One harsh reality, and I personally know cases, is that damage to his
penis due to circumcision may leave a boy incapable of "functioning as a
man", and this is almost certainly not tracked. Men commit suicide
about six times as much as women anyway, but circumcision is often a
factor, and this is also not tracked. One parallel to the reproductive
ill-effects of circumcision is attempts to sterilize poor women, usually
women of color. Since circumcision has negative reproductive effects,
it can potentially have a negative impact on the birthrate of a targeted
population. Presumably poverty translates directly into less-skilled
doctors performing the procedure, even absent intent to undermine the
sexual functioning of a given population.
The Department of
Health should keep close track of botched circumcisions so they can make
conclusions as to whether they are more prevalent among disadvantaged
populations, which could make the procedure illegal as a form of
discrimination, indeed, of genocide as defined in the Nuremburg
proceedings.
No comments:
Post a Comment