Dear Mr Dobson,
I am writing to you today to remind you that on Human Rights Day 21st of March an unknown number of British baby boys and male children will have their normal healthy genitals cut without their informed consent, forever altering and potentially diminishing their lives.
The anachronistic practice of male circumcision breaches the human rights of males in several respects.
Article 2 – Right to Life
Recently baby Goodluck Caubergs bled to death after a negligently performed circumcision. The nurse who circumcised him was not tried on human rights grounds but was found guilty of Goodluck’s manslaughter following a wholly unnecessary operation.
Article 3 – Prohibition of Torture
There is good evidence that stress hormone levels in children being circumcised reach levels equal to the levels seen in victims of torture.
Article 8 – Right to Respect for Private and Family Life
It is difficult to see how a practice that casually discards a section of a boy’s private parts without his consent and without a medical imperative can be respectful of that boy’s private life.
Article 9 – Freedom of Thought Conscience and Religion
This right is a qualified right in that one person’s right cannot be used to override another person’s right to freedom of religion; an adult may not override a child’s right, no matter that they are that child’s parent. What if the child being circumcised chooses, when they are capable, a religion such as Sikhism? A central tenet of Sikhs is the perfection of the body that God made.
Please take note of Human Rights Day and let us try to make the world and this country in particular a safer place for children to grow up in. As the Member of Parliament for Holborn and St Pancras I expect that you consider it your obligation to represent the rights of all constituents including those not yet able to vote nor indeed able to give their consent to genital modification.
Yours sincerely
Richard Duncker
No one has ever been prosecuted under the FGM legislation.
Female circumcision and male circumcision are always compared selectively. The very worst form of female circumcision is selected and contrasted with “normal” male circumcision. Females are protected by law from even a ritual pinprick that removes no tissue and quite right too. Men Do Complain believes it is right to protect females and all children from any unnecessary interference. Sadly the argument that all children should be treated equally works both ways, those in favour of cutting females say, with some justification, that if you tolerate the cutting of boys then you should tolerate the cutting of girls.
There are of course differences between male and female circumcision, although the tissues most commonly excised are similar in structure and function. The fixation on the differences between male and female circumcision loses sight of the greatest similarity, which is that all non-therapeutic genital cutting is an assault if there is no valid consent to the procedure. No one would argue that a black eye and a cut lip are the same; yet all would agree that if an adult hit a child in the face and left an injury then it was the blow that defined the offence not the nature of the resulting injury.
MDC supporters took the message that no children should be discriminated against to the Department of Health. Whitehall was also the venue for another demonstration which provided a stream of people on a very cold afternoon. Ninety seven leaflets were handed out and some new friends were found among the passers by. The young man in the picture below certainly noticed our presence and asked if he could be photographed with Richard in the bloody overalls. The general public seems to get our message it is the politicians and institutions that are so very resistant to a change that is long overdue.
25th June 2012. Men Do Complain staged its annual vigil to remind the doctors attending the British Medical Association’s Annual Representative’s Meeting (doctors’ trade union) that cutting the genitals of healthy boys who cannot give personal informed consent is profoundly unethical.
(iv) Notes the GMC guidance in respect of the responsibilities of registered medical practitioners in the matter of female genital mutilation (FGM) (0-18 years: Guidance for all doctors; end notes reference 15) – and as set down in the 2003 FGM legislation;