Genital Autonomy: Protecting Personal Choice
Circumcision affects 15.3 million children and young adults annually. In terms of gender, 13.3 million boys and 2 million girls are subjected to the involuntary removal of part or all of their external sexual organs every year. The problem of female circu
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George C. Denniston · Frederick M. Hodges · Marilyn Fayre Milos Editors
Genital Autonomy Protecting Personal Choice
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Editors George C. Denniston University of Washington Robbins Road 45 98358 Norland USA
Frederick M. Hodges University of Berkeley Post Office Box 5815 94705-0815 Berkeley USA
Marilyn Fayre Milos National Organization of Circumcision Information Resource Centers San Anselmo California USA [email protected]
ISBN 978-90-481-9445-2 e-ISBN 978-90-481-9446-9 DOI 10.1007/978-90-481-9446-9 Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg London New York Library of Congress Control Number: 2010933645 © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010 No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
Preface
Why would anyone object to circumcision? For that matter, why would anyone hold an international symposium on this subject? In those countries and cultures where circumcision is ubiquitous, most people would probably ask these questions when confronted with this book. Indeed, most people from circumcising cultures accept circumcision as normal, necessary, and good. These peoples cannot imagine that circumcision is a violation of human rights or that it is harmful to any degree. One might as well try to convince them that dentistry is a harmful violation of human rights. Fundamentally, most people in circumcising cultures condone circumcision not because they are evil, malicious, sadistic, or insane, but because they have been conditioned to believe that circumcision is good, desirable, and honorable. In cultures where circumcision is not the norm, however, an entirely different perspective emerges. People in (for want of a better word) “genitally intact” cultures are horrified at the idea that someone would cut off part of the genitals of another person—especially a baby. The act is seen as misguided at best and demented at worst. Where, then, does the truth lie? Can science provide objective answers? Most people—including most scientists—imagine that “science” can be likened to an impartial and omniscient calculating machine that emits absolute truths when questions are fed into it. Indeed, the mythos of “science” has come to replace the oracles of the ancients. The majority of intelligent and educated people in ancient Greece probably had as much faith in the oracle at Delphi as modern Westerners have in “science” today. Medical journals now occupy the space once reserved only for holy scriptures and are revered as sources of objective and inviolable truth. Instead of soothsayers and sacred texts, we have scientists and science journals that proclaim the newly discover
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