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 NIH Circumcision Policy Criticized
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: December 16, 2006 11:00 am ET
(New York City) A coalition of international
medical experts and bioethicists who oppose circumcision generally have
denounced the National Institutes of Health endorsement of circumcision as a
solution to the HIV/AIDS crisis as being irresponsible.
George Denniston, MD, President of the
international group, Doctors Opposing Circumcision, says "The NIH
suggestion is dangerous folly. Worse, the NIH plan will permit circumcised men
to claim they are immune to HIV and engage in unsafe sex. In cultures where
women are obliged to submit, this is a recipe for a human rights disaster to
women on a massive scale. Safe-sex education and widespread availability of
condoms are the only answers before a vaccine is developed."
Critics of the plan, which include the umbrella
group International Coalition for Genital Integrity, note that traditional
African cutting and scarring rituals, and even modern medical care, are both
proven sources of HIV infection.
Surgeries in villages where even clean water is a
luxury are likely to prove risky.
The coalition, which also opposes female genital
mutilation, known as FGM, is also concerned that suggesting genital surgery is
the solution to the AIDS crisis, ”will sustain FGM or introduce it where it is
unknown, at the same time as the World Health Organization has pronounced the
practice ‘genital torture,’” says Dan Bollinger, the group’s
spokesperson.
The NIH has claimed that circumcising adult men
is an effective way to stop the transmission of the virus that causes
AIDS.
However, even if true, this does not apply to
America where the disease vectors are different and hygiene is not an issue the
group said.
HIV/AIDS in Africa is spread primarily by heterosexual
transmission, while HIV/AIDS in the United States is spread largely by homosexual
transmission and the sharing of IV drug needles.
Genital integrity groups are not the only ones
questioning the NIH. Dr. Haanah Kibuuka of the Makerere University Walter Reed
Project in Uganda has made the following recommendation to his countrymen,
"Do not expose yourself to danger in the mistaken belief that since you are
circumcised, you will not catch HIV."
Robert Van Howe, MD, Michigan State University
says, “Factors such as the unknown complication rate of the procedure, the
permanent injury to the penis, human rights violations and the potential for
veiled colonialism need to be taken into account."
Van Howe said that based on the best estimates,
mass circumcision would not be as cost-effective as other interventions that
have been demonstrated to be effective. Even if effective, mass circumcision as
a preventive measure for HIV in developed countries is difficult to justify, he
said.
©365Gay.com 2006
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