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.
 

Monday, October 15, 2012

The damage from circumcision: Presentation
A new blog and its first post is about the objective of the site, which is "to dig deeper into understanding the damage that circumcision makes on a routinely basis, to create awareness about the need of further research and reevaluation of routine infant circumcision."

The Jerusalem Post: An insight to the Denmark circumcision debate
An examination of how the Dutch view male infant circumcision. Denmark has a secular society and their concern is for the child. They respect the rights of the child to have bodily autonomy. The author of the article points out:

The majority of the voices raised against circumcision have three main points: firstly, the basic human right to an intact body. When there are no medical reasons to perform surgery on a child, any procedure must be considered an assault.
 
Secondly, research has shown that in societies such Denmark’s where good healthcare and high hygiene standards prevail there are hardly any medical benefits from circumcision. When it comes to preventing STD’s, for instance, a much more effective approach is the simple use of condoms.
 
Thirdly, there is the concern that if there are any risks the child may suffer health or sexual consequences from the circumcision immediately after the procedure or perhaps later on in life as an adult, it should be prohibited.

The Sudbury Star: Circumcision is an assault on a male child
An opinion letter for a newspaper. A registered nurse tells that assisting with circumcisions was the worst experience in her training. From her experience, male infant circumcision is an assault on the baby's body.

Attorneys for the Rights of the Child: Journal of Law and the Public Interest to publish article by ARC's Peter Adler
The article, "Is circumcision legal?" has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Law and the Public Interest at the University of Richmond. The author shows that the facts about circumcision are known and the law is clear. Circumcision is dangerous, harms all boys and men, benefits few, if any, and any benefits can be achieved more easily and effectively without it. Boys, like girls and adults, have an absolute right to genital integrity under the common law, constitutional law, criminal law, tort law, and human rights law.
 

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Michael Nugent: Brush your teeth, Clean your penis: My talk opposing religious circumcision at TCD Theological Society
A YouTube video of a talk about male infant circumcision. "Just brush your teeth, clean your penis, wear a condom, and you don’t have to cut off parts of your body to stay healthy." He points out that religious circumcision is not motivated in any case by health concerns.
 

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Birth Takes a Village: When Should I Get My Newborn Son Circumcised?
The answer to the question when to circumcise is easy: NEVER! The owner of the penis is the one who should decide if he wants his penis surgically altered, not his parents. A Vancouver doula provides data about how the percentage of circumcised baby boys is decreasing each year. Male infant circumcision is an unnecessary and painful surgery.

Gothamist: Suck It, City: Snip-N-Suck Circumcision Consent Regulations Delayed
Commentary on the Jewish protests against New York City's Department of Health requirement for informed parental consent before allowing a circumcision. The Jewish rite under question involves the mohel sucking the freshly circumcised boy's penis. Unfortunately, if the mohel has herpes, as many do, the boy can suffer severe consequences and some have died from the acquired herpes.

Lizard Dick: New Devices, New Methods
A  blogger restoring his foreskin describes foreskin restoring devices like the DTR and the TLC-X. He has a TLC-X and compared it to the DTR. He describes how the DTR works, with pictures.

Modern Alternative Pregnancy: A response to the AAP Statement on Circumcision
A common sense look at male infant circumcision. When looking at the facts, there are few medical reasons that support the elective surgery. The medical reasons are prophylactic, not remedial. There is no pressing need to circumcise baby boys and lots of reasons to leave them whole and intact.
 

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Practical Ethics: Religious vs. secular ethics and a note about respect
Moralogous: Repost: Brian Earp – Religious vs. secular ethics and a note about respect
A copy of a speech delivered at the 12th Annual International Symposium on Law, Genital Autonomy, and Children’s Rights recently held in Helsinki, Finland. The author addresses the ethics involved in male infant circumcision. He also writes about respect, which he says is "about engagement, conversation, communication—so long as these are done in a fair-minded and well-intended way." He makes this point because he wishes to approach the issue of religious circumcision with respect. With respect to ethics, he states: "As a rule, it should be considered morally impermissible to sever healthy tissue from another person’s body—perhaps especially if that tissue is coming from the person’s reproductive organs—without first asking, and then actually receiving, that person’s permission."

The Times-Picayune: Circumcision policy a hot issue as American Academy of Pediatrics convention comes to New Orleans
An article about intactivists who plan on demonstrating at the AAP Convention in New Orleans. The AAP recently revised their infant circumcision policy to say that it should be up to the parents to decide on circumcision for their sons. The intactivists aim to speak for the baby boys as their advocates. Male infant circumcision is a human rights violation because male infant circumcision is an elective surgery where healthy tissue is cut off for no valid medical indication for the surgery.
 

Friday, October 19, 2012

The Times-Picayune: Should newborn boys be circumcised?
After their article, Circumcision policy a hot issue as American Academy of Pediatrics convention comes to New Orleans, the on-line paper reprints a comment about male infant circumcision. The reader comments that "Genital cutting of any child is a needless wounding and trauma. Circumcision of children is not healthy, it's not medicine, its medical fraud."

Haaretz: U.S. judge orders stay of NYC circumcision consent rule
A news report that a judge issues a temporary injunction as a result of the recent lawsuit by Jewish groups after NYC Department of Health requires informed consent by parents before their son can be circumcised. The circumcision procedure under consideration is the Jewish rite where the mohel sucks the bloody penis after it is circumcised. There have been several cases where the mohel passes on herpes to the infant boy through the open wound, often resulting in terrible consequences for the baby.
 

Saturday, October 20, 2012

The WHOLE Network: An End to the Agony
Haaretz published an article about male infant circumcision. The author believes that Germany's attempt at approving a law protecting religious circumcision is wrong. Male infant circumcision is wrong, even when done for religious reasons. Even his 12 year old daughter recognizes that infant circumcision should be questioned and not blindly accepted.

PR Web: Intact America Calls on American Academy of Pediatrics to Rescind Pro-Circumcision Report that Violates Ethics, Human Rights of Baby Boys
Intact America calls on the AAP to reject the one-sided circumcision policy statement for condoning unethical elective surgery on infants. The Task Force that wrote the revised circumcision policy was stacked with pro-circumcision advocates. These advocates failed to take a fair and unbiased look at male infant circumcision because they did not address the risks and complications of the elective surgery on neonates and they failed to address the ethics behind an elective surgery where the patient cannot consent to the surgery.