Category: Circumcision

Advocating logic is undesirable, like practicing unsafe sex and sexually assaulting women.

Still catching up from the last two weeks, this was in the first draft of my last entry. It got a bit too long, so it became a stand-alone entry.

Via Andrew Sullivan, this quote from UNAIDS on travel restrictions placed on HIV-positive individuals by the United States (pdf):

UNAIDS recognizes that States impose immigration and visa restrictions as a valid exercise of their national sovereignty. However, in imposing any restrictions on entry and stay relating to HIV or health, UNAIDS calls upon States to adopt non-discriminatory laws and regulations which rationally achieve valid objectives through the least restrictive means possible.

UNAIDS would like to take this opportunity to reiterate that HIV-related travel restrictions have no public health justification. It is also our view that, where such restrictions are based on HIV status alone, they are discriminatory. There is no need to single out HIV for specific consideration as an exclusion criterion. …

Etc, etc. Exactly how much hypocrisy is allowed before principled becomes merely a mish-mash of preferred outcomes? How long ago did UNAIDS pass that point? A non-discriminatory recognition of human rights would be an excellent start, as opposed to something like this (pdf):

7.3 Since neonatal circumcision is a less complicated and risky procedure than circumcision performed in young boys, adolescents or adults, such countries should consider how to promote neonatal circumcision in a safe, culturally acceptable and sustainable manner.

Now compare with this, from the same link:

The message that male circumcision is very different from female genital mutilation also needs to be emphasized.

Or this:

Female genital mutilation, also called female genital cutting and female genital mutilation/cutting, violates the rights of women and girls to health, protection and even life as the procedure sometimes results in death.

Which can be said about male genital cutting. Still, UNAIDS doesn’t discriminate because it puts this in its report on “Safe, Voluntary, Informed Male Circumcision and Comprehensive HIV Prevention Programming” pdf:

Governments that introduce or expand services for male circumcision will have a responsibility to
launch public health campaigns that:
…

(iii) emphasize the voluntariness of male circumcision;

(iv) clearly distinguish male circumcision from female genital mutilation, which is a violation of the human rights of women and girls, is illegal in most countries where it still takes place, has no health benefits and carries considerable physical and psychosocial risks for girls and women;
…

The male genital cutting UNAIDS pushes is hardly voluntary, which makes it a violation of the human rights of men and boys. But we can’t say that because then we’d have to question what’s been done to so many. Instead, UNAIDS needs to silence criticism by drawing odd, strained attention to only the outcomes that fit its narrative. (It is hardly alone in this, of course.) For example:

How is male circumcision different from female genital mutilation?

While both male circumcision and female genital mutilation are steeped in culture and tradition, the health consequences of each are drastically different. Female genital cutting or mutilation comprises all surgical procedures involving partial or total removal of the external genitalia (type I) or other injuries to the female genital organs. …

And on it goes, willfully missing the obvious truth that the more than one million cases of “voluntary” male genital cutting or mutilation performed each year on infant males in the United States comprise surgical procedures involving partial or total removal of the external genitalia or other injuries to the male genital organs. The inherent human right to be free from that without consent does not disappear simply because cutting a boy’s genitals might reduce his risk of HIV in the future if he has unprotected sex with an HIV-positive female.

Infant male circumcision: ethical, legal and human rights considerations

Studies have shown that the circumcision of infants is simpler and carries fewer medical risks than circumcision of older people. Parents considering circumcision of an infant boy should be provided with all the facts so they can determine the best interest of the child. In these cases, determining the best interests of the child should include diverse factors—the positive and negative health, religious, cultural and social benefits. Because the HIV-related benefits of circumcision only arise in the context of sexual activity, and because male circumcision is an irreversible procedure, parents may consider that the child should be given the option to decide for himself when he has the capacity to do so.

And given the irreversible nature of circumcision, what happens when a male decides that having his normal, healthy foreskin would be in his best interests? Setting aside the topic of (potential) health benefits for the moment, parents may argue for positive religious, cultural, and social benefits for female genital cutting. UNAIDS recognizes that none of those are legitimate, so it rightly dismisses them. Yet, because it’s a penis, those same religious, cultural, and social benefits, as determined dictated by the parents suddenly matter? No.

So, yeah, UNAIDS is right on the U.S. denial of entry to HIV-positive individuals. But UNAIDS does not practice what it preaches.

Post Script: See the section of the report titled “Protecting Women in the Context of Male Circumcision” for an understanding of this entry’s title.

The First Amendment does not grant the right to violate the rights of a child.

I’ve known about this for a little bit, but I hadn’t planned to blog it because I don’t think it will initially amount to much. But it’s in the press now, so here’s an update on the Oregon circumcision case:

A divorced father who wants to circumcise his 13-year-old son against the wishes of the boy’s mother is trying to take his case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

James Boldt, who converted to Judaism, argues that preventing him from circumcising his son violates his constitutional right to practice his religion.

The U.S. Supreme Court accepts a small fraction of the appeals it receives. A decision on whether it will take the case is not expected until the fall [sic]

Earlier this year, the Oregon Supreme Court ruled that the trial judge should determine what the boy wants.

Obviously the mother, who is trying to prevent the circumcision, must approach this as if the Supreme Court will consider the father’s request. I think she’d achieve the same short-term outcome if she ignored it because, until the trial judge determines what the boy wants, there is no reason for the U.S. Supreme Court to consider intervening.

That said, it might be interesting to speculate that the father is signaling something about the boy’s wishes if he’s wants to bypass his incomplete-but-favorable victory granted by the Oregon Supreme Court. But that would be speculation, so I will go no further until I know more.

To his claim that “preventing him from circumcising his son violates his constitutional right to practice his religion,” every necessary piece of information you need is in that brief statement. His constitutional right, as an individual, can never legitimately include the option to surgically alter another person. That the other person is healthy is relevant but not necessary for consideration. That the other person is his child is irrelevant. “His child” is properly stressed as “his child“. He is the child’s guardian, not the child’s owner. The child has his own individual rights that negate¹ his father’s assertion that his religious requirement permits him to remove his son’s foreskin.

Additionally, if the court is to recognize that a parent may circumcise a male child under the U.S. Constitution because a religious text tells them to circumcise, the court must also overturn the Female Genital Mutilation Act as an unconstitutional infringement upon this same alleged First Amendment right of parents to inflict genital surgery on their daughters because the law specifically excludes any parental claim to religion. If the parents have this right, it is plenary over all of their children, not just their children who were born with a penis.

Thankfully they do not have this right, so eventually this nonsense will lose its inexcusable credibility. Unfortunately, I expect the U.S. Supreme Court to botch this horribly on the barely non-zero chance that it takes the case. It will rule that the child has rights, but tradition makes this practice reasonable. (The Court will, of course, dismiss the truth that female genital mutilation is performed to adhere to tradition and social expectations.) The Court will also cite subjective benefits to male circumcision while ignoring the objective harm because the risks and inevitable outcome are “minor”. Everyone but the boy’s opinion matters. So, the most achievable path to Destination Sanity is clear, but arrival is probably not imminent.

¹ Much analysis in the news and blogosphere considers the importance of the child’s age. At 13 he can make his wishes known. Yes, but the default presumption in our society – as shamefully demonstrated in the Oregon Supreme Court’s ruling – is that we must decide whether the child’s age overcomes the parent’s wishes. That is incorrect. The default must be that the child would want his healthy foreskin because the alternative is permanent. Only medical need would allow the parents to make the child’s decision until he can state that he wishes to be circumcised.

John McCain endorses majoritarianism over individual rights.

From John McCain’s speech to the NRA:

Real activists seek to make their case democratically — to win hearts, minds, and majorities to their cause. Such people throughout our history have often shown great idealism and done great good. By contrast, activist lawyers and activist judges follow a different method. They want to be spared the inconvenience of campaigns, elections, legislative votes, and all of that. Some federal judges operate by fiat, shrugging off generations of legal wisdom and precedent while expecting their own opinions to go unquestioned.

Is there an upper bound on how many individuals may have their rights violated before we conclude a constitutional solution is better than a democratic solution? If so, what’s the number? Is there a distinction marking which rights are sacred and which may be violated at will by a majority? Is there any reservation worth considering to limit this complete trust in The People that might acknowledge those hearts and minds that are either incapable or unwilling of being won?

Like every politician, John McCain is a propagandist unworthy of being in a position of leadership. He will not behave as a leader.

Do a child’s eyes belong to the child’s parents?

As a thought experiment, consider:

LASIK surgery in children.

AIMS: To report success in the treatment of high myopia in children with LASIK. To report the visual results, complications and postoperative management of children with high myopia. METHODS: Six children (seven eyes) with high myopia were included in this series. Preoperative and postoperative refraction, visual acuity, and pachymetry were compared. RESULTS: Six children with high myopia ranging from -5.00DS to -16DS were treated. There were three males and three females. Five children had improved refraction and visual acuity post-LASIK. Age ranged from 2 to 12 years. Five of the children had unilateral amblyopia preoperatively. One had bilateral high myopia. CONCLUSION: High myopia in children may be treated safely and effectively with LASIK.

Now consider this story, via Amy Alkon:

Most Lasik recipients do walk away with crisper vision, and the American Society for Cataract and Refractive Surgery reviewed studies showing about 95 percent of patients say they’re satisfied with their outcome.

But not everyone’s a good candidate, and an unlucky fraction do suffer life-changing side effects: poor vision even with glasses, painful dry eyes, glare or inability to see or drive at night.

How big are the risks? The FDA agrees that about 5 percent of patients are dissatisfied with Lasik. How many struggle daily with side effects? How many are less harmed but unhappy that they couldn’t completely ditch their glasses? The range of effects on patients’ quality of life is a big unknown — and the reason the FDA help a public hearing Friday as part of its new move.

“Clearly there is a group who are not satisfied and do not get the kind of results they expect,” said Dr. Daniel Schultz, the FDA medical device chief. The study should “help us predict who those patients might be before they have the procedure.”
…

Doctors advise against Lasik for one in four people who seek the surgery, said Dr. Kerry Solomon of the Medical University of South Carolina, who led a review of Lasik’s safety for the ASCRS. Their pupils may be too large or corneas too thin or they may have some other condition that can increase the risk of a poor outcome.

Solomon estimates that fewer than 1 percent of patients have severe complications that leave poor vision.

Should parents have an unchallenged option to choose Lasik surgery for their children for any reason?

Bonus question: Should they have that unchallenged option for only their children of one gender, with the exclusion based on a societal belief such as the (non-)desirability of glasses?

Judicial activism and Individual Rights

Obviously I think the California Supreme Court’s ruling on same-sex marriage is the correct outcome. I’ll leave the legal analysis of how the Court got there for others to judge. Still, this is an interesting, positive development.

I wish to comment on one factor that will appear in the coming weeks, and will probably quickly grow within the presidential election. Many will claim judicial activism, as if that’s a valid claim. Our courts do not exist to rubber stamp any and every rule a legislature can dream up. Enforcement is the Executive’s job. The Judiciary must interpret. Bowing to the mythical “will of the people” gets us no closer to the truth than waiting for a new constellation to appear in the sky with the correct outcome spelled in the stars.

An Andrew Sullivan reader wrote this to Mr. Sullivan:

…

The decision is an arrogant, impatient one. My gay friends are impatient, and I understand their impatience. But the Court should have trusted the people.
…

It was only a matter of time. A democratic consensus, based on reason and persuasion, is much better for everyone, in all the states, in the long run.

Mr. Sullivan responds with the perfect rebuttal:

Yes, and it has been building. But a republic is not just a democracy. It is a confluence of constitutions, laws, legislatures, executives and courts. In 1948, the California court ruled against miscegenation bans. It took three decades for that act of “judicial activism” to gain consensus nationally.

Exactly. And constitutions are first. Where the laws of the legislature violate that, the courts must reject the laws. Anything else is mob rule.

**********

This fits into the discussion on how civil law should treat medically unnecessary circumcision of male children in America. The procedure is ethically and scientifically flawed. It should not be permitted. Legislatures have already shown an willingness to exclude male children from this protection acknowledged for every other American. Democracy (i.e. mob rule), with a nod to social and religious justifications before individual rights protected by constitutions, should prevail, some say. What parents want is worth defending because altering the healthy genitals of their male children is their choice. It is a right that supersedes the rights of the child, both in individual religious freedom and bodily integrity/freedom from harm.

The political side of the issue is an unprincipled, anti-constitutional mess in America. The concept of individual liberty is lost. The court’s role is to uphold constitutional protections for every individual. It is critical to defend the rights of the minority against the tyranny of the perceived majority. Where tradition and social expectations conflict with individual rights, tradition and social expectations have no merit. The role of the court is to set these legal excuses aside in favor of individual rights. This is not activism.

Courts are not infallible. Yet, as Mr. Sullivan’s example shows, society has a way of catching up to the “activism” of courts, with an eventual understanding that wisdom and logic demanded the outcome. History will show that with same-sex marriage. It will show that with medically unnecessary child circumcision. The former before the latter, but the day for both will arrive.

The ABC of HIV prevention means “Always Be Cutting”?

I don’t know which is more frustrating, stupid “science” articles or the reporting on those articles. Last week, my news world was filled with various regurgitations of this nonsense:

According to a new policy analysis led by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and the University of California, Berkeley, the most common HIV prevention strategies-condom promotion, HIV testing, treatment of other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), vaccine and microbicide research, and abstinence-are having a limited impact on the predominantly heterosexual epidemics found in Africa. Furthermore, some of the assumptions underlying such strategies-such as poverty or war being major causes of AIDS in Africa-are unsupported by rigorous scientific evidence. The researchers argue that two interventions currently getting less attention and resources-male circumcision and reducing multiple sexual partnerships-would have a greater impact on the AIDS pandemic and should become the cornerstone of HIV prevention efforts in the high-HIV-prevalence parts of Africa.

Hold off on assessing the validity of such claims. Wouldn’t it be appropriate if they put the two key words – voluntary, adult – in front of male circumcision? That’s all that the studies being cited as gospel looked at. The press release does later invoke voluntary, so I wonder if the omission of adult implies that children consent. Perhaps a look back at past writings from one of the studies authors, Daniel Halperin, might reveal anything:

As Holbrooke noted, circumcision has indisputably been proven to prevent HIV. It reduces the risk of male infection during intercourse by at least 60 percent and, unlike a condom, cannot be forgotten during a moment of passion. Nearly all of 15 studies conducted throughout Africa found that most uncircumcised men would want the service if it were affordable and safe, and even more women prefer it for their partners and children.

Excerpted from Halperin’s essay referenced in my original entry.

How convenient. Even more women prefer it for their partners and children. Regarding the former, I don’t care what influences or reasons adult males use if the decision to undergo circumcision is voluntary. But with the latter, that simply isn’t the case. And how is it sexually relevant to (male) children what their mothers prefer regarding their genitals? (Also notice how nearly all of the studies revealed that most intact males would want circumcision. Contradictory evidence is still evidence.) Obviously I don’t come to this report with any pre-established respect for circumcision promoter Daniel Halperin. But continuing from the new article.

The AIDS pandemic continues to devastate some populations worldwide. In most countries, HIV transmission remains concentrated among sex workers, men who have sex with men and/or injecting drug users and their sexual partners. In some parts of Africa, HIV has jumped outside these high-risk groups, creating “generalized” epidemics spread mainly among people who are having multiple and typically “concurrent” (overlapping, longer-term) sexual relationships. In nine countries in southern Africa, more than 12% of adults are infected with HIV.
…

For example, condom use is widely promoted as an HIV prevention measure and is effective in countries such as Thailand, where the epidemic is spread primarily through sex work. However, studies have found no evidence that condom use has played a primary role in HIV decline in generalized, primarily heterosexual epidemics, such as those in southern Africa, the authors note. This is mainly because most HIV transmission there occurs in more regular sexual relationships, in which achieving consistent condom use has proved extremely difficult.

I want to pound my head on my desk until I can’t think any more. Where HIV transmission occurs, it occurs because the couple is engaging in unprotected sex where one partner is HIV-positive. If a condom is not used, that is not an indictment on condoms as a prevention technique. It’s not even about condom use in a relationship. It’s obviously about unsafe promiscuity. It does not take a genius to figure out that, if behavior remains consistently immune to logic, circumcision will not matter. HIV will spread. The only potential difference under discussion is the rate at which the disease spreads. Have unsafe sex with HIV-positive partners and you will become infected. It may take an extra encounter, but it will occur.

Circumcision also has the potential to encourage “just this once” disregard for safe sex practices. “I’m circumcised, so just this once, I’ll ignore the condom.” How many times will be “just this once”?

Under this focus on the rate, though, the true implication becomes clear. This is best shown in the poor reporting regurgitation of articles like this. For example:

In western Africa, were male circumcision is high for cultural and religious reasons, the prevalence of HIV is low and controlled trials have shown that the operation can stem the rate of infection, said Professor Malcolm Potts, of the University of California, Berkeley. “It is tragic that we did not act on male circumcision in 2000, when the evidence was already very compelling,” he said. “Large numbers of people will die as a result of this error.”

Because we didn’t implement mass circumcision of males in Africa, large numbers of people will die. As opposed to saying that, because many individuals¹ aren’t engaging in safe sex practices, large numbers of people will die? Which is more accurate at portraying a direct cause? Which advocates speculation that can’t be verified? Which is scientific?

Individual actions matter. If We&#153 are going to intervene, we must provide nothing more than the tools for individuals to choose for themselves. Where individuals ignore known risks and engage in dangerous behavior, there will be consequences. Suggesting that we shift from truly voluntary prevention techniques such as ABC (Abstinence, Be Faithful, Condoms) and voluntary, adult male circumcision to involuntary male child circumcision is little more than an indication that We will save Them. Because They do not partake of the known methods to protect themselves as individuals, we must do it for them.

Of course, there’s the giant elephant in the room. “Reducing multiple sexual partnerships” sounds a lot like Be Faithful. So we’re left with only one different approach the authors believe should receive more funding. New articles and studies like this always have the goal² of pushing mass male circumcision, voluntary and involuntary, adult and child. Always.³

¹ I know that the issues of consent in sexual relations are more complicated than assuming every sexual encounter is voluntary and free from any pressure. Conceded. But that does not change the point that involuntary circumcision is not an answer to this problem. Correcting a wrong with a wrong is not valid. Individuals have rights, not collective groups.

² If you look at what the article is saying, you’ll also note that the validity of ABC instead of a collectivist, utilitarian perspective on male circumcision applies to the United States. Our HIV problem is not caused by what circumcision is supposed to protect against. That hasn’t stopped circumcision advocates from promoting (infant) male circumcision in
the United States as a way to reduce the risk of female-to-male HIV transmission.

³ It would require its own blog entry, but I don’t think any of this is some mass conspiracy by any group or profession. A mindset closed to a full set of facts, maybe, but not groups. Still, the point remains: it’s always about circumcision first, even if the stated justification is “public” health or some other goal perceived to be noble.

There is one outcome that can’t be corrected.

Heartland Regional Medical Center in Marion, Illinois had a problem recently where two babies were mixed up after being circumcised. Both sets of parents consented to violating their sons, so there wasn’t much to blog about beyond the obvious point that no one should be surprised at any incompetence found in a hospital that routinely performs unnecessary surgery on the genitals of healthy male children. That alone is sufficient proof of incompetence.

Still, the hospital felt the need to implement solutions to prevent the mistaken identity. If you’re going to violate a child, you should do it as few times as possible, I suppose. Part of the solution:

  • Only one baby, one doctor and one circumcision at a time. …
  • The RN whose mother/baby couplet requires a circumcision will be the same RN who does the time out, accompanies the baby to the surgery and assists the physician with the surgery. That RN is also responsible for band verification and the time out.

Concerning operating room policies, Lang said surgical services must be consistent with needs and resources. Policies governing surgical care must be designed to assure the achievement and maintenance of high standards of medical practice and patient care.
…

Thirty circumcisions a month will be observed for the next four months to insure time outs are performed according to the hospital’s policy and procedure.

Concerning patients’ rights, Lang stated that the patient has the right to receive care in a safe setting.

All that attention, and the only concern for the actual patient’s rights is that the patient has the right to receive care in a safe setting. How about the more fundamental right to receive “care” only when it’s medically necessary and indicated? Is that not a right? Would it be okay to amputate a child’s arms, as long as it’s done in a safe setting? Have rights really regressed to the point that we view a clean scalpel as the ceiling of a patient’s rights?

Rights, Science, Tradition. Not Tradition, Science, Rights.

Last week I wrote about baby tossing, making a comparison to infant male circumcision. Today, via Kevin, M.D., here’s a story that includes a debate among doctors.

“Of course there is risk of injury in this practice. Missing the stretched cloth might be fatal and even landing on it wrong might cause a limb fracture,” said Dr. Joseph R. Zanga, past president of the American Academy of Pediatrics and a professor at the Brody School of Medicine, Greenville, N.C.

Objectively identifiable risk for a subjective, perceived benefit. End of discussion. Yet:

“I would not suggest that we try it in the U.S., but if they have been doing it for 500 years without any injury I’d be wary of stopping them,” Zanga said.

When faced with a tradition of stupidity, it’s best to focus on the stupidity, not the tradition. Science over superstition.

Dr. Michael Wasserman, of the Ochsner Health System in New Orleans, felt the same pull toward cultural sensitivity. “It is hard for one to disagree with religious rituals, as they are private choices, at the same time, there is a real danger?” Wasserman said.

This is not about disagreeing with religious rituals. If people want to toss themselves over a building’s edge in a “controlled” manner, have at it. This is not that. This is people intentionally endangering another person – a child – for no objective gain to the person being tossed. Jumping and being tossed are quite distinct. The former is a ritual. The latter is madness.

However, some doctors thought the health risks trumped cultural sensitivity in this case.

“The idea that parents would participate in such a harmful practice and that no one would point out the dangers to them seems inconceivable,” said Dr. Astrid Heppenstall Heger, professor of clinical pediatrics and executive director of the Violence Intervention Program at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles.

While this sentiment is based in logic, it’s not really inconceivable. American parents participate in a harmful practice that disregards risk in favor of cultural sensitivity more than one million times each year. The parents have “rights”, you know. As long as the tosser¹ finds value in the act, the tossed is merely the necessary pawn assumed to value the subjective gain more than the objective risk. He or she² isn’t completely worthy of individual protection because the group finds some benefit.

¹ No derogatory pun intended.

² Except for genital cutting, of course. There the comparison allegedly breaks down. Cutting healthy boys is valid tradition, but cutting healthy girls, that’s barbaric, even when it’s tradition. Half of that rationale is wrong. Would doctors suggest it’s okay to toss only male children from a building?

Examples of “(male) children as chattel”

I don’t generally listen to what parents claim when they circumcise their sons. By nature of the act, they treat their son’s body as their property. They would deny it if confronted with this logic, and most aren’t willing to listen to even that. It’s mostly fruitless fodder for philosophical discussions.

Sometimes, though, parents come out and make it nakedly obvious. From this thread on cloth diapering after a circumcision, which descended into defensiveness and ad hominem. (To be fair, the original question asked for an answer independent of whether to circumcise or not.) Select quotes:

# 10: first off, ignore any “hate responses” as you are the parent and it is YOUR choice. Don’t listen to scare tactics. …

YOUR choice. Also, only those opposed to circumcising non-consenting, healthy children can use scare tactics, of course. A focus on HIV, UTI, penile cancer, STDs, hygiene, and social rejection aren’t fear-based tactics?

# 19: … What ever choice you make mamma is the right one. It is your son and your choice [sic]

There can be no objective truth, as long parents wish hard enough with good intentions.

# 37: … Dont [sic] worry about the anticirc posts, he’s your baby, it’s your decision. …

She’s your baby, it’s your decision? Nope.

I expect every single mother quoted here would deny that their words mean they consider their sons their property. But the logic just doesn’t hold up. It’s always the self-absorbed obsession with how circumcising affects them, without consideration for the how it affects the boy negatively or what objections he might one day raise. It’s their (capitalized for emphasis) decision.

This is interesting to me since I’ve encountered the hysteria that arises the moment anyone hints at a comparison of performing genital surgery on female minors. No woman would want that done to her. Duh. But every boy will be perfectly content if it’s done to him. He’ll applaud his parents. Again, duh. Except I can’t figure out how to get from “medically unnecessary” to “duh”, intellectually or emotionally. It will never compute because it requires willful ignorance.

**********

For fun, here are two comments in response to the links offering information against the circumcision of children:

# 15: … she [sic] asked for ADVICE on CARING for an INFANT, not if you thought the reason behind that special care was/is warranted. …

And:

# 27: And that pertains to cloth diapering after a circ how? …

The links pertain to cloth diapering because, at its core, if you don’t engage in a surgical violation of the healthy boy’s body, the debate over what to do to protect his sensitive penis is moot because nature’s already provided the protection. If you ask me what’s the best way to diaper a girl whose parents surgically altered her healthy genitals, I’m going to question the validity of the action that makes the question allegedly defensible. There is no difference because the cutting occurs on a penis rather than labia or a clitoris. None.

Throwing a Scalpeled Hail Mary.

Do unto others, or something like that:

During spring break, [University of Florida quarterback Tim] Tebow added a new facet to his fame. In an impoverished village outside General Santos City in the Philippines, Tebow helped circumcise impoverished children.
…

“The first time, it was nerve-racking,” he said. “Hands were shaking a little bit. I mean, I’m cutting somebody. You can’t do those kinds of things in the United States. But those people really needed the surgeries. We needed to help them.”
…

Others saw [Richard] Moleno, who after a crash course from the Filipino professionals, circumcised 10 boys and removed six cysts, some the size of tennis balls. Tebow helped with the last few circumcisions, growing more comfortable with each one.

“I got a kick watching him,” [Tim’s father] Bob Tebow said. “He did a great job, and he didn’t look really nervous. I wouldn’t let him cut on me, but he did well and helped where there was a need.”

Before I comment, circumcision in the Philippines is generally not like what we think of as circumcision. It is more an opening up of the foreskin through a dorsal slit than anything. It’s also a ritualistic transition from childhood to manhood, although it’s still forced on children. And the social pressure to circumcise is even more intense than it is in the United States.

Also, I have no idea if the boys in this story needed circumcision or not. I assume they didn’t, but the conditions they live in don’t exactly suggest that as an obvious assumption. The number of child circumcisions suggests, though, that there was more of a ritualistic “need” than a medical need. Obviously I oppose the former entirely, with condemnation for the latter only when less invasive treatments are ignored when treating a child.

To the story… This is something to joke about? “I wouldn’t let him cut on me…”, but it’s acceptable to cut on a child? One doesn’t have to grasp the ethical problem with the medically unnecessary circumcision of children to grasp that competence gained through extensive education should be a prerequisite for performing any surgery. There is a reason we won’t allow it in the United States. There are actual human – with rights – beings involved. Complications occur. What would someone have said if Tebow had made a mistake? Not that this story implies Tebow performed flawlessly on these people, but would an accidental amputation of the glans earned anything more than an “oops”?

I like to run with my intellectual curiosity, like most people. Yet, I’m capable of understanding that getting my jollies should still recognize the rights of others.