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Linh Ly and Koravangattu Sankaran
Acute venous stasis and swelling of the lower abdomen and extremities in an infant after circumcision
CMAJ 2003; 169: 216-217 [Full text] [PDF]
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Electronic letters published:

[Read eLetter] Circumcision complication: hysterical blindness in genitally mutilating societies
Van Lewis   (18 August 2003)
[Read eLetter] Doctors should restrict the practice of circumcision
George Hill   (8 August 2003)

Circumcision complication: hysterical blindness in genitally mutilating societies 18 August 2003
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Van Lewis,
Children's Rights Advocate and Certified Educator Member
Doctors Opposing Circumcision

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Re: Circumcision complication: hysterical blindness in genitally mutilating societies

vanlewis{at}post.harvard.edu Van Lewis

Linh Ly and Koravangattu Sankaran claim in their report on the male infant with the grossly distended bladder due to obstruction of his urethra caused by his circumciser, "Over the next 36 hours he continued to urinate, and his venous engorgement and cyanosis disappeared. His penis appeared normal. The patient had no further problems or complications."

Two points:

1) Anyone who looks at a circumcised penis and sees it - and reports it in a scientific paper - as "normal" is missing and failing to report competently an obvious and very important, undeniable scientific fact: Circumcised penises are not normal. They are mutilated. To see any one of them, let alone a freshly cut one, as "normal" and report it as such in a scientific paper requires cultural indoctrination that blinds the reporter and prevents him or her from doing his or her job as a medical scientist competently.

Medical science has been subverted by culture often and misused to further cultural agendas, in this case the agenda of a genitally mutilating culture to continue the gross human rights violation of genital mutilation of defenseless infants and children. This is a psychiatric illness in adults, this sick compulsion to mutilate defenseless children's sex organs, and one that, when allowed free reign, is always damaging and sometimes lethal.

2) This "patient" ("victim" is the correct term) HAS and WILL HAVE further problems and complications throughout life caused by his completely unnecessary genital mutilation, whether he is conscious of them or not, as he would had he experienced NO "unusual" problems with his circumcision. Circumcision GUARANTEES complications. Circumcision IS complications.

That genitally mutilating cultures and their culturally blinded medical "scientists" prefer not to see the universal, common, and rare complications and damages they cause children directly - and cause the adults the children who survive become - by their unnecessary genital mutilating, and indeed that they are extraordinarily accomplished at remaining hysterically blind to them, as shown so perfectly by this scientifically incompetent, culturally biased report, does not mean that those complications and damages do not exist. Denying them and remaining deliberately blind to and unconscious of them does not make them go away.

It is long past time to take our heads out of the cultural sand we prefer to keep them in and look at the real world of genital mutilation of children, however horrible that hideous sight may prove.

Genital mutilation of minors must be ended now. This infant's totally unnecessary, inexcusable, horrific ordeal at the hands of his blind, uncaring circumciser right after his birth, and the scientifically incompetent report of it you published, prove that extreme urgency once again, as if any additional proof were needed.

Please sign with Francis Crick, co-discoverer of the structure of the DNA molecule and Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine (1962), Jonas Salk, M.D., and many others of us great and small, the Ashley Montagu Resolution to End the Genital Mutilation of Children Worldwide, at http://MontaguNOCIRCpetition.org

This genital mutilating madness, this sick and sickening nineteenth century medical quackery, must end. Help end it now.
Doctors should restrict the practice of circumcision 8 August 2003
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George Hill,
Executive Secretary
Doctors Opposing Circumcision, Suite 42, 2442 NW Market Street, Seattle, Washington 98107, USA.

Send letter to journal:
Re: Doctors should restrict the practice of circumcision

iconbuster{at}earthlink.net George Hill



To the Editor:

      The Saskatchewan circumcision complication case reported by Ly & Sankaran fortunately had a happy outcome.1 However, the urinary retention easily may have progressed to a ruptured bladder,2 or the venous stasis easily may have progressed to thrombosis and a possible embolism with a tragic outcome.

      This is only the latest in a long list of reports of problems with the Plastibell™ device.1 Life-threatening infections have been reported at least since 1971.3 The only purpose of this device is the facilitation of unnecessary non-therapeutic neonatal circumcision. In view of the lack of any clear medical benefit from circumcision, it is time for the regulatory authorities to remove this 50-year-old medical device from the market.

      The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Saskatchewan issued a strongly worded memorandum to the physicians in Saskatchewan regarding the performance of circumcision on February 20, 2003.3 This was followed by similar cautions from the College of Physician and Surgeons of British Columbia4 and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba.5 Given these very detailed and explicit cautions from three colleges, any physician in these provinces who performs a circumcision may have to answer some very difficult questions regarding medical judgment, if the operation should go awry.

      Doctors who perform circumcisions on infants put themselves at risk for an extraordinarily long period. Infant patients may sue their circumcisers when they become adults.4,6,7,8 Brown recommends that physicians maintain their records for at least 28 years.8 Doctors would do well to restrict the practice of child circumcision to those exceedingly rare cases with a clear and present medical indication.

George Hill
Executive Secretary
Doctors Opposing Circumcision
Suite 42
2442 NW Market Street
Seattle, Washington 98107
USA
Web: http://www.doctorsopposingcircumcision.org/

References

  1. Ly L, Sankaran K. Acute venous stasis and swelling of the lower abdomen and extremities in an infant after circumcision. CMAJ 2003;169(3):216-7.
  2. Jee LD, Millar AJ. Ruptured bladder following circumcision using the Plastibell device. Br J Urol 1990;65(2):216-7.
  3. Kirkpatrick BV, Eitzman DV. Neonatal septicemia after circumcision. Clin Pediatr (Phila) 1971;13(9):767-8.
  4. Ehman AJ. Cut circumcision from list of routine services, Saskatchewan MDs advised. CMAJ 2002; 167(5):532.
  5. College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia. Infant male circumcision. College Quarterly 2002;Fall:2.
  6. College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba. Caution Regarding Routine Circumcision of Newborn Male Infants. Newsletter 2002;38(4):9.
  7. Committee on Medical Ethics. The law & ethics of male circumcision - guidance for doctors. London: British Medical Association, 2003.
  8. Brown RH. The pediatrician and malpractice. Pediatrics 1976; 57(3): 392-401.