Parents, protect your babies. Support intactivism. The following list includes blogs, articles, and websites of interest to Intactivists that were published in the past week. This is a running tally of the ones I found interesting.
 

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Barrels of Oranges: Foreskin Phobia
The times are changing. Thanks to the Internet, young people are learning about human anatomy instead of hearing all the old wive's tales about sex and body parts. This shift in learning about human anatomy will ultimately prove the death of male infant circumcision. Those growing up in the internet age will know of the value of the foreskin. They will wonder why some want to cut off a healthy body part. They will rebel.
 

Monday, September 24, 2012

Enlightened Male2000: A Case Against Circumcision
"The foreskin is the most sensitive part of the penis," so says Professor Ryan McAllister. I know that after restoring my foreskin that my penis is, overall, much more sensitive than it was before restoring. I cannot restore all the parts that were amputated, but what I could restore made a big difference. The blog entry has examples of the natural male penis, including the foreskin. NSFW The amputation of the foreskin is not a parental choice. The elective surgery and body modification should be up to the person with the penis being modified. My parents had no right to cut off a valuable part of my penis. I would much prefer to have kept my foreskin instead of being circumcised as a baby.

Intact by Default: AAP Shifts Stance on Male Castration
A satirical post lamenting the recently revised AAP circumcision policy statement. The AAP fails to consider the ethics of elective body modification surgery performed on baby boys.
 

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

International Humanist and Ethical Union: German court findings against ritual circumcision are not "persecution" and should not be overridden as a reflex
A German court ruled that circumcision of children is illegal for violating the bodily rights of the child. That ruling is supported by the International Humanist and Ethical Union. The non-therapeutic cutting of a child’s body, such as by circumcision or genital cutting, is an assault. Children are unable to give informed consent and surrogate parental consent is not valid for an operation with no clinical indication and with the potential to cause serious harm. Furthermore, children have a right to be protected from bodily harm.

HIV in Kenya: Circumcision Protects All From HIV, Except Luos...and Women
Too many blindly believe that male circumcision protects against HIV. The real-world facts do not support that often cited canard. Instead, one African tribe has substantially equal HIV rates among circumcised and uncircumcised (intact) men. No one is investigating what happens in the real world. Instead, they take the three Africa circumcision trials on faith and without question.
 

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

The Risky Shift: Circumcision & The Dangers Of Force-Fed Belief
Children should be afforded the opportunity to learn for themselves rather than have an elective body modification be thrust upon them by the wishes of their parents. "Performing religious circumcision violates the intellectual privacy of the child. By surgically altering or damaging the genitals for religious reasons, the child is forced to enter into a relationship with a particular god before he is even made aware of spiritual concepts or ideas."

The Onion: Nation's Creepy Middle School Gym Teachers Also Come Out In Favor Of Circumcision
A satirical look at male infant circumcision by The Onion. I find it creepy that the AAP allowed the committee to be filled with members who advocate male infant circumcision on medical grounds. They are a medical organization. Where are the doctors who do not believe in male genital cutting for religious reasons?

Modern Medicine: Circumcision controversy could hike urologists' liability premiums
The article points out that current sentiment is moving away from male infant circumcision. A pitfall for urologists who perform male infant circumcisions is that they will be liable for the circumcision complications, even those only recognized after the boy becomes sexually active.
 

Thursday, September 27, 2012

DW: Berlin tables new circumcision law proposal
In response to the German court ruling that circumcision of children is illegal for violating the bodily rights of the child, the German government is proposing a law permitting male circumcision of children. A German legal expert identifies problems with the proposed circumcision law. Protecting children is enshrined in the German constitution. The new law would make it permissible to perform elective body modification surgery on boys at the parents' whim.

Pediatrics: Responses to the American Academy of Pediatrics: Circumcision Policy Statement
The Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics published many responses critical of the AAP's recently revised circumcision policy statement. Several of the comments are well thought out and point out the flaws in the AAP circumcision policy.
 

Friday, September 28, 2012

Gawker: NYC Puts at Least One Restriction on Mohels Sucking Freshly Circumcised Baby Penises
"Call me crazy, but I don't think it should be legal for adults to suck the blood from freshly circumcised baby penises. Alas, doing just that is a very important ritual for some Orthodox Jews. Called metzitzah b'peh, the process involves the mohel snipping away the foreskin and then sucking the blood from the penis to "cleanse" the wound."
 

Saturday, September 29, 2012

Barrel of Oranges: Gender is not quantitative
Gender equality is more than just ensuring women have equal rights. The system that disadvantaged women also affects me, sometimes in equally disadvantageous ways. "Gender roles and the gender binary are disempowering to everyone on the gender spectrum. . . . what is often missed in these dialogues of women empowerment is how this gender hierarchy also disempowers men."

Joseph4GI: The Cologne Ruling and the Limitations of Religious Freedom
A discussion about the German court ruling that child circumcision is an assault on the body of the child and is illegal. As often happens when child circumcision is restricted, cries of anti-semitism are heard. It happened in San Francisco, California, last year and it happened in Germany. the court was right to protect children, but society is not yet ready to take on organized religions that insist on performing body modification rites on children.