Flesh and Blood: Perspectives on the Problem of Circumcision in Contemporary Society Book

Proceedings of the 7th International Symposium on Human Rights and Modern Society; Advancing Human Dignity and the Legal Right to Bodily Integrity in the 21st Century, held April 4-7, 2002, in Washington DC, USA. Circumcision is a cultural phenomenon that affects 15.3 million children and young adults annually. In terms of gender, 13.3 million boys and 2 million girls are subjected to the involuntary removal of part or all of their external sexual organs every year. Few people, however, have paused to ask why such practice should persist or how modern societies can tolerate in inherent infraction of human rights that these practices represent. The problem of female circumcision has been addressed on an international level, but male circumcision remains a highly taboo subject that many academics have been reluctant to examine fully or impartially. As a social history, as well as a legal and medical analysis, this book explores the problem of circumcision in modern society from a multi-disciplinary vantage point. This book illuminates the vulnerability of human society to medical, economic, and historical pressures. It provides a much needed thoughtful and detailed analysis of the impact of circumcision on human rights and the development of the concept of bodily integrity. In this last sense, the challenge posed by the contemporary cultural disregard for the individual's right to control his own body and sexual destiny serves as a vivid example of how medicine has played a decisive role in shaping and defining cultural attitudes towards male sexuality and the male body.Read More