AB 768 Hearing: California Lawmakers Push Forced Genital Cutting on Babies


Image courtesy of the Barefoot Intactivist
Still photos from physician's circumcision training video here.


Hearing Footage Part One: 


Hearing Footage Part Two: 



Related Reading: 

Legislative Analysis of the Bill *Note this analysis is full of myths, half-truth, and corrupt propositions and declarations that are not research based in the least. It shows just how pro-cutting the legislative board is.

AB 768 Press Conference

AB 768 Committee Hearing

California Politicians Make False Claims - Write the Governor

Foreskin-Restoration Thread

AB 768 Approved

Bill Passes to Protect Genital Cutting


Communities:

Legalize Foreskin California

California: CHANGE Chapter

San Francisco MGM Bill

Bay Area Intactivists 

NOCIRC (chapters throughout California)

Assemblyman Mike Gatto's Facebook Page - page admins continue to remove pro-intact comments and research based discussion, so save a copy of what you write before posting.

Volunteer in your state with the MGM Bill.

Start a Peaceful Parenting Network chapter in your community and host meet-ups, workshops, and film nights on intact information.

Help administer your state's Whole Network chapter.


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Intact or Circumcised: A Significant Difference in the Adult Penis

By Danelle Day, Ph.D. © 2011







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NOTICE:

The images below are graphic in nature for the purpose of education.
They may not be suitable for viewing in the workplace.
Saving Our Sons takes a strong position against all forms of violence and aggression toward all babies and children. Through education we strive to make the world a more peace-filled place.






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The penis and clitoris are analogous and homologous organs: they perform similar functions, share a common design, and biologically develop from the same tissues inutero. The glans (head) of the penis or clitoris is an internal organ. It is meant to remain covered for the majority of its livelihood, in similar nature to the way that the eyeballs are covered for a good portion of our lives (when we blink or sleep), and the way the ends of our fingers and toes are protected by our nails.

If we surgically amputate the eyelids or fingernails, we will face the repercussions of making an organ that was designed to be internal, external. In order to survive this damage, the organ must adapt. To do so, a variety of features will change (both immediately, and progressively over the years): pH will be altered, temperature will no longer remain stable in that organ, moisture and lubrication levels will not be maintained, leading to dryness and potential chapping, antibodies and healthy microflora that previously served to protect will cease to exist, and callusing (the build-up of multiple hardened layers of skin) will take place. Our body may attempt to heal itself by forming skin bridges or re-adhesions over the amputation site. Our eyeballs and fingertips would become thick, dry, discolored, and no longer function in the manner they were designed to.

So it is the same with the glans of the penis or clitoris. If we remove the very organ, the prepuce, which serves to cover, protect and regulate the health, pH, temperature, lubrication, antibodies, movement and functioning of the genitals, we've altered form so dramatically that the purposes it was created to fulfill can no longer be realized.

Not only is this evident in research: human development and sexuality especially, but the dramatic difference is also readily apparent to any lay onlooker observing the intact human genitals versus those that no longer remain in their original whole state.

Female and male genital cutting, especially in the manner that prepuce amputation is carried out in U.S. style male circumcision surgery (most often via Gomco or Plastibell amputations), is not only immediately damaging to a newborn baby; it is also permanently altering and forever changing the adult male body, and impacts all future sexual partner(s) as well.


Above: Newborn boys in their normal intact state (left) and those who have had their prepuce amputated via circumcision (right). Top left = Plastibell. Bottom left = Gomco

Below: Adult men in their normal intact state (left) and others who had their prepuce amputated via infant circumcision (right) forcing the glans to adapt as an external organ: something it was never meant to be.


To learn more about the many purposes of the prepuce, see: Functions of the Foreskin and related articles linked within.

Today, approximately 250,000 men who were circumcised at birth are restoring some of what was lost. If you are one of these men, you are not alone. Find resources and discuss the topic with other men via articles, sites, organizations and options for foreskin restoration here.













Intact Celebrities

Intact or Circumcised: Penis Glans (head) in the Adult Male
(work safe version)

Q&A For Intact Men


We receive a large volume of mail from parents wondering what to tell their intact son as he grows up and becomes fully retractable on his own. Thanks to the efforts of several intact groups, parents today are getting the message: "DON'T RETRACT! Only Clean What is Seen! Wipe like a finger - outside only - warm water," as they care for their babies. But when these babies grow up, U.S. parents still do not have a good go-to source for information on how to discuss this topic with sons who may be the first intact men in several generations of their family. There is a lost shared wisdom about the intact body and how to gently and properly care for it.

In addition, there are no 'development' or 'sex ed' books in the U.S. that treats the intact male body as fully normal and not 'dirty' -- even those books that present intact male anatomy still have a paragraph or two somewhere within their covers that would lead intact boys to think they were more 'at risk' or more in need of 'cleaning' than their non-intact counterparts.

As such, we are working on a series of items geared specifically for boys growing up and the parents who want to know, "What do I say to him?!" If you are a parent of intact sons, or are a man (of any age) who has grown up intact, and you'd like to share any aspect of your story to benefit these young men today, or their parents, please drop us a note. We would love to hear your voice in response to some of the questions below as well. They will be compiled with others' answers, and used anonymously/first name or pseudonym only (depending on the respondent's preference) to lend insight into what all the other guys are doing...

Responses, questions or personal stories may be sent to:  SavingSons@gmail.com


1) How do you 'clean'? Be as specific as you like. It will help others who are new to all things intact.


2) If you remember bath time as a child, was there anything your parents said/did not say or do/not do that was specific to your intact state?


3) What would you tell parents who have an intact boy and would like to know what to do after he is retracting on his own?


4) What would you suggest that parents say/not say to their child as he reaches his pre-teen years/puberty?


5) Is there a foreskin-friendly/intact-friendly book for boys growing up that you know of?


6) Any other comments that would be useful to a generation of U.S. parents raising intact sons for the first time?


Thank you for sharing and helping out a new generation of young men!


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Doctors Who Circumcise: Breaking the Law in Britain

Via Men's Health Forum

Supporters of genital autonomy have argued that the practice of male genital cutting (circumcision) could be illegal on minors under the Offences Against the Person Act and have critiqued the British Medical Association's position on the circumcision surgery as 'unethical.'

Earlier this month, Men Do Complain (MDC) and NORM-UK chairman, Dr. John Warren, and colleagues (pictured above) delivered an open letter to the BMA arguing that, "A child who has no disease, no injury or no dangerous abnormality has no need of any type of treatment or irreversible surgery" and that to carry it out just to please the parents "violates the autonomy of children."

The letter goes on to say that "Any surgery that is performed without the patient’s personal consent and without therapeutic need is clearly an assault. Any cut made without consent or therapeutic need 'that breaks the continuity of the skin' is a wounding under the (Offences Against the Person) Act 1861."

All other genital touching is vigorously prosecuted under British law.

Richard Dunker of MDC said, "The current attitude of the medical authorities toward circumcision is inappropriate in an era where children’s individual rights are increasingly recognised. Adults have a duty of care and responsibility to nurture their children, but this does not extend to a power to authorise non-therapeutic removal of a body part, however trivial an individual doctor may consider it to be."

Dunker continues, "It is hard to see how protecting children from unnecessary genital surgery is not in the public interest when prosecutions for touching the genitals of children are vigorously pursued. In a non-therapeutic circumcision such touching is done with impunity."



The rate of genital cutting in Britain is significantly lower than in the United States (where the CDC reported 32% of baby boys born in 2009 were circumcised).

Additional information on the prepuce (foreskin), intact care, and circumcision at: Are You Fully Informed? 


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