Nobody should consent to a circumcision who has not seen one. Close-up still photos of an infant circumcision.

A nurse does her first circumcision, with a Gomco clamp. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1kSx4TkuRo&sns=fb https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=em1upbuLW9E

off- site video Videos An 8 minute video of a Gomco circumcision uploaded by Dr Kevin Windisch "for health professionals". He has to raise his voice and still can't be heard over the baby, to whom he repeatedly apologises. Disturbing.

A 6 ½-minute video of a circumcision (by Gomco ® clamp, with sound, not for the squeamish)

A 3-minute video of a circumcision (by Gomco ® clamp) with instructions—again, not for the squeamish. (The sound-track does not include the baby.)

A 12-minute video of a circumcision (by Gomco ® clamp)—again, not for the squeamish—the baby is quieter in this one, but what the doctor says may give you pause. (Requires minimal registration to view—just an email address.)

A 5¾ minute video of a circumcision (by Mogen ® clamp) And again, not for the squeamish. (Also uses the same registration as above video.)

A 6 minute video of a circumcision (by Dr Milton Sales using a Plastibell™ with dorsal penile nerve block.)

A 4'21" video of a circumcision (by Dr Aladdin Altarteer using a Plastibell™ with dorsal penile nerve block. The baby's shrieking is nonetheless disturbing.)

A 2 minute video of a circumcision (by Winkelman ® clamp) from Razi Hospital, Jenin, Palestine.     Disturbing.

A 2¾ minute video of a circumcision by Accu-circ™ from the makers (click on "Live Demonstration").   Not for the squeamish—even though the baby's shrieks have been replaced by monotonous piano music.

Ten close-up videos of Brit Milah with a barzel. (NSFW) They are indeed quick, though some may have been edited. The mohel does not wear gloves.

Laser circumcision of a six-year-old in Indonesia posted by his father (23:47 NSFW) Much screaming.

Stills Still pictures of a Plastibell ® circumcision (clinical, from a scientific paper) Warning, very graphic. Still pictures of a sleeve procedure (clinical, from a scientific paper) Warning, very graphic. 12-page photo story of a a Gomco ® procedure (no close-ups, offsite, from the Saturday Evening Post)

A survey of historical and present-day circumcision instruments, and what can go wrong using each of them.

Lists of

• Circumstitions (bad reasons for circumcising, the genesis of these pages):
  • the choicest, sorted by category, and
  • the full list, more than 450 with sources, references and comments
• Fallacies used to promote circumcision
  • Bad analogies used to justify circumcision.
  • The Sand Myth—that desert sand causes infection under the foreskin
  • An excerpt from an influential and wildly fantastical 1900 diatribe against the foreskin, still quoted today.

Hygiene
Who dares to be in favour of dirt? Facts about bacteria.

Disease
Circumcision is said to prevent or cure...

• Phimosis (non-retractable foreskin).

“A Field Guide for the Modern [Intact] Male” an artistic version of how one young man successfully eased his (unusually tight—phimotic) foreskin back

Hypospadias (urinary opening beneath the penis)

• HIV The recent claims, based on Random Controlled Tests. ◦ One scientific rebuttal. ◦ Scepticism from Britain's Terrence Higgins Trust.
  
• Circumcision is no vaccine.

DR DEAN EDELL
debunks the "circumcision prevents HIV" claims

(off-
site)

Points to Consider
by David Gisselquist

challenging assumptions about HIV/AIDS transmission is now online.

A section challenges the circumcision trials.

• Urinary Tract Infections. ◦ Research that suggests circumcision may cause urinary problems.
• Sexually Transmitted Diseases ◦ Rebuttal to a high-profile study.
• Cancer, penile in the man himself and
• Cervical in his partner. ◦ A recent, widely-publicised study claiming protection against both Human Papilloma Virus in men and cervical cancer in their partners.
• Prostate cancer

Religion

	Sikhism: Almost alone in celebrating the natural body.
	Christianity: New Testament quotations and church policies.
Christianity and Circumcision PDF format
	An essay on Jesus' circumcision. ◦ A commentary on Mantegna's painting "The Circumcision".
	Islam: The Qu'ran does not mention circumcision. ◦ This page challenges assumptions.
	Judaism: A very small proportion of circumcision worldwide, but pre-eminent in the public consciousness of circumcision. ◦ An essay looks at the case for Brit without Milah.
Brit Without Milah PDF format
	A list of Rabbis and others who will perform it. A speech by one after a Kol Nidre service. A Jewish father's letter to his intact son.

Motivation to circumcise
The psychology of circumcising ◦ “Circumcision as a memeplex” ◦ Prejudice against intact men ◦ The remarkable silence around the intact penis and circumcision ◦ Circumsurdities—absurd claims for circumcision; circumfetishism, the sexualisation of circumcising.

Money
Evidence that doctors promote circumcision out of greed. • The declining rate of Medicaid cover. • The real cost of circumcision. A cost-utility analysis of circumcision—it's a loser.

---

DOWNSIDES

Complications
Risks and damage, up to and including loss of the penis and death. • The autopsy reports on a Canadian baby who died of blood loss ◦ another when his urethra was blocked by a PlastiBell™

Pain

The pain of circumcision has long-term effects and is only partially relieved by anaesthetics. ◦ A report from the AAP recommends avoiding painful procedures, but fails to mention the commonest painful procedure.

◦ Circumcision may hinder Breastfeeding.

Circumcision vs Breastfeeding PDF format

Appearance

For those who think circumcision improves the appearance and is invariably harmless, there's a gallery of pictures of circumcisions. ◦ One man's multiple botches. ◦ Side-by-side comparison of the intact and circumcised penis: you can see the difference.

Resentment
Famous men and others who resent/ed being circumcised Regrets
Parents who regret having circumcised their sons

---

THE WORLD
Some people imagine circumcision is universal in the western world. They should see the map of its prevalence worldwide. ◦ The same page shows a map of the prevalence of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).

---

Predominantly intact countries:

New Zealand   A presentation and an article. From being very rare in the 1950s, intactness is now commonplace. An intact New Zealander celebrates. (.wav file, 103KB)

Australia   In Australia four boys in five are now left intact some states, more than 19 in 20 in others.

The Netherlands   Non-religious circumcision has never been known in the Netherlands.

Het geïnformeerdeg besnijdenisbeleid van KNMG The Royal Dutch Medical Association's enlightened circumcision policy

A Dutch documentary (with English subtitles) “Mama waaram ben ik besneden?” (Mum, why was I circumcised?) by Michael Schaap covers most of the main issues — shows several circumcisions, not for the squeamish

Mexico     A guide (en espagnol) from the National Center for Health Technology Excellence, with input from the institutions that make up the National Health System, says "Circumcision of boys should not be done without medical indication."

Sweden     (på svenska) The first country to regulate male circumcision ◦ See Items from Sweden, most in Swedish and English.

Finland     In Finland, where the home circumcisions of six African boys were botched, a working party member has recommended that it be at parental discretion and public expense, but doctors refuse to co-operate.

The Pacific   Practices vary widely in Polynesia, Melanesia and Micronesia.

Predominantly circumcising countries:

Tribal circumcision

U.S.A.   The United States is the only country in the world that surgically modifies a majority of its boy babies.

Korea   From unknown, circumcision has become almost universal in Korea in the last 50 years.

The Philippines   A traditional ritual for boys has become medicalised in the Philippines without the need for it ever being questioned. Myths are rampant.

Yemen   Justified by appeal to Islam, a report of Yemeni circumcision from 1921 details a particularly brutal variant (an answer to "but FGM is much worse")

---

REPRESENTATION—how circumcision is perceived

Mass media
Circumcision episodes on TV sitcoms, soaps, talk shows and in movies. "That Thing"—common themes in TV shows.

Books
Books about, or with significant parts about, circumcision or the foreskin ◦ The foreskin and circumcision in literature, mainly fiction

---

Mutilation, Regrets, Second-thoughts
Why circumcision may be called "mutilation". ◦ A mother who regrets circumcising ◦ A last minute change of heart

---

AT THE OTHER END OF THE KNIFE

Doctors' organisations
The American Medical Association's policy statement on circumcision is weighed in the balance (and found wanting). It agrees with the recommendation of the American Academy of Pediatrics. ◦ The stark contrast between the AAP statements on circumcision and Female Genital Mutilation ◦ The statements of the American Urological Association and the American Association of Family Physicians—both ethically barren

Nurses
Advice for nurses questioning circumcision

Midwives
The serious bias towards circumcision of a leading US midwifery textbook, including a chapter telling midwives how to do it (yet it details the disadvantages of each method)—analysed and contrasted with a British textbook.

REBUTTALS The case presented for circumcision is hydra-headed: answer one argument and its supporters will produce another, and another, indefinitely. (Urinary Tract Infections, until recently cited as the main reason to circumcise, were only added to the list in 1982) Something else is going on—if the foreskin has so many faults and varied, how could it ever have have survived? • A 1941 article mentions in passing that some doctors then did it without asking • Former US Surgeon-General G. Everett Koop's site, drkoop.com has moved forward very little. • Harvard Medical School lends its prestige to a very one-sided article. • The American Medical Association finds no convincing medical reason, yet leaves the surgical decision to the parents. • Emeritus Professor Brian Morris, a retired molecular biologist formerly at the University of Sydney, has only a passing acQuaintance with facts. • A 2003 leaflet for parents (revised 2008) by the Americal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) dissected. • The Mayo Clinic has produced a brochure for parents with misleading "before" and "after" pictures. • The Eisenhower Army Medical Center in Georgia offers a particularly bad example. • Rebuttal to a pro-circ article in Parenting magazine's BabyTalk. • Calls for circumcision to prevent HIV are becoming more frequent and strident. That by Szabo and Short is answered here and contrasted with that of Weiss. • A very biased BBC/Learning Channel documentary about HIV is rebutted here. • A renewed claim that circumcision protects against cervical cancer in the partner is rebutted here.

• The American Association of Family Physicians' 2002 circumcision policy admits the low utility of circumcision, and discusses ethics (inadequately).

• The Royal Australasian College of Physicians' 2010 policy disposes of the medical claims and (unlike its predecessor) considers the functions of the foreskin, but still bends over backwards to blur the ethical issues so that it can stay on the fence.

• The RACP has issued a brochure.

• The AAP's 2012 policy statement is answered here. (1999) • The AAP's 2012 brochure for parents is so full of bias that this page offers an alternative.

• The Sydney Children's Hospital's Fact Sheet for parents is excellent, a model of its kind

---

PARALLEL EVILS

Female Genital Cutting
Female circumstitions—bad reasons to cut a girl ◦ The AAP's 2010 policy on FGC compared with its 1999 policy, and its 1999 policies on FGC and MGC compared. ◦ A chart comparing circumcision with Female Genital Cutting (FGM/FGC). ◦ The UN definitions of the types of FGM/FGC ◦ A doctor defends FGM. ◦ A study showing FGM does not impair the frequency of women's sex (nothing about the quality). The circumcision A loving Malaysian mother's blog about her daughter's surgical FGC

Episiotomy   A form of Female Genital Cutting still common in the US.

Breast-ironing   Another cruel sexually-related female mutilation, practised in parts of West and Central Africa.

Intersexed   people and non-consensual gender-assignment.

Castration   Mozart, Handel, Rossini and Gluck wrote music for castrated singers, and Allegri was one. This was as accepted in Italy in 1600-1860 as circumcision is in the US today.

And beyond the genitals, infant circumcision compared with footbinding and uvulectomy (removal of the uvula that hangs down at the back of the mouth)

APPEARANCE

A Gallery of Intact Men and their Penises. ◦ A Gallery of Intact Men and their Penises in Art. (The entire sequence of five pages is a slide show with music off-site.) ◦ Countries that celebrate the (intact) penis. ◦ The "luscious beauty" of the intact male.

For intact (young US) men who worry about being "different," a Gallery of Intact Celebrities (with their clothes on): a page each of intact historical personages, US film stars former and current, US TV stars former and current, US sporting heroes, US musicians, non-US celebrities (musicians, actors, sportsmen and others), and leaders.

A Gallery of Very-Probably-Intact men.

STRUCTURE

A Glossary of words relating to Intactivism and normal anatomy. Some of the main ones are illustrated.

Diagrams of male and female anatomy at eight weeks gestation and at birth illustrate the similarity of structure.

Not "just a flap of skin": a non-erotic animation of how a foreskin works. ◦ A more stylised animation to demonstrate its size. A remarkable illustration of its actual size.

An enlightening online video: The Prepuce aimed at doctors and uses medical language but very clear about the use and value of the foreskin.

Sexuality
The sexuality page corrects the fairly popular fallacy that there is no difference in sexual function between intact and circumcised men. ◦ The foreskin itself gives pleasure. ◦ A musical illustration. Reports by women about what a revelation intact men were to them. ◦ Condoms and the intact man. ◦ Tantric sex. ◦ Popular myth: "American women prefer circumcised." (Williamsons' survey of women in Iowa)

Paraphimosis, one of the few real threats.

Frenulum breve "tight banjo string"—can be readily treated.

FOR PARENTS (TO-BE) AND SONS

A historic documentary video circa 1982   (How little has changed!) featuring Intactivist pioneers Edward Wallerstein and Rosemary Romberg—includes a Mogen ® clamp circumcision— (Parental Guidance Recommended)

Mothers (and mothers-to-be)
Sheila Kitzinger's New Pregnancy & Childbirth. ◦ A thought-experiment. ◦ How to raise the subject with a circumcised husband.

Fathers
A circumcised father with an intact son—a telling rejoinder to "a boy should look like his father" ◦ A cartoon ◦ A 2500-year-old fable by Æsop

Refusal
Circumcision is sometimes pushed on parents, and even committed contrary to their wishes. To prevent this, a firmly-worded

a growing movement 

HUMAN RIGHTS
• Genital integrity is first and foremost a human rights issue.

Ethics
• Medical organisations have very little to say about the ethics of circumcision. There is more here.
• The British Medical Association has issued ethical guidelines that rule out infant circumcision based on parental preference alone.
• An important book, "The Ethical Canary", includes a chapter on the ethics of circumcision.

Law
The legal case against infant circumcision is growing. This section also contrasts the protection afforded cats, dogs and a baby's head against similar procedures.

A shocking parallel. Parental guidance recommended.

THE CAMPAIGN FOR GENITAL INTEGRITY: INTACTIVISM

• Reasons Not to Circumcise (at least 32)
• The Lost List—what is lost to circumcision (18)
• A chapter from a 1980 classic, Wallerstein's Circumcision: an American health fallacy.

SCHMUCK Interview with Dan Strandjord, who daily pickets the University of Chicago Hospital to protest its high circumcision rate.

Five short videos from Genital Integrity Awareness Week 2009 on YouTube —and over 100 other interviews about circumcision

Bruce Springsteen "sings" at Superbowl "Born Intact" Another great rewrite from TLCTugger.

An award-winning children's rights documentary "Whose Body, Whose Rights?" is available online. The only circumcision-related video to explore important issues not addressed in other programs, and so far the only one that can both be purchased as a DVD and viewed online.

LINKS to other Intactivist sites

• Scientific references
• A Chronology of the Foreskin and Circumcision

Propaganda

• Short Answers on Circumcision
• Some relevant quotations
• The case for intactness in two minutes
• An epic ballad, The Rape of the Cock
• multimedia—animations, sound files and a logo

Campaign resources
Readymade T-shirts and bumperstickers from The Intactivism Shop
Also mugs, buttons, fridge-magnets, tote bags, and other gear.

(off- site) The Intactivism Shop T-shirts, bumperstickers, mugs, more.

HOUSEKEEPING

Feedback from readers

Comments about this site are welcome. Please use email.
(No e-cards, thank you. Hostile messages may be displayed unedited. Link exchange considered only for sites related to genital cutting.)

Frequently Asked Questions

Miscellaneous
Types of circumcision articles; circumcision in Shakespeare; infection vs. inflammation; diabetes; other "useless" organs, the appendix and Jacobsen's organ; whether babies remember being circumcised; permanent retraction; circumcision and royalty.

To people who think the subject is beneath discussion.

Have you changed your mind about circumcision?
We'd love to hear about it!