c. 2005 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) Could a religious ritual sacred to Muslims and Jews be threatened? If critics of circumcision have their way, it could be.

Anti-circumcision crusaders, calling themselves “intactivists,” have called on the United Nations to label the act a human rights crime.

The move came after the recent release of a study showing that circumcision may significantly reduce the risk of HIV infection. The news was announced at the Third International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Pathogenesis and Treatment in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

While world health experts are weighing circumcision as a possible prevention measure, intactivists say the practice is a human rights abuse that trumps medical data they call specious. Human rights, they say, also supersede the religious principle whereby Jews and Muslims circumcise their sons.

The biblical Jewish patriarch, Abraham, became “world famous” by circumcising himself and establishing a covenant with God, said Dr. George Denniston, president of the Seattle-based Doctors Opposing Circumcision. But, he asked rhetorically, what do others receive in return?

Circumcision reduces the sexual pleasure of men and women, which can lead to failed relationships, he said.

“It’s totally blasphemous to remove a normal body part from somebody. It totally denies that God made it,” he said, comparing the procedure to something as ludicrous as removing a child’s eyelids.

Additionally, circumcising a non-consenting child is simply unfair, said Denniston, who said he has lobbied every U.S. senator on the issue.

Matthew Hess, who is organizing a letter-writing campaign to the United Nations with other intactivists, agreed.

“Although the participants in this latest study were consenting adults, in the real world circumcision is forced upon helpless children. I find it quite ironic that the United Nations condemns female circumcision as a human rights crime while it simultaneously encourages male circumcision as a preventive health measure,” he stated in a news release.

Hess is president of the San Diego-based MGMbill.org, named after the “male genital mutilation” bill for which the group is lobbying. The group wants to amend the 1996 female genital mutilation bill, which outlawed female circumcision in this country, to ban circumcision for males under the age of 18. Hess said the group has submitted the bill twice to Congress and the California State Legislature, but has so far failed to find sponsors.

For many, circumcision is a matter of religious fulfillment.

The procedure is a “cornerstone” of the Jewish faith, said Dr. Samuel Kunin, a retired urologist who said he has performed more than 9,000 circumcisions.

“I can’t think of any greater act of faith than to circumcise your son,” said Kunin, of Los Angeles. The act symbolizes a thread of Jewish continuity over thousands of years, linking back to Abraham, he said.

Kunin added that he has helped restore sexual activity for men through circumcision, which staves off urinary tract infections.

Meanwhile, opponents of circumcision, like Denniston, fear the latest study linking circumcision with HIV prevention may give people license for unprotected sex. World health groups seem to have already taken that into account.

“If male circumcision is confirmed to be an effective intervention to reduce the risk of acquiring HIV, this will not mean that men will be prevented from becoming infected with HIV during sexual intercourse through circumcision alone,” stated the Joint U.N. Program on HIV/AIDS on July 26. “It will therefore be essential that it be part of a comprehensive prevention package, which includes correct and consistent condom use, behavior change, and voluntary counseling and testing.”

Patricia Leidl, media adviser for the U.N. Population Fund, a partner of the U.N. AIDS initiative, would not comment on the activists’ charge that circumcision is a human rights crime, saying the matter is up to particular countries to judge.

While studies on circumcision’s potential protective effect are not yet conclusive, “the trends are certainly pointing in that direction,” she said.

In a 1999 statement, the American Academy of Pediatrics said scientific evidence shows potential medical benefits to circumcision, such as a reduced risk of sexually transmitted diseases. However, it found insufficient data to recommend it as a routine procedure.

In the same statement, the pediatricians noted more varied sexual practice and less sexual dysfunction among circumcised adult men and anecdotal reports of decreased pleasure among uncircumcised men.

KRE/PH END POMERANCE