Circumcision video
December 9, 2014
Often a vivid story or picture carries more weight than any amount of science or ethics. This blog received more hits for some pictures of circumcision complications (click here) than for any other post. Comments about flawed newborn tongue-tie cutting trials were ignored until I drew parallels with circumcision (click here).
This is why I’m publicising this video clip of a brit milah. There’s no blood, and we don’t see the surgery. Just a few off colour jokes, men chanting over the baby’s cries, and the women’s mixed feelings. It’s been posted by the baby. He wants you to watch. Click here.
Ripe-tomato.org 
Working as I do in a a hospital treating obstetric fistula we have FIGO sponsored trainees from many parts of Africa and other places where these entirely preventable problems exist. Many of the women have been subjected to various forms of genital mutilation. Unlike male circumcision which is carried out on new-borns this is carried out at about age 4 as they are more likely to survive the blood loss, and being theoretically at least illegal they will not want to seek medical help, if things go wrong. Imagine my surprise when a trainee with whom I was spending some time in a peripheral unit and from a west african country (I am in Ethiopia) started defending both male circumcision (universal) and female ‘cutting’ as he put it on the grounds that that is what women wanted for themselves and their children and thus should be allowed. Such sentiments from an educated elite shows how long we have to travel to prevent mutilation of the newborn and the unprotected young. According to a 20 year old midwife, whose training we sponsor, female circumcision is done to prevent clumsiness in the kitchen (I kid you not!).
jeremy