Brussels Collaboration on Bodily Integrity
The Brussels Collaboration on Bodily Integrity is a collection of ninety-one mostly academic individuals of various nationalities who seek to advance the bodily integrity of children. The group describes itself:
We are physicians, ethicists, nurse-midwives, public health professionals, legal scholars, political scientists, anthropologists, psychologists, sociologists, philosophers, and feminists from Africa, Asia, Australasia, Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas with interdisciplinary expertise in child genital cutting practices across a wide range of cultural contexts. Although we do not necessarily share a single policy perspective with respect to such practices, nor a uniform moral assessment of every feature of them, we are united in a concern about widespread inaccuracies, inconsistencies, double standards, and Western cultural bias in the prevailing discourses on genital cutting of children.[1]
The conference was convened at Brussels in the Fall of 2019 by Attorneys for the Rights of the Child. More than 90 papers were presented.[2] The groups argue that male, female, and intersex cutting must be considered together.[1]
The ethical question concerning cutting of children's genital organs is long-standing,[3] but never has been satisfactorily resolved.
Dr. Shimon Samuels, Director for International Relations for the Wiesenthal Center, in a letter to J. Steven Svoboda of Attorneys for the Rights of the Child, expressed concern that the Brussels Collaboration threatened the Abrahamic covenant, which has already been debunked by Professor Leonard Glick,[4] however, he failed to acknowledge that boys born into Jewish families would be major beneficiaries of bodily integrity derived from the protection of their human rights.
A second more detailed statement, published in August 2024, has 155 authors.
Publications
Brussels Collaboration on Bodily Integrity. Medically Unnecessary Genital Cutting and the Rights of the Child: Moving Toward Consensus 
. Am J Bioeth. October 2019; 19(10): 17-28. PMID. DOI. Retrieved 31 August 2024.- The Brussels Collaboration on Bodily integrity, Fillod, Odile, et al. Genital modifications in prepubescent minors: When May Clinicians Ethically Proceed? . Am J Bioeth. August 2024; : 1-50. DOI. Retrieved 30 August 2024.
References
- ↑ a b Brussels Collaboration on Bodily Integrity. Medically Unnecessary Genital Cutting and the Rights of the Child: Moving Toward Consensus. Am J Bioeth. October 2019; 19(10): 17-28. PMID. DOI. Retrieved 5 August 2020.
- ↑
Samuels, Shimon (31 May 2020)."Does an international campaign to ban brit mila contribute to antisemitism?", https://www.jpost.com, The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 5 August 2020.
- ↑ Hill G. Can anyone authorize the nontherapeutic permanent alteration of a child's body? . The American Journal of Bioethics. 2003 (Spring); 3(2): 16-8. PMID. DOI. Retrieved 31 August 2024.
- ↑ Divinsky, Eitan (31 August 2024)."Wiesenthal Center slams international campaign to ban circumcision", https://www.israelnationalnews.com, Arutz Sheva. Retrieved 5 August 2020.
