The doctor, psychotherapist and a Jewish mother - Dr Jenny Goodman - spoke out against male circumcision on BBC's Woman's Hour yesterday (Friday 29th June).
In an interview with Jenni Murray that included opposing views from Ibrahim Mogra an Imam form leicester and a member of the Muslim Council of Great Britain.
Dr Goodman said:
"Circumcision is
removal of the foreskin, part of the baby’s body, without the baby’s consent
and it does cause pain, it does cause damage and it very frequently
causes complications that bleeding and infection, which are complications for
any surgery, but the kind of complications we accept if surgery is being done
to save life and limb.
"So on the one hand I
do think the child has the right to remain intact and not be injured. On the
other hand we have two sets of human rights in terrible conflict here. We have
the child’s right to its human body, to not to be hurt, but we also have the
right of religious freedom and they’re both real and they’re both valid rights,
but I think when they come into conflict like this my instinct would be to say
the child’s rights have to come first.
"However the law can be
a blunt and heavy-handed implement and I would far rather that we outgrew the
practice of male circumcision by a grassroots movement from below. And I can
tell you it is beginning with the
mothers, because what happens to a mother when a baby has part of his body
removed with pain and trauma and the danger of bleeding, is the mother is
instantly disempowered.
"Her natural instinct to
cherish and protect the child and keep him from all harm is brought into
immediate conflict with her loyalty to her tradition, her tribe, her community.
And she is told that if this procedure isn’t done he cannot be part of his
community. Now that is a circular, self-perpetuating argument with an element
of the Emperor’s new clothes
"If you don’t
circumcise that’s not an irrevocable decision, a boy or a young man can choose
that for himself later on. My problem is imposing this on helpless infants and
in most clutures helpless mothers
as well."
Jenny Goodman is right - parents are also victims of the toxic culture of circumcision - and the myths generated to prop it up. Many hand over their baby for genital cutting with little knowledge of the functions of the part that's being amputated and the real risk of life threatening harm. Also, few understand that in early childhood the foreskin is fused to the glans - and so removing it leaves the whole glans raw, and the child prone to ulceration and shrinking of his urinary tract opening, sometimes to a pinhole.
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