the informed choices of patients 76 In 2012 the American Academy of Pediatrics released a technical report and a policy statement on non therapeutic infant circumcision stating that preventive health benefits of elective circumcision of male newborns outweigh the risks of the procedure although the health benefits are not great enough to recommend routine circumcision for all male newborns and that parents ultimately should decide whether circumcision is in the best interests of their male child 10 After the release of the position statement a debate appeared in the journal Pediatrics and the Journal of Medical Ethics 12 77 In 2013 a group of 38 Northern European pediatricians doctors surgeons ethicists and lawyers co authored a comment stating that they found the AAP s technical report and policy statement suffered from cultural bias and reached recommendations and conclusions different from those of physicians in other parts of the world 11 in particular the group advocated instead a policy of no harm towards infants and respect for their rights of bodily integrity and age of consent 11 Two authors stated that in their view the AAP s 2012 analysis was inaccurate improper and incomplete 77 The AAP received further criticism from Intactivist groups that oppose circumcision 78 79 The AAP responded to these criticisms in the Journal of Medical Ethics calling for respectful and evidence based debate 80 In 2017 the American Medical Association s Journal of Ethics published two articles challenging the morality of performing non therapeutic infant circumcision 81 82 History Edit Circumcision spread in several English speaking nations from the late 19th century with the introduction of anesthesia and antisepsis rapidly expanding surgical practice citation needed Doctors such as Sir Jonathan Hutchinson in England wrote articles in favour of the procedure 83 Peter Charles Remondino a San Diego physician wrote a History of Circumcision from the Earliest Times to the Present Moral and Physical Reasons for Its Performance 1891 to promote circumcision citation needed Lewis Sayre a prominent orthopedic surgeon at the time was another early American advocate 84 However the theories on which many early claims were made such as the reflex theory of disease and the alleged harmful effects of masturbation have long since been abandoned by the medical profession 84 Dr John Harvey Kellogg recommended circumcision of boys caught masturbating writing A remedy for masturbation which is almost always successful in small boys is circumcision especially when there is any degree of phimosis The operation should be performed by a surgeon without administering anaesthetic as the pain attending the operation will have a salutary effect upon the mind especially if it be connected with the idea of punishment But he was opposed to routine circumcision of infants It is doubtful however whether as much harm as good does not result from circumcision since it has been shown by extensive observation among the Jews that very great contraction of the meatus or external orifice of the urethra is exceedingly common among them being undoubtedly the result of the prolonged irritation and subsequent cicatricial contraction resulting from circumcision in infancy 85 An early British opponent of circumcision was Herbert Snow who wrote a short book called The barbarity of circumcision as a remedy for congenital abnormality in 1890 86 But as late as 1936 L E Holt an author of pediatric textbooks advocated male and female circumcision as a treatment for masturbation 87 The first serious questioning of the practice did not occur until late 1949 when the Scottish neonatologist and pediatrician Douglas Gairdner published The Fate of the Foreskin in the British Medical Journal citation needed according to Wallerstein this began to significantly affect the practice of circumcision in the United Kingdom 4 According to Darby and Cox the persistence of circumcision in the US has led to more vigorous protest movements 88 A 1980 protest march at the California State Capitol was reported in an Associated Press article 89 The National Organization of Circumcision Information Resource Centers NOCIRC was formed by Marilyn Milos R N in 1985 citation needed The organization s stated objective is to secure the birthright of male female and intersex children and babies to keep their sex organs intact Protest rallies have been held in the US and other areas NOCIRC have consistently criticised the American medical community s circumcision guidelines 90 According to Milos and Donna Macris The need to defend the baby s right to a peaceful beginning was brought to light by Dr Frederick Leboyer in his work Birth Without Violence 90 This period also saw the formation of anti circumcision organizations in Australia Canada the United Kingdom and South Africa Activists began creating websites in the mid 1990s and this process has continued One such organization distributed questionnaires to circumcised men The complaints included prominent scarring 33 insufficient penile skin for comfortable erection 27 erectile curvature from uneven skin loss 16 and pain and bleeding upon erection manipulation 17 Psychological complaints included feelings of mutilation 60 low self esteem inferiority to intact men 50 genital dysmorphia 55 rage 52 resentment depression 59 violation 46 or parental betrayal 30 Many respondents reported that their physical emotional suffering impeded emotional intimacy with their partner s resulting in sexual dysfunction 91 Prominent men known to be unhappy about being circumcised include Sigmund Freud 92 A E Housman W H Auden Geoffrey Keynes and his brother John Maynard Keynes the economist 88 In 1996 the British Medical Journal published a letter by 20 men saying that we have been harmed by circumcision in childhood they argued that it cannot be ethical for a doctor to amputate normal tissue from a normal child 88 Dr Benjamin Spock 1903 1998 whose Baby and Child Care is the biggest selling American single author book in history originally supported circumcision but changed his mind near the end of his life 93 Medical controversies Edit United States medical view Edit A restraining device used to immobilize infants during circumcision In the United States the American Academy of Pediatrics AAP the American Academy of Family Physicians AAFP and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists ACOG which collaborated to produce the 2012 statements issued by the AAP position paper as of 2012 stated 94 In cases such as the decision to perform a circumcision in the newborn period where there is reasonable disagreement about the balance between medical benefits and harms where there are nonmedical benefits and harms that can result from a decision on whether to perform the procedure and where the procedure is not essential to the child s immediate well being the parents should determine what is in the best interest of the child In the pluralistic society of the United States where parents are afforded wide authority for determining what constitutes appropriate child rearing and child welfare it is legitimate for the parents to take into account their own cultural religious and ethnic traditions in addition to medical factors when making this choice 95 Genital integrity Edit See also Bodily integrity and Prevalence of circumcision The term genital integrity refers to the condition of having complete and unaltered genital organs Genital integrity is the norm in Latin America and the Caribbean all European states except for three countries in the Balkans with large Muslim populations Albania Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo and in most Asian countries 96 A lobby against routine infant circumcision on Chicago s Pride Parade T Hammond 1999 is of the view that every person has a right to a whole intact body and that where minors are concerned the unnecessary removal of a functioning body organ in the name of tradition custom or any other non disease related cause should never be acceptable to the health profession He opines that such interventions are violations of individual bodily rights and a breach of fundamental medical ethics principles 91 Many opponents who of circumcision see infant circumcision as unnecessary harmful and unethical citation needed some want the procedures prohibited 97 Others also see the genital cutting of children as a human rights and children s rights issue 98 opposing the genital modification and mutilation of children including circumcision female genital mutilation FGM and intersex genital surgeries a number of anti circumcision organizations oppose sex assignment surgeries on infants with ambiguous genitalia 97 99 100 101 third party source needed Current laws in many countries and both United States federal law as well as laws in several U S states prohibit the genital modification and mutilation of female minors with some exceptions based on medical need Opponents of male circumcision assert that laws against genital modification and mutilation of minors should apply equally to males and females citation needed Women protest against routine infant circumcision in front of the White House in 2013 captions read All Babies Are Born Perfect Keep Them This Way However linking male circumcision to FGM is highly controversial Organizations actually involved in combating FGM have been at considerable pains to distinguish the two as this UNICEF document explains When the practice first came to be known beyond the societies in which it was traditionally carried out it was generally referred to as female circumcision This term however draws a direct parallel with male circumcision and as a result creates confusion between these two distinct practices 102 This stance has been largely echoed by Western medical and political authorities citation needed A Royal Dutch Medical Association viewpoint says that the form of female genital mutilation that resembles non therapeutic circumcision the most is rejected unanimously throughout literature The Association also says FGM takes many forms There is the most severe form infibulation in which the inner and outer labia are stitched together and the clitoris is removed However there are also much milder forms of FGM in which only the foreskin of the clitoris is removed 103 In the United States the organization MGMbill org has sent a proposed bill to the US Congress and 15 state legislatures every year since 2004 in order to extend the prohibition on genital modification and mutilation of minors to include male and intersex children 97 In U S politics Edit See also Circumcision and law Though the issue of infant circumcision is generally not discussed by U S politicians 104 circumcision controversies have occasionally arisen in the U S political system In 2011 anti circumcision activists in San Francisco gathered over 12 000 signatures to put a measure on the city s ballot in November that would ban circumcisions of males under 18 105 Proponents of the ban argued that circumcision is not medically necessary and that the choice should be left up to the child rather than the parents while opponents of the ban such as the American Civil Liberties Union and the American Jewish Committee argued that circumcision is a recognized medical procedure with clear health benefits and that the measure would violate religious freedoms and cause unnecessary religious strife 106 107 The measure was ultimately removed from the ballot as a court ruled that it would violate a state law leaving the regulation of medical procedures up to the state rather than cities Following this California governor Jerry Brown signed a law preventing localities in California from banning circumcision 108 In 2019 then candidate for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination Andrew Yang declared himself a gainst the practice of routine infant circumcision 109 This received coverage from several outlets as major politicians discussing circumcision has been rare with Yang being the only candidate for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination to talk about it Though Yang said he would push for giving parents more information about this decision if elected he also stated that he supported the parents choice to have their child circumcised for religious or cultural reasons and would not support a ban on the practice Intact America s Georganne Chapin speculated that Yang s support of parental choice was likely a result of political pressure 104 Other contemporary controversies Edit Controversy in Israel Edit Opposition to circumcision 110 exists among Jews in Israel Protests for children s rights have occurred there 111 Even though there is often pressure from family on parents to circumcise their sons more and more families are preferring to abstain from circumcision 112 Controversy in South Africa Edit In the Xhosa areas of South Africa the large death toll from traditional circumcision provides a constant source of friction between traditional leaders who oppose medicalised procedures and health authorities In 2009 in the Eastern Cape Province alone 80 boys died and hundreds were hospitalized after attending initiation schools 113 The controversy looked set to spread in 2010 to the Zulu whose present day king Goodwill Zwelithini has called for the reintroduction of customary circumcision after it was banned by Zulu king Shaka in the 19th century 114 Similar issues though on a smaller scale have arisen with traditional circumcision of Aborigines in remote areas of central Australia 115 Controversy in Germany Edit On 26 June 2012 a court in Cologne Germany ruled that circumcision was inflicting bodily harm on boys too young to consent deciding that the practice contravenes the interests of the child to decide later in life on his religious beliefs 116 The decision was based on the article Criminal Relevance of Circumcising Boys A Contribution to the Limitation of Consent in Cases of Care for the Person of the Child 117 published by Holm Putzke a German law professor at the University of Passau 118 119 The court s decision that a child s right to physical integrity trumps religious and parental rights applied only within the jurisdiction of that court the city of Cologne The ruling was condemned by Jewish and Muslim groups in Europe 120 A broad majority of German lawmakers passed a resolution asking Angela Merkel s government to clarify the ruling so as to allow Jews and Muslims to continue to practice their religion On 12 December 2012 following a series of hearings and consultations the Bundestag adopted a law explicitly permitting non therapeutic circumcision to be performed under certain conditions by a vote of 434 100 with 46 abstentions 121 Anti circumcision movement EditFurther information Bodily integrity Genital integrity See also Children s rights Anti circumcision protest at Capitol Hill in 2011 Secular Israeli Jews Hilonim protest against ritual circumcision brit milah in Tel Aviv Some anti circumcision activists sometimes called intactivists a portmanteau of intact and activist 122 compare circumcision to genital mutilation while others celebrate the foreskin 122 Various organisations have been set up specifically for the purpose and other organisations have stated their support for the movement Some anti circumcision activists have participated in LGBT pride parades since 2006 123 Name Founded Region served NotesBloodstained Men amp Their Friends BSM 124 2012 United States Known for public protests in white overalls with bloodstains around their crotches 125 Circumcision Resource Center 1991 United States Our nonprofit educational organization raises awareness helps healing and informs about sexual psychological and traumatic effects medical issues and cultural bias Genital Autonomy America GAA 1985 United States Merged with Intact America in 2021 Previously called National Organization of Circumcision Information Resource Centers NOCIRC Based in San Anselmo California Genital Autonomy Legal Defense and Education Fund GALDEF 2022 United States Genital autonomy advocates and legal professionals pursuing impact litigation to protect children s bodily integrity rights Jews Against Circumcision JAC 2011 WorldJustice for Men amp Boys and the women who love them J4MB 2013 United Kingdom Circumcision has been the political party s primary campaigning issue since 2014 and the topic is covered in the party s 2015 general election manifesto 126 Intaction 127 2010 United States Based in Brooklyn New York Intact America 2008 United States Intact America is the largest organization working to end child genital cutting Based in Tarrytown New York Men Do Complain MDC 128 2012 United Kingdom Based in London NORM UK operating as 15Square 129 130 131 1994 United Kingdom Based in Stone Staffordshire 132 intaktiv e V eine Stimme fur genitale Selbstbestimmung German A Voice for Genital Autonomy 2013 Germany Is a registered charity since November 2013 Based in Mainz 133 Your Whole Baby 2014 United StatesSee also EditFGM Foreskin Foreskin Man Foreskin restoration History of circumcision Human genital mutilation Reproductive rights Violence against men World Wide Day of Genital AutonomyReferences Edit a b c d Still Hereford January 1972 Circumcision An Outdated and Unnecessary Procedure Canadian Family Physician College of Family Physicians of Canada 18 1 51 52 PMC 2370328 PMID 20468719 a b c d e Lukong C S December 2011 Circumcision Controversies and Prospects Journal of Surgical Technique and Case Report Sokoto Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital 3 2 65 66 doi 10 4103 2006 8808 92795 PMC 3296435 PMID 22413046 a b c d e f g Denniston George C Grassivaro Gallo Pia Hodges Frederick M Milos Marilyn Fayre Viviani Franco eds 2006 Bodily Integrity and the Politics of Circumcision Culture Controversy and Change New York Springer Verlag ISBN 978 1 4020 4915 6 a b c d e f Wallerstein Edward February 1985 Circumcision The Uniquely American Medical Enigma Urologic Clinics of North America 12 1 123 132 doi 10 1016 S0094 0143 21 00798 9 PMID 3883617 Archived from the original on 20 February 2014 Retrieved 4 January 2020 a b c d Hutson J M June 2004 Circumcision a surgeon s perspective Journal of Medical Ethics BMJ Group 30 3 238 40 doi 10 1136 jme 2002 001313 PMC 1733864 PMID 15173354 a b Darby Robert 2005 A Surgical Temptation The Demonization of the Foreskin and the Rise of Circumcision in Britain London University of Chicago Press pp 44 214 ISBN 978 0 226 13645 5 a b c Kimmel Michael S May June 2001 The Kindest Un Cut Feminism Judaism and My Son s Foreskin Tikkun Duke University Press 16 3 43 48 Archived from the original on 19 December 2019 Retrieved 4 January 2020 Darby Robert Spring 2003 The Masturbation Taboo and the Rise of Routine Male Circumcision A Review of the Historiography Journal of Social History Fairfax County Virginia George Mason University Press 36 3 737 757 doi 10 1353 jsh 2003 0047 S2CID 72536074 Archived from the original on 28 April 2019 Retrieved 4 January 2020 a b c d e Remondino Peter Charles 1891 History Of Circumcision pp 65 69 a b Newborn Male Circumcision American Academy of Pediatrics 27 August 2012 Archived from the original on 7 November 2017 Retrieved 11 August 2019 a b c d e f Aigrain Yves Barauskas Vidmantas Bjarnason Ragnar Boddy Su Anna Czauderna Piotr de Gier Robert P E de Jong Tom P V M Fasching Gunter Fetter Willem Gahr Manfred Graugaard Christian Greisen Gorm Gunnarsdottir Anna Hartmann Wolfram Havranek Petr Hitchcock Rowena Huddart Simon Janson Staffan Jaszczak Poul Kupferschmid Christoph Lahdes Vasama Tuija Lindahl Harry MacDonald Noni Markestad Trond Martson Matis Nordhov Solveig Marianne Palve Heikki Petersons Aigars Quinn Feargal Qvist Niels Rosmundsson Thrainn Saxen Harri Soder Olle Stehr Maximilian von Loewenich Volker C H Wallander Johan Wijnen Rene April 2013 Frisch Morten ed Cultural Bias in the AAP s 2012 Technical Report and Policy Statement on Male Circumcision PDF Pediatrics American Academy of Pediatrics 131 4 796 800 doi 10 1542 peds 2012 2896 PMID 23509170 S2CID 40444911 Archived from the original on 6 January 2020 Retrieved 4 January 2020 a b c d Stehr Maximilian Winters Anna September 2013 Preventive circumcision European doctors doubt AAP report Aktuelle Urologie in German Stuttgart Thieme Medical Publishers 44 5 337 338 doi 10 1055 s 0033 1356849 PMID 24043524 Warren John 2010 Physical Effects of Circumcision In Denniston George C Hodges Frederick M Milos Marilyn Fayre eds Genital Autonomy Protecting Personal Choice New York Springer Verlag pp 75 79 doi 10 1007 978 90 481 9446 9 7 ISBN 978 90 481 9446 9 Archived from the original on 6 August 2020 Retrieved 19 November 2019 Svoboda J Steven July 2013 Circumcision of male infants as a human rights violation Journal of Medical Ethics 39 7 469 474 doi 10 1136 medethics 2012 101229 ISSN 1473 4257 PMID 23698885 S2CID 7461936 a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Hodges Frederick M 2001 The Ideal Prepuce in Ancient Greece and Rome Male Genital Aesthetics and Their Relation to Lipodermos Circumcision Foreskin Restoration and the Kynodesme PDF Bulletin of the History of Medicine Baltimore Maryland Johns Hopkins University Press 75 Fall 2001 375 405 doi 10 1353 bhm 2001 0119 PMID 11568485 S2CID 29580193 Archived from the original on 20 November 2018 Retrieved 24 April 2021 a b Kennedy Amanda Spring 2015 Masculinity and Embodiment in the Practice of Foreskin Restoration International Journal of Men s Health 14 1 38 54 doi 10 3149 jmh 1401 38 inactive 31 December 2022 eISSN 1933 0278 Archived from the original PDF on 16 December 2019 Retrieved 22 July 2020 a href Template Cite journal html title Template Cite journal cite journal a CS1 maint DOI inactive as of December 2022 link a b c Neusner Jacob 1993 Approaches to Ancient Judaism New Series Religious and Theological Studies Scholars Press p 149 Circumcised barbarians along with any others who revealed the glans penis were the butt of ribald humor For Greek art portrays the foreskin often drawn in meticulous detail as an emblem of male beauty and children with congenitally short foreskins were sometimes subjected to a treatment known as epispasm that was aimed at elongation a b c N Stearns Peter 2008 The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern World Oxford University Press p 179 ISBN 9780195176322 Uniformly practiced by Jews Muslims and the members of Coptic Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox Churches male circumcision remains prevalent in many regions of the world particularly Africa South and East Asia Oceania and Anglosphere countries Mark Elizabeth Wyner 2003 The Covenant of Circumcision New Perspectives on an Ancient Jewish Rite UPNE ISBN 9781584653073 Livesey Nina E 2010 Circumcision as a Malleable Symbol Mohr Siebeck ISBN 9783161506284 Archived from the original on 28 April 2021 Retrieved 25 October 2020 Dunsmuir W D Gordon E M 1999 The history of circumcision BJU International Wiley Blackwell 83 Suppl 1 1 12 1 12 doi 10 1046 j 1464 410x 1999 0830s1001 x PMID 10349408 S2CID 32754534 Archived from the original on 12 August 2004 Retrieved 13 April 2020 a b George Barton 1902 A sketch of Semitic origins social and religious Macmillan pp 98 100 ISBN 978 1 4286 1575 5 OCLC 1850150 See the story of Dina amp Shechem in Genesis Also the mass circumcision during the exodus from Egypt a b c d Kohler Kaufmann Hirsch Emil G Jacobs Joseph Friedenwald Aaron Broyde Isaac 1906 Circumcision In Apocryphal and Rabbinical Literature Jewish Encyclopedia Kopelman Foundation Archived from the original on 8 January 2020 Retrieved 4 January 2020 Contact with Grecian life especially at the games of the arena which involved nudity made this distinction obnoxious to the Hellenists or antinationalists and the consequence was their attempt to appear like the Greeks by epispasm making themselves foreskins I Macc i 15 Josephus Ant xii 5 1 Assumptio Mosis viii I Cor vii 18 Tosef Shab xv 9 Yeb 72a b Yer Peah i 16b Yeb viii 9a All the more did the law observing Jews defy the edict of Antiochus IV Epiphanes prohibiting circumcision I Macc i 48 60 ii 46 and the Jewish women showed their loyalty to the Law even at the risk of their lives by themselves circumcising their sons a b c Ginzberg Louis 1906 Abomination of Desolation Jewish Encyclopedia Kopelman Foundation Archived from the original on 28 March 2019 Retrieved 4 January 2020 a b c Kasher Aryeh 1990 2 The Early Hasmonean Era Jews and Hellenistic cities in Eretz Israel Relations of the Jews in Eretz Israel with the Hellenistic cities during the Second Temple Period 332 BCE 70 CE Texte und Studien zum Antiken Judentum Vol 21 Tubingen Mohr Siebeck pp 55 65 ISBN 978 3 16 145241 3 Archived from the original on 3 July 2019 Retrieved 8 October 2018 a b c d Ponet James 22 December 2005 The Maccabees and the Hellenists Hanukkah as Jewish civil war Slate Archived from the original on 18 September 2018 Retrieved 4 January 2020 Nicholas de Lange ed The Illustrated History of the Jewish People London Aurum Press 1997 ISBN 1 85410 530 2 a b c d Fredriksen Paula 2018 When Christians Were Jews The First Generation London Yale University Press pp 10 11 ISBN 978 0 300 19051 9 Archived from the original on 14 May 2020 Retrieved 28 September 2019 a b c d e f g h i j k l m Rubin Jody P July 1980 Celsus Decircumcision Operation Medical and Historical Implications Urology Elsevier 16 1 121 4 doi 10 1016 0090 4295 80 90354 4 PMID 6994325 Archived from the original on 8 May 2020 Retrieved 4 January 2020 a b c Schafer Peter 2003 The History of the Jews in the Greco Roman World The Jews of Palestine from Alexander the Great to the Arab Conquest Routledge pp 145 146 ISBN 1 134 40316 X Archived from the original on 27 May 2020 Retrieved 4 January 2020 a b c Cassius Dio Roman History book 69 12 1 14 3 Loeb Classical Library 9 volumes Greek texts and facing English translation by Earnest Cary 1914 1927 Harvard University Press Online in LacusCurtius 1 Archived 2020 03 29 at the Wayback Machine and livius org 2 Archived 13 August 2016 at the Wayback Machine Book scan in Internet Archive 3 Mosaic or mosaic The Genesis of the Israeli Language Archived 2 April 2009 at the Wayback Machine by Zuckermann Gilad a b c d e f g h Schultheiss Dirk Truss Michael C Stief Christian G Jonas Udo 1998 Uncircumcision A Historical Review of Preputial Restoration Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Lippincott Williams amp Wilkins 101 7 1990 8 doi 10 1097 00006534 199806000 00037 PMID 9623850 Archived from the original on 27 May 2019 Retrieved 4 January 2020 Jacobs Andrew 2012 Christ Circumcised A Study in Early Christian History and Difference United States University of Pennsylvania Press ISBN 9780812206517 a b Bolnick David Koyle Martin Yosha Assaf 2012 Circumcision in the Early Christian Church The Controversy That Shaped a Continent Surgical Guide to Circumcision United Kingdom Springer pp 290 298 ISBN 9781447128588 In summary circumcision has played a surprisingly important role in Western history The circumcision debate forged a Gentile identity to the early Christian church which allowed it to survive the Jewish Diaspora and become the dominant religion of Western Europe Circumcision continued to have a major cultural presence throughout Christendom even after the practice had all but vanished the circumcision of Jesus celebrated as a religious holiday has been examined by many of the greatest scholars and artists of the Western tradition Bechtel Florentine 1910 Judaizers Catholic Encyclopedia Robert Appleton Company Archived from the original on 21 December 2018 Retrieved 1 March 2010 Kohler Kaufmann Krauss Samuel 1906 Baptism Jewish Encyclopedia New York Funk amp Wagnalls Co Archived from the original on 24 September 2018 Retrieved 8 October 2018 Clark R Scott 17 September 2012 Baptism and Circumcision According to Colossians 2 11 12 The Heidelblog Archived from the original on 1 November 2020 Retrieved 24 December 2020 Crowther Jonathan 1815 A Portraiture of Methodism p 224 Pope Eugenius IV 1990 1442 Ecumenical Council of Florence 1438 1445 Session 11 4 February 1442 Bull of union with the Copts In Tanner Norman P ed Decrees of the ecumenical councils 2 volumes in Greek and Latin Washington D C Georgetown University Press ISBN 978 0 87840 490 2 LCCN 90003209 Retrieved 25 April 2007 it denounces all who after that time observe circumcision Pitts Taylor Victoria 2008 Cultural Encyclopedia of the Body 2 volumes ABC CLIO p 394 ISBN 9781567206913 For most part Christianity does not require circumcision of its followers Yet some Orthodox and African Christian groups do require circumcision These circumcisions take place at any point between birth and puberty Gruenbaum Ellen 2015 The Female Circumcision Controversy An Anthropological Perspective University of Pennsylvania Press p 61 ISBN 9780812292510 Christian theology generally interprets male circumcision to be an Old Testament rule that is no longer an obligation though in many countries especially the United States and Sub Saharan Africa but not so much in Europe it is widely practiced among Christians Peteet John R 2017 Spirituality and Religion Within the Culture of Medicine From Evidence to Practice Oxford University Press pp 97 101 ISBN 9780190272432 male circumcision is still observed among Ethiopian and Coptic Christians and circumcision rates are also high today in the Philippines and the US Circumcision protest brought to Florence Associated Press 30 March 2008 However the practice is still common among Christians in the United States Oceania South Korea the Philippines the Middle East and Africa Some Middle Eastern Christians actually view the procedure as a rite of passage Ellwood Robert S 2008 The Encyclopedia of World Religions Infobase Publishing p 95 ISBN 9781438110387 It is obligatory among Jews Muslims and Coptic Christians Catholic Orthodox and Protestant Christians do not require circumcision Starting in the last half of the 19th century however circumcision also became common among Christians in Europe and especially in North America Wylie Kevan R 2015 ABC of Sexual Health John Wiley amp Sons p 101 ISBN 9781118665695 Although it is mostly common and required in male newborns with Moslem or Jewish backgrounds certain Christian dominant countries such as the United States also practice it commonly Male circumcision Global trends and determinants of prevalence safety and acceptability PDF World Health Organization 2007 Archived PDF from the original on 22 December 2015 Female Circumcision and Islam Sheikh Dr Abd al Rahman b Hasan al Nafisah editor of the Contemporary Jurisprudence Research Journal Riyadh Archived from the original on 31 May 2020 Retrieved 31 January 2010 The Truth About Islam and Female Circumcision Inside Islam University of Wisconsin Madison 18 February 2011 Archived from the original on 30 September 2018 Retrieved 30 September 2018 Cohen Jonathan June 2011 Male circumcision in the United States The History an analysis of the discourse and a philosophical interpretation Thesis College of Liberal Arts amp Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations p 29 CiteSeerX 10 1 1 854 2776 Unlike the Bible there is not a lot of mention of circumcision in the Qur an but male circumcision is also deeply rooted in the Muslim tradition Gollaher explains how Muhammad is reported to have prescribed cutting the foreskin as a fitrah a measure of personal cleanliness Gollaher p 45 Also just as within the Jewish tradition modern Muslims see this religious practice as not only morally but medically beneficial A conference of Islamic scholars in 1987 stated that pro circumcision medical studies reflect the wisdom of the Islamic statements Gollaher p 47 Sahih al Bukhari 7 72 777 a b c d e Gollaher David February 2001 1 The Jewish Tradition Circumcision A History Of The World s Most Controversial Surgery New York City Basic Books pp 1 30 ISBN 978 0 465 02653 1 Archived from the original on 18 January 2016 Retrieved 1 February 2016 a b c d e f Epstein Lisa 2008 The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe United States Yale University Press ISBN 9780300119039 Archived from the original on 28 July 2018 Retrieved 28 July 2018 In the first half of the nineteenth century various European governments considered regulating if not banning berit milah on the grounds that it posed potential medical dangers 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on 12 April 2011 Retrieved 13 January 2010 German court rules circumcision is bodily harm BBC News 26 June 2012 Archived from the original on 1 September 2019 Retrieved 16 September 2017 Holm Putzke Die strafrechtliche Relevanz der Beschneidung von Knaben Zugleich ein Beitrag uber die Grenzen der Einwilligung in Fallen der Personensorge Archived 31 May 2020 at the Wayback Machine In Festschrift fur Rolf Dietrich Herzberg Tubingen 2008 p 669 709 Translation Criminal Relevance of Circumcising Boys A Contribution to the Limitation of Consent in Cases of Care for the Person of the Child Archived 24 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine translated by Katharina McLarren German court rules non therapeutic circumcision of boys unlawful Circumcision Information Australia 25 June 2012 Archived from the original on 27 July 2014 Retrieved 29 August 2017 Intactivist of the month Holm Putzke Intact America August 2012 Archived from the original on 2 August 2014 Retrieved 27 August 2017 Muslim and 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September 2019 Chelsea Ritschel 20 August 2018 An advocacy group in New York City wants people to stop circumcising their infant sons The Independent Archived from the original on 11 September 2018 Retrieved 11 September 2018 Three arrested over boy s circumcision in Nottingham BBC News 22 June 2017 Archived from the original on 12 October 2019 Retrieved 27 June 2018 Johnson Richard 29 October 2005 Sore point The Guardian Retrieved 5 February 2008 Mills Simon 4 November 2007 Cutting comments the foreskin debate The Times Archived from the original on 17 May 2008 Retrieved 17 November 2022 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint unfit URL link Jerome Burne 28 September 2004 The cruellest cut of all The Independent Archived from the original on 16 November 2022 Retrieved 17 November 2022 Extract from the Central Register of Charities maintained by the Charity Commission for England and Wales Charity Commission Retrieved 5 October 2022 Nitzsche Dorothea Beschneidung bei Jungen Berliner Zeitung External links EditOpposition to circumcision Edit Media related to Anti circumcision at Wikimedia Commons Intact America s official website Genital Autonomy America s official website Doctors Opposing Circumcision Nurses for the Rights of the Child Attorneys for the Rights of the Child Circumcision Resource Center Genital Autonomy Legal Defense and Education Fund GALDEF Intaction s official website Cockfight Your Whole BabyNeutral Edit Circumcision American Urological Association Archived 31 May 2020 at the Wayback Machine Statement of the American Urological Association Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Circumcision controversies amp oldid 1135151726 Anti circumcision movement, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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