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Alternative Medicine Rejects Circumcision

'...but when they assume to boast of this noviceship and declare in public journals and books that the incidental use of blood-letting and leeches is indispensable, yea, that it is more essentially homœopathic, they become ridiculous and are to be pitied as tyros and as laboring under delusion; and their patients also are to be pitied. Is it laziness or a haughty preference for their old (although ruinous) allopathic routine, or is it lack of love for their fellowman which prevents a deeper entering into true, beneficent Homœopathy and an elevation into the troublesome but correct and useful selection of the remedy homœopathically specific in every case, and into that mastery of Homœopathy now no more rare?' - Samuel Hahnemann, The Chronic Diseases

'Treatment by allopathic physicians hitherto merely served to increase the distress from this kind of disease;... the injections, fomentations, fumigations, the blistering plasters, the exutories and fontanelles, but especially the everlasting laxatives, leeches, cuppings and starving treatments, or whatever names may be given to all these medicinal torments, which continually varied like the fashions. By these means the disease was either aggravated and the vital force, spite of so-called tonics used at intervals, was more and more diminished; or, if any striking change was produced by them, instead of the former. sufferings, there appeared a worse state nameless diseases caused by medicine, far worse and more incurable than the original natural one - while the physician consoled the patient with the words: 'The former sickness I have been fortunate enough to remove; it is a great pity that a new (?) disease has appeared, but I hope to be as successful in removing this latter as in the former.' And so, while the same disease assumed various forms, and while new diseases were being added by the use of improper, injurious medicines, the sufferings of the patient were continually aggravated until his pitiable lamentations were hushed forever with his dying breath, and the relatives were soothed with the comforting pretence: 'Everything imaginable has been used and applied in the case of the deceased.' - Samuel Hahnemann, The Chronic Diseases

'The myth is that all Jews circumcise. But in Europe, South America and Israel, as well as here, there are Jews who do not circumcise their sons.' - Dr. Ronald Goldman, Baltimore Jewish Times — May 23, 1997

'Theodor Herzl was one of the most prominent figures who did not circumcise his son, who was born in 1891.' - Ronald Goldman, Jewish Spectator, Fall 1997

'an article in the January 1999 British Journal of Urology reported that women who had slept with both circumcised and intact men preferred sex with men who were not circumcised. The article reported that the women achieved orgasm faster, and were more likely to achieve multiple orgasms.' - Michael S. Kimmel, TIKKUN, Volume 16, Number 3,
May/June 2001.

'Goldman pointed out that Jewish circumcision is not universal, as some Jews in South America and Europe do not perform it. Some contend that the commandment to circumcise is at odds with the Torah's prohibition against marking or altering the human body, and against causing pain to any living creature.' - Dr. Ronald Goldman

'as recently as the mid-nineteenth century, in Eastern Europe and Russia there was a widespread move to stop the practice... Led by women--what a surprise!--who thought the practice barbaric and patriarchal, the movement eventually even convinced Theodore Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism, who refused to allow his own son to be circumcised.' - Michael S. Kimmel, TIKKUN, Volume 16, Number 3,
May/June 2001.

'Most males born into the Jewish, Christian and Muslim cultures are circumcised. It is a normal practice for the doctor to strap a new born infant down in a circumcision chair and cut their foreskin off without any anesthetics. Anyone who has heard the screams of an infant while this pseudo religious ritual is carried out cannot deny that this causes tremendous pain. Great shock, fear and suffering are the first experience that most males have with their penis. A natural part of their body is literally being cut off from one of their most sensitive organs and thrown in the garbage. This barbaric method is still carried out for its so-called hygienic reasons in modern times. The psychological damage to a young male infant is not even taken into consideration.

When one takes an affected male and guides them through their circumcision by enactment and psychodrama it brings up horrendous repressed emotions. This pseudo-religious-cultural ritual may affect a male’s feeling of safety, self worth, and wholeness and induce shock, terror, fear and loss as their first genital actualization. This associates suffering with an organ that is supposed to be actualized by sensations of pleasure. This causes confusion of the pain-pleasure reflexes in a manner that is not healthy for infant, adolescent or adult sexuality. This method should be rejected as a needless operation from a realistic standpoint.'
- David Little, Hahnemann's Advanced Method, Volume 2, Constitution and Temperament In Homoeopathy, Chapter 2, Lesson 20.


'Nancy Wainer is one such mother. When her son was born 34 years ago, Wainer and her husband had him ritually circumcised. She has regretted it ever since. 'I can still hear his cries,' she said. 'He cried for hours. He was inconsolable.' Now, as a midwife in Massachusetts, Wainer advises mothers to leave their sons' foreskins intact... 'There are ethical questions about forcing an unconsenting person [to be circumcised].' - Jewish Chronicle of Pittsburgh - May 24, 2007

'...the Creator must have bungled a good deal, else why these needless tonsils and superfluous prepuces?' - James Compton Burnett, On the Fistula and its Radical cure, Chapter 5 [In infants]
 
  Homeopathy International 1 on 2010-06-09
This is just a forum. Assume posts are not from medical professionals.
'Removal of a healthy body part without medical indication has been viewed as being a violation of the Hippocratic oath, falling under the United Nations' definition of genital mutilation. As such circumcision is seen as being against the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Declaration on the Rights of the Child.' - Canadian Medical Assocaition Journal, Volume 152, Number 11, Pages 1873-1876,
June 1, 1995.
 
Homeopathy International 1 last decade
*Harvard University Professor, Nobel Laureate in Physiology and Medicine, & Benjamin Spock (Dr. Spock) Oppose Circumcision*

'Even the redoubtable Benjamin Spock changed his mind over the years. Having always stood for the conventional wisdom that parents know best, Spock told Redbook in an interview in 1989 that his preference 'if I had the good fortune to have another son, would be to leave his little penis alone.' In a pamphlet, 'Circumcision: A Medical or Human Rights Issue?' one doctor went so far as to suggest that removing the foreskin for strictly hygienic purposes was analogous to removing the eyelid for a cleaner eyeball.' - Prof. Michael S. Kimmel, TIKKUN, Volume 16, Number 3, May/June, 2001. Michael Kimmel is the author of Manhood in America and, most recently, The Gendered Society (Oxford University Press). He teaches sociology at SUNY Stony Brook.
http://www.cirp.org/pages/cultural/kimmel1/

Circumcision as a Risk Factor for Urethritis in Racial Groups
GREGORY L. SMITH, MD, MPH, ROBERT GREENUP, AND ERNEST TAKAFUJI, MD, MPH
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH, Volume 77 Number 4: Pages 452-454.
April 1987.
http://www.cirp.org/library/disease/STD/smith/

Immunological functions of the human prepuce
'A review of the scientific literature, however, reveals that the actual effect of circumcision is the destruction of the clinically-demonstated hygienic and immunological properties of the prepuce and intact penis....The higher rate of STDs in circumcised males might well be the result of the loss of preputial immunoprotective structures. The loss of the protective, self-lubricating, mobile, double-layered prepuce exposes the glans penis and meatus to direct friction, abrasion, and trauma. Eyes without eyelids would not be cleaner. Neither is a glans without its prepuce. The surgically externalized and unprotected glans and meatus of the circumcised penis are constantly exposed to abrasion and dirt, making the circumcised penis less hygienic. The circumcised penis is more prone to infection in the first years of life than the intact penis....These factors may explain why circumcised males are more likely than their genitally intact peers to engage in high risk sexual behaviours (such an anal intercourse and active and passive homosexual oral sex) that lead to HIV and other STD infections.'
http://www.cirp.org/library/disease/STD/fleiss3/
Immunological functions of the human prepuce, P M Fleiss, F M Hodges, R S Van Howe, STI (London), Volume 74, Number 5, Pages 364-367, October 1998

'Today, however, the prepuce is considered to be of value to its owner and there is ever increasing interest in the preservation of this tissue. The prepuce has been demonstrated to have immunological functions and properties, which protect its owner from disease, and to be erogenous tissue with important functions in human sexual response.'
http://www.cirp.org/library/treatment/

Health Benifits of the Foreskin
'This directory contains academic articles and discussions about anatomy, dimensions, immunological functions, innervation, vascularity, sexual function... The articles are indexed in chronological order of publication.'
http://www.cirp.org/library/anatomy/
 
Homeopathy International 1 last decade
PERSPECTIVES FROM CANADA

'When the Canadian Pediatric Society (CPS) reviewed the medical literature and came out against routine circumcision in 1996, I thought the matter was settled... Still, I believe a consensus against circumcision is steadily emerging. In this new era of patient rights, circumcision has come to seem like an anachronism. Among doctors, there is a greater emphasis on informed decision-making, the limits on parents' rights to make decisions about their kids' health and the rights of children to be protected from parents who make wrong decisions. Even some adult men who were unnecessarily circumcised as children are asserting their rights to restitution. And since the balance of medical evidence suggests those who oppose circumcision have the facts on their side, doctors are increasingly refusing to perform circumcisions. Complications from bleeding, amputation, renal failure, sepsis and death are powerful incentives to stop.

Indeed, the media coverage of the incident may speed circumcision for non-religious reasons into the dustbin of medical practice -- alongside many other once-popular procedures, such as the removal of the ovaries for hysteria, tonsillectomy for a sore throat, lobotomy for mental retardation, etc. In a few years, looking like dad or wanting to keep a boy 'clean' may no longer be legally legitimate rationales for circumcision. It's about time they weren't. But it is unethical to continue a practice that is no longer medically defensible and could harm our kids.'
- The growing consensus against circumcision by Jackie Smith
National Post, Toronto, 30 August 2002.
http://www.cirp.org/news/nationalpost08-30-02a/



DUTCH PERSPECTIVES

Dutch doctors: circumcision should be stopped
Published on 28 May 2010 - 10:41am
Radio Netherlands Worldwide

The Royal Dutch Medical Society (KNMG) has said it wants a stop on the circumcision of underage boys. The society said on Thursday that circumcising boys without any medical reason infringes the right to autonomy and the right to bodily integrity.

Family doctors have been asked by the society to warn parents 'actively and urgently that there are no medical advantages to circumcision and that there is a risk of complications'. Such complications include haemorrhages, infections, urethra constriction and panic attacks. Complications, although a normal concomitant of surgical interventions, are not justifiable when the surgery is not medically necessary, the medical association says.

KNMG President Arie Nieuwenhuijzen Kruseman says the basic principle underlying the statement is that one does not perform surgery on perfectly healthy children. The doctors' association felt urged to express its views because of the increased emphasis on children's rights, he said.


PERSPECTIVES FROM FINLAND

Central Union for Child Welfare in Finland, Helsinki 25.8.2003
'The Central Union for Child Welfare considers that circumcision of boys that violates the personal integrity of the boys is not acceptable unless it is done for medical reasons to treat an illness. The basis for the measures of a society must be an unconditional respect for the bodily integrity of an under-aged person.

Circumcision intervenes in the sexual integrity of a male child causing a permanent change in organisms and has consequences pertaining to both health and quality of life.

The circumcision of girls is rightly considered as inhuman mutilation of the genitals and is punished abuse. Also boys must be guaranteed a similar protection by law.

The Central Union for Child Welfare in Finland hopes that the working group in the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health will consider measures to bring about a cultural change that will secure the integrity of children and leads to the end of circumcision.'

- Central Union for Child Welfare in Finland, Helsinki 25.8.2003
Presented to the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health (STM060:00/2003)
http://www.cirp.org/library/statements/finland2003/

For more Jewish and Israeli resources, see http://www.jewsagainstcircumcision.org, http://www.gonen.us, http://britmilah.org.il & http://www.kahal.org

Other resources can be found at http://www.PEACEFULBEGINNINGS.cjb.net, http://www.mothersagainstcirc.org, http://www.historyofcircumcision.net, http://www.DOCTORSOPPOSINGCIRCUMCISION.org, and http://www.Nurses.cirp.org.
 
Homeopathy International 1 last decade
Source: http://www.mothersagainstcirc.org


“The physician today has a duty to discourage circumcision and to refuse to perform it.”
- Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients, April 1996.

'In all studies to date, the risks of circumcision have always exceeded any alleged benefits, a fact that often is not made clear to parents.' Circumcision and the Code of Ethics, George C. Denniston, M.D., M.P.H., Humane Health Care International, Vol. 12, No. 2, April 1996.

'I am in favor of leaving the penis alone. Pediatric opinion is swinging away from routine circumcision as unnecessary and at least mildly dangerous. I also believe that there is a potential danger of emotional harm resulting from the operation. Parents should insist on convincing reasons for circumcision and there are no convincing reasons that I know of (as cited in Wallerstein, 1980).'
- Dr. Benjamin Spock,
http://www.noharmm.org/pollack.htm



http://www.doctorsopposingcircumcision.org/video/prepuce.htm....
http://www.doctorsopposingcircumcision.org/info/foreskin.htm....
http://www.doctorsopposingcircumcision.org/DOC/mposition.htm....
http://www.arclaw.org/arc_activities/fatherhood-interview.ph....
http://www.unassistedchildbirth.com/miscarticles/circarticle....
http://www.icgi.org/2010/05/dutch-doctors-group-oppose-circu....
 
Homeopathy International 1 last decade
*Christiane Northrup, M.D. on her Opposition to Circumcision*

To start with, babies feel pain the same way adults do...it is finally accepted as a medical fact that circumcision is extraordinarily painful for newborns, who are born with full nocioceptive (pain sensing) ability.

Furthermore, routine newborn circumcision has no health benefit. Though a wide variety of health advantages have been attributed to circumcision--decreases in the incidence of cervical cancer, AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases, and male urinary tract infection--the most up-to-date research has refuted all these justifications. In fact, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a policy statement in 1999 saying there is not sufficient scientific data to recommend routine newborn circumcision. Given this, the number of insurance companies willing to pay for the procedure is also decreasing.

Uncircumcised is the Norm
The vast majority of the world's men, including most Europeans and Scandinavians, are uncircumcised.

O'Hara's research makes the following sexual comparisons between the natural and circumcised penis.
The natural penis may be more comfortable for the vagina than the circumcised penis. The coronal ridge of the natural penis is more flexible; O'Hara likens it to the resiliency of Jell-O. The circumcised penile head is considerably harder--overly firm and compacted like an unripe tomato. This is because circumcision cuts away 33-50 percent of penile skin. As a result, the skin of the penile shaft can get stretched so tightly during an erection that it pulls down on the skin covering the glans, compressing the tissue of the penis head. The abnormally hardened coronal ridge can then be very uncomfortable to vaginal tissue during intercourse.

- Christiane Northrup, M.D.
http://mensightmagazine.com/Articles/Northrup/lovecirc.htm


It's time to protect boys as well as girls from the barbaric practice of circumcision
UK TELEGRAPH
By Cristina Odone
June 12th, 2010

The World Health Organisation warns that three million girls are at risk each year of some kind of female genital cutting. In certain African countries (Somalia and Egypt) over 95 per cent of women have undergone some kind of circumcision. “Some kind” covers incisions ranging from a superficial cut of the clitoral prepuce, done under medical supervision, to the deep cut to the clitoris that a village woman will perform with a piece of broken glass. Defenders of the practice claim it is religious in nature – though you will have noticed that no Christian cleric in Europe has ever called for this barbarity. Critics counter that female circumcision is a patriarchal means of controlling women’s sexuality, as the operation is supposed to curb female sexual appetite and pleasure.

Our forefathers cut the foreskin invoking religious reasons; but theirs too was a puritanical obsession: they believed it would stop masturbation, curb sexual pleasure, and reduce appetite. They were right, up to a point: the circumcised penis is less sensitive than the uncircumcised one, as an article in the BMJ recently revealed. Defenders of THIS practice claim it stems the spread of HIV and some sexually transmitted diseases – though sexual relationships are many years down the line for those infants being ritually (literally) abused.

Children of both sexes should be spared these barbaric practices. But while preventing female circumcision is a global political campaign, embraced by feminists of all faiths and none, no one seriously addresses the issue of male circumcision. Dena Davis, the legal consultant for the American Academy of Paediatrics, criticises this policy as nonsense. It reflects, as she told The Economist this week, cultural prejudice rather than medical knowledge.

It would seem that although we cannot understand cutting a little girl, we can watch someone cutting an infant boy’s foreskin, and feel we are not leaving our comfort zone.

Cristina Odone is a journalist, novelist and broadcaster specialising in the relationship between society, families and faith. She is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Policy Studies and is a former editor of the Catholic Herald and deputy editor of the New Statesman. She is married and lives in west London with her husband, two stepsons and a daughter.

Intact America (USA)
http://www.intactamerica.com

The Case Against Circumcision by Paul M. Fleiss, MD., MPH.
http://www.mothersagainstcirc.org/fleiss.html

Ashley Montagu Campaign Against the Torture and Mutilation of Children (International)
http://www.montagunocircpetition.org/
 
Homeopathy International 1 last decade

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