The Manila Times,
Editorial Office,
2/F Sitio Grande Building,
409 A. Soriano Avenue,
Intramuros, Manila
PHILIPPINES
1020
The May 7, 2011 story reporting an almost festival atmosphere surrounding a mass “pagpapatuli” circumcision event in MarikinaCity was shocking! Was it merely a bizarre quest to gain Guinness World Record recognition, or a genuine attempt to raise public health by promoting safe procedures in a region where it is often done by people who aren’t doctors using crude methods? But in that case one might say that there ought to have been an anti-circumcision campaign, not a safe circumcision one.
I oppose male circumcision on the grounds that it is a barbaric genital mutilation comparable to female circumcision, and
therefore not just a child abuse crime but a human rights crime. Where were the police during this abomination? Opponents of female circumcision may reply critically, claiming no proper comparison at all, and circumcised men would protest that it is not a mutilation, does not rob them of sexual pleasure, and is a time-honored cultural rite of passage into manhood for boys. But I argue that, instead of being a rite of passage into manhood circumcision diminishes males, rendering them less than whole, incomplete and, therefore, less than proper men. If I know that a man is circumcised my estimation of him is unavoidably compromised. Circumcision occupies the same cultural space as snuff pornography.
It is unimaginable that parents would willingly relinquish their boys to doctors to commit this crime, that parents would be so criminally negligent themselves and, worst of all, would approach the entire episode happily, as if it is properly deserving of celebration. Lamentation, not celebration, is called for. Many people, parents, doctors and nurses in MarikinaCity deserve prosecution for crimes against humanity.
The supposed health benefits of the procedure that we sometimes hear about are so minimal as not to warrant even being called negligible. In other words, properly speaking there aren’t any. So let’s cut out the circumcising already!