Daniel T. Halperin

Daniel T. Halperin

Associates With:

Circlist Gilgal Society

Colleagues & Benefactors:

Robert C. Bailey Edgar J. Schoen Brian J. Morris Thomas E. Wiswell Jake H. Waskett

Daniel T. Halperin, Ph.D., has published several papers on circumcision for HIV prevention, which are being used by the 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.

Halperin is a member of Circlist, and a proud promoter of the group. Halperin's home office was only a stone's throw from the office of the late Edgar J. Schoen (leading pro-circumcision advocate).

Religious & cultural bias

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 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."

Halperin cites Vernon Quaintance, Brian Morris and Circlist

In an interview, Daniel Halperin cites Vernon Quaintance, Brian Morris and Circlist as credible resources in favor of circumcision. 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, and Quaintance is both the head of Gilgal Society, and head moderator at Circlist. Vernon Quaintance was recently arrested for child pornography.

“

Interview with Daniel Halperin Moderator Obviously, when you do a web search for good info on circumcision, one generally comes up with a ton of anti-circ sites. Do you know of any pro-circumcision sites? Dr. Halperin I know of several: http://www.users.dircon.co.uk/~vernon/ICIRC/ File:Vernon Website 2000 referred by Halperin.pdf http://www-personal.usyd.edu.au/~bmorris/circumcision.shtml File:Brian Morris Website from 2000 referred by Halperin.pdf http://www.circumcisioninfo.com http://www.circlist.org+(circumcisioninformation.com)

Moyels Without Borders

On May 28th 2010, at the UNC School of Medicine, Halperin lectured on "Moyels without Borders?: Barriers to Scale-up of Circumcision"

Promoting Circumcision in Africa

Halperin and Bailey convinced eastern and south African "healers" to perform foreskin removal "as a way to alleviate chronic STD infection and prevent AIDS" in the 1990's. During the nineties alone, they convinced hundreds of South African men that circumcision would prevent HIV.

HIV/AIDS

Daniel Halperin has said he believes circumcision will go further than any other intervention available in stopping the HIV, and that circumcision will prevent HIV among homosexual men.

Quotes

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

“

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 of its 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. – Daniel Halperin

Other quotes...

“	I'm from California - I believe in things being natural; I don't like surgical interventions. But now, yes, I would - although I'd have it done the Jewish way. – Daniel Halperin

“	Don't you dare write that I think foreskins cause AIDS epidemics, any more than mosquitoes cause malaria. Mosquitoes are necessary for malaria, but not sufficient. You need all these cofactors to get an explosive AIDS epidemic, including foreskins. – Daniel Halperin (Express Online)

“	Circumcision is too human, too 'soft'. – Daniel Halperin ('Express Online)

“	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? – Daniel Halperin (Express Online)

Population-based studies

September 2021 saw the publication of two huge population studies on the relationship of circumcision and HIV infection:

1. Mayan et al. (2021) carried out a massive empirical study of the male population of the province of Ontario, Canada (569,950 males), of whom 203,588 (35.7%) were circumcised between 1991 and 2017. The study concluded that circumcision status is not related to risk of HIV infection.
2. Morten Frisch & Jacob Simonsen (2021) carried out a large scale empirical population study in Denmark of 855,654 males regarding the alleged value of male circumcision in preventing HIV and other sexually transmitted infections in men. They found that circumcised men have a higher rate of STI and HIV infection overall than intact men.

No association between lack of circumcision and risk of HIV infection was found by either study.

See also

• Bias
• Circlist -- Halperin endorses Circlist.
• Gilgal Society -- Halperin helped create a Gilgal brochure.
• Robert C. Bailey -- Colleague & Benefactor of Halperin.
• Edgar J. Schoen -- Colleague & Benefactor of Halperin.
• Brian J. Morris -- Colleague & Benefactor of Halperin.
• Thomas E. Wiswell -- Colleague & Benefactor of Halperin.
• Jake H. Waskett -- Benefactor of Halperin.
• World Health Organization -- The WHO endorses Halperin's research.
• Bias -- Read about circumcision bias.

External links

• Halperin links to Circlist -- Endorsing Circlist and Vernon Quaintance's website.