Alex Renton
[back] Male Circumcision

[Guardian journo pushing circumcision.  Unbelievable really, that this covert-hostile trash should ever see the light of day.  Just about all of his argument rests on the HIV hoax, and African AIDS statistics from the WHO!  And get the 'linked' term for HPV and cervical cancer, also the spurious argument behind the useless killer HPV vaccine.  And it appears he was mutilated also.  No surprise there!  Trying to improve on Creator, ends in tears.]

Letters re Alex Renton articles

[2009 July] It protects men (and women) against fatal diseases and sexual infections. So, should all boys be circumcised?

"Large-scale trials of circumcision in Aids-stricken African countries proved what had long been suspected - that heterosexual men who were circumcised were 60 per cent less likely to become infected with HIV. "

"Circumcision also means it is easier to keep the penis clean, so men are less likely to pass on the human papilloma virus (HPV), linked to cervical cancer, the disease that kills around 1,000 women in the UK every year."

"World Aids experts say the failure to act upon 25-year-old evidence that male circumcision plays a major role in preventing transmission of the human immuno-deficiency virus (HIV) may have cost "millions of lives", especially in Africa." Failure to circumcise men 'may have cost millions of Aids deaths'

LOL.  'AIDS experts', an oxymoron.  See: AIDS in Africa African disease statistics

"Circumcision also means it is easier to keep the penis clean."

Oh please.

"But the World Health Organisation, the United States' Center for Disease Control ....say the NHS is wrong: the case for circumcision is proven."

See: CDC  World Health Organisation (WHO)  Two more genocidal covert-hostile outfits it would be hard to find!

Comments [Good point about babies not having sex.]

Alex Renton argues the case for male circumcision ("So, would you have your son circumcised?", Observer Woman, last week). Renton's argument is valid only for the developing countries in which this research took place. Most European men are not circumcised but, despite this, have very low rates of HIV infection. Personally I'd rather give my winkie a good wash than cut off the top bit. I'm sorry this option is not open for Mr Renton, but he shouldn't take it out on innocent young boys who definitely don't deserve to be mutilated.
Daniel Hansson
London SW16

As a surgeon, I never discuss operations with a patient without also mentioning the risks involved. It is, therefore, irresponsible to write about the benefits of male circumcision without also mentioning the risks.
    Moreover, Alex Renton ignores the issue of consent. Since babies cannot give consent for themselves, any medical or surgical intervention performed must be to prevent a disease that may befall them as a child, thus necessitating that intervention at an early age. Since newborns do not have sex, HIV prevention is not a valid reason to perform this operation at that age.
Dr Anish N Shah
London W14

Alex Renton makes some astonishing claims for circumcision. Although it's plausible that excising the delicate mobile parts of the penis rendering it smooth and leathery might reduce incidence of some STDs, attempts to compensate the sensual losses are likely to result in more partners, more heterosexual anal sex, and less use of condoms. In the developed world, that circumcision is illogical is easily exposed - 75 years after introducing mass male circumcision, America is one of the developed nations most burdened with HIV.
    But none of this is relevant to the question of whether a GP, mohel, surgeon, or Alex with a kitchen knife should excise the most sensitive portion of his infant cousin's penis. The child gains no benefit at all, and indeed is put at immediate risk of harm. With two UK circumcision inquests this year, and the "Xhosa cut" which Alex favours currently killing one to two boys each day in South Africa, what is most astonishing about these articles is how they circumcised the truth.
Laura MacDonald
Trustee
NORM-UK
Granville Chambers
Stone, Staffordshire