Petition signing – Cambridge

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MDC took to the pedestrianised  centre of Cambridge to state our case against the non-therapeutic genital modification of children. Our message fell on receptive ears. We have now collected over ninety signatures, distributed between fifty and a hundred leaflets and presented our case to passers by who stopped to talk. We met an intact Jewish man whose parents a generation ago had abandoned circumcision, needless to say if he has sons there will be a bloodless naming ceremony, Brit Shalom, rather than a Bronze Age blood rite.

1027-250wA Humanist approached us and said he would download the petition form and start collecting signatures from among the group of Humanists to which he belongs. A Sociologist asked about involvement in the movement with a view to doing some work on the subject. We gladly provided information. Many of our conversations were with people who were quite shocked to find out about the current situation in the U.K. regarding medical ethics, the inherent unfairness of the differing treatment of children simply because of gender and the unnecessary operations on children with atypical genitals.

Men Do Complain will be visiting cities and towns around the U.K. in the next few months so if you would like to get involved get in touch with us and we’ll do our best to pay a visit to your area.

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Harm

indie-cropThis story from the Independent of Saturday 18th May 2013 reports the deaths of 23 boys in rituals involving circumcision, the deaths are being taken very seriously by the South African authorities.

It should be pointed out that circumcision, if it is carried out without the fully informed consent of the youth being cut, is an assault which should also be taken very seriously by the authorities.

Doctors are supposed to “do no harm” but non-therapeutic circumcision is by definition harmful. The presence of doctors at such ceremonies gives an illusion of medical respectability that is not merited.

Genital Autonomy Day May 7th 2013

GA-day-text312wJoin Men Do Complain for a vigil outside the German Embassy to mark the anniversary of the Cologne Ruling concerning the circumcision of a small boy. The Court in Cologne decided that;

“There was no consent by the child, who was four years old at the time, and since the child was not old enough to understand the situation, there was no question of such consent being given. There was consent by the parents, but this was not capable of justifying the commission of the elements of bodily harm.”

Sadly the cutting of children’s genitals continues despite this enlightened ruling.

 

We will be standing from 10:00 to 16:00. The address is 23 Belgrave Square, London SW1X 8PZ.
The message is “Children’s rights not parents’ rites”. T-shirts and placards will be available on the day. There will also be an opportunity to engage the public and encourage them to sign our petition for the law that protects females from genital cutting to be made gender neutral.

Brave?

DSC_0879-cropThe BBC’s “Casualty” (13/04/2013) tackled the subject of female circumcision. The motives of the programme makers were laudable. Men Do Complain is in favour of the cessation of forced or coerced genital cutting of children or any other vulnerable group. The encouraging thing about this programme is that the silence is broken about a subject that has been in the past largely ignored.

tritych-a-n-e-jpgThe question is when will the BBC and other organisations pluck up the courage to recognise that boys are also admitted to casualty departments after circumcision? The writers of “Casualty” should have no difficulty in finding research material on which to base such a story. Birmingham hospitals have revealed, following a freedom of information request, that two boys a week are being admitted as casualties and one boy a month comes close to death after male circumcision.

Society through the media should be helped to understand that non-therapeutic genital modification harms all children subjected to such treatment. All mutilated children have to live with the frustration of knowing that their sexual health has been compromised and all face similar risks following any unnecessary cut through the full thickness of the skin. All children should be afforded equal protection from what is essentially an assault.