Definitions of Terms
circumcise (verb): cut off the foreskin; cut off the clitoris, labia, or all the above
circumcision (noun): the action or practice of circumcising
clitoridectomy: excision of the clitoris; female circumcision
genital (adjective): of, relating to or being a sexual organ
innocence (noun): freedom from guilt or sin through being unacquainted with evil; blamelessness; chastity; freedom from guile or cunning; lack of knowledge; one that is innocent
masturbation (noun): stimulation of one’s genital organs
mutilation (noun): disfigurement, defacement, damage, injury, maiming, dismemberment, hurt
mutilate (verb): to cut up or alter radically so as to make imperfect; to cut off or permanently destroy a limb or essential part; cripple, to injure so severely as to cause lasting damage; the loss of injury of a bodily member through violence; cutting off or removal of an essential part of a person or thing thereby impairing its completeness, beauty, or function
rape (noun): an act or instance of robbing or despoiling or carrying away a person by force; unlawful sexual activity and unusually sexual intercourse carried out forcibly or under threat of injury against the will usually of a female or person who is beneath a certain age or incapable of valid consent; an outrageous violation of
sexual assault (noun): sexual contact that usually involves force upon a person without consent or is inflicted upon a person who is incapable of giving consent or places the assailant (such as a doctor) in a position of trust or authority
Circumcision: How an Ancient Ritual Became a Questionable Surgery by Dr. Kenneth Lipman
A Complete Analysis… and my FAVORITE!!!
Winner of the Firebird Book Award for medical nonfiction
Nominated for the prestigious Montaigne Medal science award
Finalist for the Eric Hoffer Book Award Grand Prize
Finalist for the First Horizon Award
Every year, millions of baby boys are circumcised, either for purported health benefits, or for religious reasons. This book provides a comprehensive and clear explanation of the risks and rewards of that practice, which has significant effects on sexuality, psychology, and overall health.
Drawing on 869 research references and firsthand accounts, Dr. Lipman sheds light on the disparity between traditional views and contemporary medical perspectives.
Whether you're a parent contemplating the procedure for your child or an academic in search of an in-depth analysis, Circumcision provides a balanced and factual perspective on this widely performed yet increasingly debated surgery.
In this groundbreaking, meticulously rendered book, you will learn:
• Why circumcision does not improve a baby's health
• Why circumcision does not reduce the incidence of AIDS or urinary tract infections, as is often claimed
• The deep financial incentives behind the six billion-dollar circumcision industry
• That the pain of circumcision is equivalent to torture, and why anesthesia is rarely used
• Circumcision's significant physical and mental health risks, including death
• Why both men and women enjoy sex more if the man is uncircumcised
• That adherents to Judaism or Islam may not be required to ritually circumcise their child, as is often thought
• The history of circumcision
• The ethics and legality of circumcision
• Why America is the only country in the world with a high rate of medical circumcision
Circumcision: The Hidden Trauma by Dr. Ronald Goldman
How an American Cultural Practice Affects Infants and Ultimately Us All
CIRCUMCISION: THE HIDDEN TRAUMA is the first intensive exploration of the unrecognized psychological and social aspects of this increasingly controversial American cultural practice. The book has been endorsed by dozens of professionals in psychology, psychiatry, child development, pediatrics, obstetrics, childbirth education, sociology, and anthropology, including Ashley Montagu, Christiane Northrup, Warren Farrell, Sheila Kitzinger, Sam Keen, and Penelope Leach.
The Penis Business, A Memoir by Georganne Chapin
CIRCUMCISION CUTS THROUGH US ALL.
In her eye-opening memoir, Georganne Chapin exposes the business of medical circumcision. This unnecessary and most common pediatric surgery in the United States permanently reduces the size and alters the function of a boy's penis for the rest of his life. Every year, nearly 1.5 million baby boys are assaulted in American hospitals and doctors' offices, subjecting them to pain, functional and psychological damage, and a forever-altered sexual experience.
Chapin traces circumcision's U.S. roots from 19th Century fears of masturbation to stereotypes about race, class, religion, and male sexuality. She describes how what started as a way to keep men and women from enjoying sex morphed into a for-profit medical practice-one that is rare or unknown in Europe, non-Muslim Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. Finally, she shows how physician organizations, especially the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), have worked for decades to fraudulently promote circumcision's supposed benefits and suppress facts about circumcision harm and deaths, and how they refuse to acknowledge the procedure as a gross violation of basic medical ethics.
Indeed, the AAP now characterizes male genital mutilation as a matter of "culture" and "parental preference"-a position that, conveniently, shields trade associations and their physician members from legal and financial liability. This book is a punch-in-the-gut wake-up call that will enrage and empower anyone impacted by the multi-billion-dollar penis business.
The Rape of Innocence: Female Genital Mutilation & Circumcision in the USA by Patricia Robinett
Genital mutilation in the USA has been a well-kept secret. "The Rape of Innocence" is an autobiographical account of a white Anglo-Saxon Protestant woman who discovered she had been the victim of clitoridectomy as a child in Kansas in the 1950s. The author is a therapist who deals with trauma. In her work, she has met many other American women and men who were genitally mutilated as children and adults.
Could you -- or someone you love -- have been cut too? This book may explain the U.S. epidemic of sexual dysfunction, anger, anxiety, depression -- unresolved psychological trauma from circumcision. Now that the word is out, the healing can begin.
Circumcision: A History of the World’s Most Controversial Surgery by David L. Gollaher
From the extraordinarily painful initiation rite of the ancient Egyptians, through the Hebrew purification ritual, through its use by nineteenth-century doctors as prevention for ailments including bedwetting, paralysis, and epilepsy, circumcision has had a long and varied history. Perhaps the greatest mystery, however, is its persistence over time through vastly different social contexts.Historian of medicine David Gollaher takes a comprehensive look at the practice in this lively, scholarly history. Circumcision also addresses the growing controversy over the procedure's continuance, and those opposing routine circumcision will find support here. Gollaher concludes that "if male circumcision were confined to developing nations, it would by now have emerged as an international cause cébre."
Birth Trauma and the Dark Side of Modern Medicine: Exposting Systematic Violence During Hospital Birth and the Hijacking of Human Love by Jeanice Barcelo
"Birth Trauma and the Dark Side of Modern Medicine" offers a critical analysis of technological interventions during childbirth and the abuse of mothers and infants during hospital birth. The book contains a mixture of personal commentary, combined with many stories of severe birth trauma and extensive citation of research to affirm that what is happening during hospital birth is detrimental to mothers, infants, families, and our entire civilization. The book covers a wide array of topics including postpartum depression and post-traumatic stress, marital breakdown after childbirth, disrupted mother-infant bonding, birth rape, circumcision, induction, cytotec, pitocin, epidural, cesarean section, abuse in neonatal intensive care units, vaccines, the dark side of artificial reproductive technologies, and much more. Additionally, there is pertinent information about prenatal trauma and the impact of the first nine months on the rest of our lives.
What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Circumcision: Untold Facts on America's Most Widely Perfomed and Most Unnecessary Surgery by Paul M. Fleiss & Frederick Hodges
"Packed with sensible information, practical solutions that work, and landmark information on male health and child care...an indispensible guide for parents" - Dr Dean Edel Each year, almost two million boys are routinely circumcised after birth -- even though there is rarely a sound medical reason to do so! The foreskin is more than just a piece of skin: It's a very important, specialized, and unique part of the male body. Now a leading pediatrician exposes the myths and misconceptions of America's most commonly performed surgery, including little-known religious support for not circumcising, in this balanced, comprehensive, and compassionate guide that will change your mind about everything you thought you knew about this procedure.
Marked in Your Flesh: Circumcision from Ancient Judea to Modern America by Leonard Glick
The book of Genesis tells us that God made a covenant with Abraham, promising him a glorious posterity on the condition that he and all his male descendents must be circumcised. For thousands of years thereafter, the distinctive practice of circumcision served to set the Jews apart from their neighbors. The apostle Paul rejected it as a worthless practice, emblematic of Judaism's fixation on physical matters. Christian theologians followed his lead, arguing that whereas Christians sought spiritual fulfillment, Jews remained mired in such pointless concerns as diet and circumcision. As time went on, Europeans developed folklore about malicious Jews who performed sacrificial murders of Christian children and delighted in genital mutilation. But Jews held unwaveringly to the belief that being a Jewish male meant being physically circumcised and to this day even most non-observant Jews continue to follow this practice. In this book, Leonard B. Glick offers a history of Jewish and Christian beliefs about circumcision from its ancient origins to the current controversy. By the turn of the century, more and more physicians in America and England--but not, interestingly, in continental Europe--were performing the procedure routinely. Glick shows that Jewish American physicians were and continue to be especially vocal and influential champions of the practice which, he notes, serves to erase the visible difference between Jewish and gentile males. Informed medical opinion is now unanimous that circumcision confers no benefit and the practice has declined. In Jewish circles it is virtually taboo to question circumcision, but Glick does not flinch from asking whether this procedure should continue to be the defining feature of modern Jewish identity.
Books
*Graphic material below
Videos & Images
*Warning! Graphic material below.
Above video “Sex and Circumcision” by Eric Clopper
Images
Websites & Organizations
Intact America: Changing the Way America Thinks About Circumcision
Acroposthion It is an extra piece of skin that really matters… foreskin information on anatomy and function, and hygiene including information on the circumcision procedure itself.
Jewish Circumcision Resource Center
Circumcision Information and Resource Pages
Circumcision the Painful Dilemma
Studies & Articles
* Please note this is a work in progress as I work towards proper citation and organization.
• Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie, N.Y. mayor must outlaw dangerous circumcision rite before another baby dies, Haaretz.com, Dec 31, 2014. http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.634652
•[23] 5-Month-Old Baby Suffers Heart Attack During Circumcision At Home, Nosy Guy Youtube channel, Mar 24, 2019. https://youtu.be/Nk7UK-Vl44w
•[24] Baby Dies after Circumcision Surgery Blood Loss and Heart Failure, Dr.Momma.org, Oct. 2010. http://www.drmomma.org/2010/10/baby-dies-from-circumcision-surgery.html
•[25] Dan Goldberg, City reports new case of herpes after metzitzah b’peh, CapitalNewYork.com, Dec 23, 2014. http://capitalnewyork.com/article/city-hall/2014/12/8559130/city-reports-new-case-herpes-after-metzitzah-bpeh
•[26i] Baby Dies From Herpes After Controversial Circumcision Ritual, Report Says, Huffington Post, Mar 6, 2012. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/baby-dies-circumcision-ritual-herpes_n_1322420
•[27] Rodriguez-Diaz CE, et al., More than Foreskin: Circumcision Status, History of HIV/STI, and Sexual Risk in a Clinic-Based Sample of Men in Puerto Rico, J Sex Med. Aug 15m 2012. [Epub ahead of print]. http://circumstitions.com/HIV.html#rodriguez-diaz
•[28] Shamiso Yikoniko, HIV infection rate higher on circumcised men, Jul 8, 2012. Original post no longer accessible but can be seen in full here: http://web.archive.org/web/20130623072813/http://www.zimdiaspora.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8811{07852e6e605eab5487b14855361b49717f1863b3cb5f40601bc93fc2480bbef1}3Ahiv-infection-rate-higher-on-circumcised-men&catid=38{07852e6e605eab5487b14855361b49717f1863b3cb5f40601bc93fc2480bbef1}3Atravel-tips&Itemid=18
•[29] U.S. Navy Finds That Circumcision Does Not Prevent HIV or STIs The Whole Network, Oct 25, 2011. http://www.thewholenetwork.org/twn-news/us-navy-finds-that-circumcision-does-not-prevent-hiv-or-stis citing Thomas AG, Bakhireva et al., Prevalence of male circumcision and its association with HIV and sexually transmitted infections in a U.S. navy population, Int Conf AIDS. 2004 Jul 11-16; 15: abstract no. TuPeC4861. Naval Health Research Center, DHAPP, San Diego, CA, United States.
•[30] Human Foreskins are Big Business for Cosmetics, The Data Lounge, Aug 10, 2011. https://www.datalounge.com/thread/10727004-human-foreskins-are-big-business-for-cosmetics
•[31] Dr. Eowyn, Oprah and the skincream made from foreskins, Fellowship of the Minds, Jan 27, 2013, https://fellowshipoftheminds.com/oprah-and-the-skincream-made-from-foreskins/comment-page-1
•[32] Augustina Ursino, Baby Foreskin Is Being Used To Make Vaccines, Health Impact News, https://healthimpactnews.com/2017/baby-foreskin-is-being-used-to-make-vaccines/
•[33] Dr. Rima Laibow, Circumcision and its Relationship to Attachment Impairment, In Syllabus of Abstracts, Second International Symposium on Circumcision, April 30-May 3, 1991, San Francisco, 14, as quoted at: https://facebook.com/DallasFortWorthCircumcisionResources/posts/202614789859081
•[34] Elena Tonetti Vladimirova and Marilyn Milos, Circumcision, BirthintoBeing.com, September 20, 2005.
•[35] Ronald Goldman, Circumcision: A Source of Jewish Pain, Jewish Circumcision Resource Center, originally published in Jewish Spectator, Fall, 1997, pages 16-20, http://jewishcircumcision.org/spectator.htm#19, citing Rosemary Romberg, Circumcision: The Painful Dilemma, Chapter 17C, https://circumcisionthepainfuldilemma.wordpress.com/table-of-contents/chapter17/17-c/
•[36] Circumcision Causes Brain Damage, CircInfoSite.com, http://www.circinfosite.com/11.html citing Dr. Paul D. Tinari Ph.D., Brain Visualization Research during Male Infant Circumcision, http://www.stopinfantcircumcision.org/BrainVisualizationArticle.htm and numerous studies outlined at Male neonatal circumcision trauma and brain damage, http://cirp.org/library/psych/brain_damage/index.html
•[37] Dan Bollinger, et al., Alexithymia and Circumcision Trauma: A Preliminary Investigation, International Journal of Men’s Health, July 2011, Vol 10(2): 184-195.
•[38] Dr. Paul D. Tinari, Ph.D., MRI Studies: The Brain Permanently Altered From Infant Circumcision, as quoted on the Peaceful Parenting blog, Oct 26, 2009, http://www.drmomma.org/2009/10/mri-studies-brain-permanently-altered.html
•[39] Gregory J. Boyle, et al., Male Circumcision: Pain, Trauma and Psychosexual Sequelae, Men’s Health, May 1, 2001, Vol. 7(3), http://www.cirp.org/library/psych/boyle6/
•[40] R. Goldman, The psychological impact of circumcision, BJU Internationali, Jan 1, 1989, Vol 83, Supp 1: 93-102. http://www.cirp.org/library/psych/goldman1/
•https://birthofanewearth.com/2019/04/birth-trauma-and-the-dark-side-of-modern-medicine/
•https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/moral-landscapes/201109/circumcision-ethics-and-economics
•Robert Clover Johnson, The Impact of Neonatal Circumcision: Implications for Doctors of Men’s Experiences In Regressive Therapy, Published in Denniston, George C., et al., Genital Autonomy: Protecting Personal Choice, Springer Science and Business Media, 2010 (pp. 149-166)
•Infant Circumcision with Anesthesia: Does It Really Help the Pain? The Whole Network, Aug 20, 2011, http://www.thewholenetwork.org/twn-news/infant-circumcision-with-anesthesia-does-it-really-help-the-pain
•N. Elsoudani, Circumcision Harms Women, Stop Circumcision, Sep 19, 2016. https://stopcircumcision.wordpress.com/2016/09/19/circumcision-harms-women/
• Robert Predit, Circumcision Doesn’t Lessen HIV Transmission, ABC News, Jul 18, 2009. http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Healthday/story?id=8105119&page=1 quoting Maria J. Wawer, et al., Circumcision in HIV-infected men and its effect on HIV transmission to female partners in Rakai, Uganda: a randomised controlled trial, The Lancet, Vol. 374(9685): 229–237
•U.S. Navy Finds That Circumcision Does Not Prevent HIV or STIs, The Whole Network, Oct 25, 2011. http://www.thewholenetwork.org/twn-news/us-navy-finds-that-circumcision-does-not-prevent-hiv-or-stis citing Thomas AG, Bakhireva et al., Prevalence of male circumcision and its association with HIV and sexually transmitted infections in a U.S. navy population, Int Conf AIDS. 2004 Jul 11-16; 15: abstract no. TuPeC4861. Naval Health Research Center, DHAPP, San Diego, CA, United States.
•See Circumcision and HIV for a list of resources and studies that show circumcision does not prevent HIV. www.circumstitions.com/hiv
• E. Elhaik, Neonatal circumcision could increase the risk of sudden infant death syndrome in babies – new research, Medical Xpress, Jan 11, 2019. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2019-01-neonatal-circumcision-sudden-infant-death.html
•Death Follows Circumcision In California, Intaction.org, Mar 9, 2013. https://intaction.org/baby-dies-from-circumcision-in-california/
•Circumcised men have more orgasm trouble, Love Matters, Sep 21, 2011. http://lovematters.in/en/news/circumcised-men-have-more-orgasm-trouble
•[44] Wei Shuong Tang MMed and Ee Ming Khoo M.D., Prevalence and Correlates of Premature Ejaculation in a Primary Care Setting: A Preliminary Cross-Sectional Study, The Journal of Sexual Medicine, Jul 2011, Vol 8(7): 2071–2078. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1743-6109.2011.02280.x/abstract
•[45] Does Circumcision Cause Erectile Dysfunction?, Thewholenetwork.org, Aug 8, 2011. http://www.thewholenetwork.org/twn-news/does-circumcision-cause-erectile-dysfunction citing Dan Bollinger, et al., Alexithymia and Circumcision Trauma: A Preliminary Investigation, International Journal of Men’s Health, July 2011, Vol 10(2): 184-195.
•[46] D.F. Narvaez, PhD, Circumcision’s Psychological Damage, Psychology Today, Jan 11, 2015. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/moral-landscapes/201501/circumcision-s-psychological-damage
•[47] Niels Ebdrup, Male circumcision leads to a bad sex life, ScienceNordic, Nov 14, 2011. http://sciencenordic.com/male-circumcision-leads-bad-sex-life
•[48] Charles Bankhead, AAP: Need to Re-Do Circumcision Rises, Reasons Unclear, MedPageToday.com, October 17, 2011. http://medpagetoday.com/MeetingCoverage/AAP/29075
•[49] Jeanice Barcelo, Birth Trauma and the Dark Side of Modern Medicine, 2015. https://www.birthofanewearth.com/1/birth-trauma-and-the-dark-side-of-modern-medicine/
•[50] Jeanice Barcelo, The Dark Side of Prenatal Ultrasound and the Dangers of Non-Ionizing Radiation, 2019. https://www.birthofanewearth.com/1/paperback-release-pre-order-special-the-dark-side-of-prenatal-ultrasound/
•https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4530408/
•https://greenmedinfo.com/blog/foreskin-why-it-such-secret-north-america
•https://circumcision.org
https://www.scirp.org/journal/paperinformation?paperid=55727 (Circumcision of Infants and Children: Short-Term Trauma and Long-Term Psychosexual Harm by Gregory Boyle)
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22114254/ (Male circumcision: pain, trauma and psychosexual sequelae Gregory J Boyle 1, Ronald Goldman, J Steven Svoboda, Ephrem Fernandez)
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2405456921003163 (Serious and Fatal Complications after Neonatal Circumcision Annette Schröder a †, Walid A. Farhat a ‡, David Chiasson b, Gregory J. Wilson b, Martin A. Koyle)
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/350709776_High_Cost_of_Circumcision_57_Billion_Annually (High Cost of Circumcision $5.7 Billion Annually by Dan Bollinger)
https://learninggnm.com/SBS/documents/prostate.html (German New Medicine, Male Sexual Organs)
https://www.foregen.org/the-human-foreskin (Foregen’s mission is to heal the physical and psychological damage inherent to circumcision through tissue engineering techniques, which offer outstanding potential to regrow human tissue, especially dermal tissue, lost in trauma.)
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7702013/#:~:text=Early%2Dcircumcised%20men%20reported%20lower,perceived%20stress%20and%20sensation%20seeking (Neonatal male circumcision is associated with altered adult socio-affective processing Alessandro Miani a,b,∗, Gian Antonio Di Bernardo c, Astrid Ditte Højgaard d, Brian D Earp e, Paul J Zak f, Anne M Landau a,g, Jørgen Hoppe a, Michael Winterdahl)
https://morrispsych.com/the-existential-importance-of-the-penis-by-dr-daniel-n-watter/ (The Existential Importance of the Penis by Dr. Daniel N. Watter)