Daniel T. Halperin: Difference between revisions

'''Daniel T. Halperin''' has published several papers on circumcision for [[HIV]] prevention,<ref>{{REFweb

}}</ref> which are being used by the [[WHO|World Health Organization]] to endorse circumcision as an [[HIV]] prevention method. In November 1999, colleagues Daniel Halperin and [[Robert C. Bailey]] published an article in the Lancet criticizing the public-health community for not pushing circumcision. Today, Halperin is the Senior Research Scientist at the Harvard AIDS Prevention Research Project.<ref>{{REFweb

}}</ref> Halperin's home office is only a stone's throw from the  office of [[Edgar J. Schoen]] (leading pro-circumcision advocate).<ref name=Slack2000/>

- His grandfather was a Mohel, born in Russia, died in Chicago. "I don't have an agenda about foreskins" said Halperin in an interview for the Eastbay Express. When asked if being Jewish affects his [[Bias|pro-circumcision bias]], he denied it, but said that his Judaism has "crept in now and then". He explains, "think of it as maybe a kind of health/cultural innovation ahead of it's time. So it's made me appreciate my own heritage more. And who knows, maybe finding out to my surprise that my own granddad was a Mohel was a weird kind of confirmation that I'm maybe in some small way 'destined' to help pass along this health benefit to people in parts of the world where it could really make a difference and perhaps save many lives." <ref  name=Slack2000>{{REFjournal

}}</ref> It is important to note that Quaintance and Morris are both proud members and promoters of [[Gilgal Society]] and [[Circlist]], which openly admit to a morbid fascination with circumcision to the point of sado-masochistic fetish. Morris has included CircList as a resource in a recent paper,<ref>{{REFjournal

  |url=http://www.thisiscroydontoday.co.uk/Croydon-circumcision-campaigner-caught-child-porn/story-15866127-detail/story.html

  |accessdate=2012-04-22

Halperin was asked by Gordy Slack of the East Bay Express if his being Jewish factored into his work on circumcision. Halperin replied:

  |Text=No. At least it didn't during the first couple of years I was doing research. I didn't think about the Jewish part at all. I'd vaguely heard about a guy in Boston who does a non-cutting ritual bris, and maybe that would have appealed to me, if I had a boy someday. But in recent years the Judaism aspect has crept in now and then. Some [non-Jewish and typically [[uncircumcised]]] doctors, for example, an oncologist in northeastern Brazil who has to amputate cancerous penises every week, would tell me not knowing that I was Jewish, 'Those Jews were so smart; thousands of years ago they figured out this way to prevent health problems.' That was one of the things that began to spin my head around from thinking of this as a savage ritual from the dark past to thinking of it as maybe a kind of health/cultural innovation ahead ofits time... So I guess it has made me appreciate my own heritage more. And who knows, maybe finding out to my surprise that my own granddad was an occasional mohel was a weird kind of confirmation that I'm maybe in some small way 'destined' to help pass along this health benefit to people in parts of the world where it could really make a difference and perhaps save many lives.

  |Text=It's as if you went to a lung-cancer resource center and they had nothing at all about cigarettes. What the hell is going on? Why is everyone ignoring the elephant-sized foreskin in the living room?