Circumcision: this morning on BBC Radio I heard a soundtrack of an infant circumcision being carried out - by a doctor, in England, on an ironing board, in the home of the baby's parents. If I remember correctly, the baby was 8 days old. The doctor does many of these operations, privately, as with this one. The baby's father held the baby still, with his legs apart. The doctor injected the baby with something to kill the pain; I think it was lignocaine. The baby screamed and screamed and screamed and screamed. The doctor reassured the parents that the baby was not in pain; the lignocaine made the operation painless.
It is too easy to say that another suffering person (or animal) is not in pain. That poor little soul was most certainly in pain: in agony and in terror. A baby in terrifying pain to satisfy the religious beliefs of his parents. - Welcome to this cruel world, Baby!
Showing posts with label male circumcision. Show all posts
Showing posts with label male circumcision. Show all posts
Sunday, 26 June 2011
Thursday, 29 March 2007
UN calls for mass circumcision of men to tackle Aids epidemics
UN calls for mass circumcision of men to tackle Aids epidemics - Guardian
Extract:
"The United Nations yesterday urged all countries with devastating Aids epidemics to launch mass male circumcision programmes following evidence that the surgical procedure can protect against HIV infection.
The World Health Organisation and UNAids, the joint UN programme on HIV/Aids, made the official recommendations after a meeting of experts in Montreux, Switzerland, to consider the evidence from three trials in Africa, which were stopped early when it became clear that men who had been circumcised were up to 60% less likely to get HIV than those who had not.
Experts accept circumcision is a sensitive issue, tied in to social and religious traditions. During sectarian fighting in India, Muslims and Hindus at one time would tell friend from foe by pulling down their trousers - all Muslims were circumcised.
But research suggests men and women in Africa would accept male circumcision if it lowered the risk of Aids, and WHO experts yesterday held out the prospect of cultural change over a decade or more. Catherine Hankins, associate director of the WHO, said that within about a decade in the 1980s and 1990s, South Korea went from no circumcision of boys to circumcising 90%, influenced by the example of the US."
Extract:
"The United Nations yesterday urged all countries with devastating Aids epidemics to launch mass male circumcision programmes following evidence that the surgical procedure can protect against HIV infection.
The World Health Organisation and UNAids, the joint UN programme on HIV/Aids, made the official recommendations after a meeting of experts in Montreux, Switzerland, to consider the evidence from three trials in Africa, which were stopped early when it became clear that men who had been circumcised were up to 60% less likely to get HIV than those who had not.
Experts accept circumcision is a sensitive issue, tied in to social and religious traditions. During sectarian fighting in India, Muslims and Hindus at one time would tell friend from foe by pulling down their trousers - all Muslims were circumcised.
But research suggests men and women in Africa would accept male circumcision if it lowered the risk of Aids, and WHO experts yesterday held out the prospect of cultural change over a decade or more. Catherine Hankins, associate director of the WHO, said that within about a decade in the 1980s and 1990s, South Korea went from no circumcision of boys to circumcising 90%, influenced by the example of the US."
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