Genital mutilation: Difference between revisions

The circumcision of the female genitals in particular attracts a great deal of attention from the "concern industry". What is new for many is the fact that circumcision of the male genitalia also leads to numerous [[death]] cases worldwide or causes lifelong suffering. While male circumcision is primarily a ritual tradition in the so-called "Third World", non-theraputic [[circumcision]] of boys immediately after birth has become a [[Financial incentive| lucrative practice]] in the [[United States of America]] on which a large number of jobs and careers depend directly and indirectly. What connects the medicine man on the Solomon Islands with the hyper-modern doctor in the USA: Both of them commit genital mutilation on children without any [[medical indication]]. There is no medical necessity which, according to German law, makes a surgical intervention in the first place an [[Impunity|exemption from punishment]].<ref name="Intaktiv">{{REFweb

* Male genital mutilation IS comparable to female genital mutilation.

* Effects on psyche (trauma), [[sexuality]] and health (partial / complete loss of [[penis]], [[death]])

* Extreme forms are little known: skinning the penis, crushing a [[testicle]]

* Small piece of [[skin]]? - If the [[foreskin]] is completely removed, the largest part (!) of the [[penis]] [[skin]] is removed.

* '''[[Circumcision]]:''' The foreskin is removed in a ring (partially or completely).<ref name="wiki_circum">{{W|Cirkumcision}}</ref>

* '''Incision:''' The foreskin is incised one or more times.

* '''Subincision''' ([[Aborigines]]): The penis is cut so deep on the underside that the [[urethra]] is cut open lengthways (partially or completely). Widespread infections can develop, and it is not uncommon for them to end [[death|fatally]].

* '''Sewing metal bells into the [[skin]]''' ([[India]]): This is said to enable men to better satisfy women.

* '''Sewing bamboo or metal balls (ampallangs) into the glans or penis shaft''' (Indonesia, Corea, Natives of the Philippines): This should stimulate the future partner's [[clitoris]] better.

Some might think that a [[circumcised]] penis is more attractive. However, this opinion is by no means shared by everyone. When the boy is grown up, he should be able to decide for himself whether any advantages outweigh the disadvantages. [[Parents]] are also not allowed to cut off their child's ears, even if they think that's nice.

[[Smegma]] is a white, waxy substance that is found under the [[foreskin]] can form. It consists of natural secretions and flaky [[skin]] cells. It used to be feared that smegma could be cancerous, but that has been refuted. Good general hygiene and common sense are keys to preventing infection and disease.<ref name="cirp-faq">{{REFweb

  |Text=In the vast majority of cases, [[phimosis]] or narrowing of the [[foreskin]] is named as the medical reason for the surgical removal of the penile foreskin. It should be noted, however, that this is a completely normal developmental condition, which, as long as it remains symptom-free, does not actually require treatment. Experience from the Scandinavian countries clearly shows that most children’s foreskin "problems" (constriction or sticking) resolve themselves by {{W|puberty}}.

# "If an intervention can be avoided, if the intended success can also be achieved in other ways, with less intensive measures, then the more intensive intervention is not in the [[child's well-being]]."<ref>{{REFweb

Even if the [[phimosis]] can only be corrected surgically, removal of the [[foreskin]] is often not necessary. With modern procedures, the [[foreskin]] is preserved.

[[Penile cancer]] is an extremely rare form of cancer. It mostly occurs in older men, and most doctors do not recommend infant circumcision as a preventive measure. Penile cancer can occur in both circumcised and intact men: The maggot study (an ongoing study of penile cancer at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle) found that 37% of penile cancers occur in circumcised men.<ref name="cirp-faq"/>

There are "claims that the incidence of cervical carcinoma (cancer of the cervix or cervix) increased in women after sexual intercourse with uncircumcised men through the transmission of smegma. This relationship has been rejected by researchers as scientifically implausible."<ref>{{REFweb

The theory that wives of men with [[intact]] foreskins are more prone to cervical cancer has been refuted. The theory that having a [[foreskin]] increases the risk of STDs has been refuted in a new study.<ref name="cirp-faq"/>

Circumcision is also widespread among boys and men, especially in Judaism, in Islamic countries (in childhood) and in Africa.

  |Text=In African countries, for example, circumcision is primarily regarded as an initiation rite for adolescents during puberty. The ability to endure the pain that comes with it is considered a prerequisite for becoming man in many tribes. Often it is a prerequisite for having a wife at all, as women attach importance to marrying a man who has endured this ordeal.

Studies refute circumcision as [[AIDS]] prevention. Male circumcision is irrelevant to the spread of [[AIDS]] if one counts out the number of infected prostitutes in the region. There is less [[AIDS]] in Muslim areas. However, this is not caused by the higher number of [[circumcised]] men, but by the lower number of prostitutes per inhabitant. When looking at sexual intercourse individually, circumcision can reduce the transmission rate by 50-60%, but the problem is that individuals in areas with a high [[AIDS]] rate have multiple sexual contacts with infected people. Circumcision would only delay the inevitable and be ineffective as [[AIDS]] prevention.<ref name="AIDS-Studie">{{REFnews

* Protective function: In small children, the glued foreskin protects the glans from the excretions in the diaper. Throughout life, the foreskin keeps the glans soft and moist and protects it from trauma, injuries, environmental influences, friction and dehydration.

** The foreskin contains numerous delicate nerve endings. Together with the sensitive surface of the glans, the inner foreskin, which is retracted and turned outward during an [[erection]], forms an extensive and highly sensitive erogenous zone, which is important for normal, intense feeling during sexual intercourse and masturbation.

** The foreskin prevents unnecessary friction during sexual intercourse with a special sliding effect and increases the sensation of pleasure in men and women.

* Immune system: Specialized cells in the foreskin form substances that fight and kill pathogens. However, research into this function is still in its infancy.

A property of the [[foreskin]] is that the [[skin]] is double-layered and can contract very strongly when the penis is in a flaccid state. In the relaxed state, the foreskin is cut away. Transferred to a grown man, much of the [[skin]] of the entire erect penis is removed! The penis is THE erogenous zone in a man and with circumcision a considerable area (comparable to the palm of the hand without fingers!) Is cut away. How to determine the area is explained [https://beschneendung-von-jungen.de/home/komplikation/der-normale-penis-und-die-ausektiven-der-beschneendung.html here]. This area of [[skin]] is covered with an unusually high density of nerve cells.

In Boyle et al. (2002), 1577 Filipino boys aged 11 to 16 years before and after circumcision (performed either with or without local anesthetic) were observed. Before the procedure, it was ensured that only boys who did not have [[PTSD]] (according to DSM-IV) were included in the study. After the procedure, 50% of the boys circumcised with local anesthetic and 69% of the boys circumcised ritually (without local anesthetic) were diagnosed with PTSD according to DSM-IV criteria.

Subincision: The underside of the penis is split. Consequence: The semen flows down outside the female body, the chances of pregnancy decrease.<ref name="FocusWissen">{{REFnews

Many more young people are admitted to hospitals with inflamed or mutilated genitals. Gangrene results in the loss of the glans in some.

* With the Dowayos [in Cameroon], circumcision is a long drawn-out process. [...] The operation is designed to arouse fear and horror. The boys are stripped down to their [[skin]] at a ritual crossroads and taken to the grove by the river, where the circumcision takes place. On the way they are jumped at by the cutters, who growl like hunting leopards and threaten them with a knife. The operation is very painful as the penis is peeled off almost in full length. There may be several different circumcisers, each cutting off a piece of the foreskin. The boy is not allowed to scream, but the old men who told me about the festive event admitted that many did. That doesn't matter, as long as the women believed they had acted bravely. The results of such interventions can be studied at the bathing area. When the operated person is still very young, the limb sometimes takes on an almost spherical shape, which may be partly responsible for the very low [[birth rate]] among the Dowayos. Since all are circumcised with the same knife and the risk of infection is correspondingly high, the [[death]] rate is considerable. Boys who died as a result of the operation were said to have been eaten by leopards. Correspondence from French colonial officers shows how distressed they were at the large number of youths allegedly eaten by the leopard - even though leopards were practically extinct in the area.<ref name="dowayo">{{REFweb

* The Hijra, a sect in India, appears to have radically amputated the penis and testicles. To what extent this is enforced cannot be read from the Wikipedia article: "Although it is very often assumed that Hijra mostly undergo or at least seek ritual castration and penectomy."<ref>{{W|Hijra}} in India</ref>

}} (If there is no medical need, the doctor should refuse the procedure.)</ref> the doctors [[Maximilian Stehr]], Hans-Georg Dietz and the lawyer [[Holm Putzke]] advise against religious circumcision without medical necessity. Because the removal of the foreskin represents a "not only insignificant loss of substance, it is therefore a violation of physical integrity", in which the surgeon could be liable to prosecution for [[Mayhem|bodily harm]].<ref>{{REFnews

In Cologne, circumcision was made a criminal offense, but it is not seen as clearly as it seems to some in Germany in other western countries. In the USA, for example, it is almost routine. The health organizations in different countries assess the procedure differently.

Modern medicine knows the advantages and risks that can arise from the circumcision of male genitals. [[Science]] does not yet give a unanimous answer to this question. However, [[Islam]] and [[Judaism]] do not care at all about the state of research. They are concerned with the observance of iron commandments and customs.<ref>{{REFnews

If the scientific argument is omitted, it becomes clear that the question of the permissibility of circumcision is only about a decision about social [[values]], legally speaking about "legal interests". In fact, it is also about whether Jews in Germany are allowed to live their [[Judaism]] as they understand it and not as others think. Elizabeth Wyner Mark, editor of a volume published in 2003 entitled "The Covenant of Circumcision" writes with a view to the fact that most secular, by no means religious Jews have their boys circumcised, that circumcision is an expression of the Jewish will to survive after the Shoah<ref>''Shoah'' is a Hebrew word for ''catastrophe''. It is another word for the Holocaust.</ref> and thus for has become a moral obligation for many parents.

In any case, circumcision has been a sign of Jewish self-assertion for millennia. The categorically experienced instruction of Jews to circumcise their sons on the eighth day can be historically proven for two and a half thousand years. However, since ancient times there have been repeated attempts to prevent circumcision. The Hellenistic culture, with its worship of the beautiful body, led many Jewish men to lengthen their foreskin again in order not to be ridiculed when doing sports in the nude. The Hellenistic King Antiochus IV even tried - despite all alleged pagan tolerance - to forcibly prohibit the circumcision of Jewish boys in the second century BC. This measure contributed significantly to the development of Jewish martyrdom.<ref>{{REFnews

Female circumcision is usually performed by women. This aspect, that women are not only [[victims]] but at the same time also [[perpetrators]], is mostly ignored in the reporting. It is also the circumcisers themselves who defend themselves against a ban and are also prepared to use violence.<ref>{{REFnews

* In [[Elfriede Jelinek]] s autobiographically influenced novel "The Piano Player", a sadomasochistic, mentally disturbed woman mutilates her own genitals.

Federal Minister of Justice [[Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger]] ([[FDP]]), out of concern for the girls, has examined how the circumcision of boys can be made legally secure. According to the Ministry, the judgment represents a break with the prevailing legal opinion. The formulation of a law is associated with considerable technical difficulties. In particular, it should be ruled out that girls can also be circumcised for religious or cultural reasons.<ref>{{REFweb

In the Bundestag, members of the government were prevented from voting by asking the circumcision critics to leave the plenary session.<ref>{{REFweb

The aim is to objectify the debate about circumcision and to induce politics to allow the interests of children to be weighed up at all. It cannot be the basis of legislative action to regard circumcision exclusively as a religious ritual and thus only as a question of religious life in Germany.<ref>{{REFnews

  |Text=Like girls, boys have a right to physical integrity. And the [[lawmaker]] must protect this [[right]] and also guarantee boys the basic right to physical integrity.

  |Text=From a legal point of view, circumcision is, from a legal point of view, bodily harm, just like any other intervention into the integrity of the body, as long as the patient cannot consent to the intervention. <br> If Muslim or Jewish parents are involved with the Request for transfer to a circumcision for religious reasons, I refuse. For me, the medical aspect is all that counts. And only then does the health system have to pay. Whether the parents then have the operation carried out anyway and whether they and the surgeon are then punishable - must be decided on a different, philosophical-religious and ethical level. See you again in Karlsruhe.

}}</ref> Rather, [[Alice Schwarzer]] campaigns for male circumcision.<ref>{{REFweb

* [[Female circumciser]]

* [[Sexuality]]

* [[Violence]]

* [[Self-determination]]