Whose Body, Whose Rights?:

Examining the Ethics and the Human Rights Issue of Infant Male Circumcision

By Lawrence Dillon and Tim Hammond

1995

"Contains uncensored footage of male genitalia and of actual infant circumcisions. Viewer discretion advised."

Part I is self-contained for stand-alone use within a 30-minute time constraint. 56 minutes. Color/Stereo.

$34.95. 1-800-343-4727. VideoFinders, 4401 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90027. For censored version (adult genitals in Part II obscured) or discount on volume orders, call 1-415-826-9351.

"A social issue video documentary examining the ethics and the human rights issue of infant male circumcision. Part One: Wounding Our Children, Wounding Ourselves deals with past and present medical and social rationale for circumcising children of both sexes, foreskin functions, adverse outcomes, and legal and constitutional issues. Part Two: Healing Ourselves, Healing Society deals with men's growing consciousness of this issue, changing religious attitudes, foreskin restoration, legal and social action, and professional conscientious objection."

To help viewers better understand why men have become active on this issue, basic male anatomy is demystified -- including the structure, function and value of the foreskin -- and the scope of the problem and adverse outcomes of infant circumcision are revealed.

Tracing contemporary history from Victorian use of circumcision to control the sexuality of children of both sexes, to military circumcision campaigns targeting blacks during World Wars, the video examines how circumcision became a social custom in English-speaking cultures, especially the United States. Current medical ethics are evaluated by men of various ages, races, religions and sexual orientations as they share individual and collective testimony about the adverse physical, sexual and psychological impact on their lives of a surgery they did not choose.

Women's views are also revealed -- mothers who feel betrayed by the medical profession's promotion of painful newborn surgery -- as well as survivors of female genital mutilation who expose the cross-cultural similarities in beliefs about the disposability of male and female children's genitalia.

This documentary probes the positive steps people are taking to heal themselves, to educate others, and to guarantee fundamental human rights of body ownership and self-determination for future generations of children, through filming of uncircumcision support meetings, interviews with doctors who no longer circumcise infants, demonstrations against medical associations and suppliers of circumcision equipment, performance art pieces, and other art forms.

Whose Body, Whose Rights? is a unique video ripe for our time, certain to provoke both inner reflection and cultural self-examination.

". . . very powerful, to the point and attention-holding." John Money, PhD, Professor of Medical Psychology and Professor of Pediatrics, Emeritus, John Hopkins University School of Medicine

"Whose Body, Whose Rights? will compel every health care professional, especially doctors and nurses, in taking to heart their oath -- Do No Harm." Norma Wilcox, RN, University of California, San Francisco Medical School

"Like many therapists living in a culture that routinely circumcises, I learned from textbooks that nearly always showed the penis without a foreskin as being normal, so I presumed that men upset by their circumcision had a mental disorder. That impression was dispelled by this video's wealth of factual data about truly natural male sexual functioning and its rational look at some of the very adverse outcomes caused by circumcision." Louanne Cole, PhD, Sex Therapist and San Francisco Examiner "Sex Matters" columnist

"As a Jewish therapist specializing in men's issues for the last 30 years, I know that stopping genital mutilation is the single most important thing we can do to insure the physical and psychological health of men." Jed Diamond, LCSW, author, The Warrior's Journey Home: Healing Men, Healing the Planet

"Whose Body, Whose Rights? reveals the painful human rights realization that reproductive integrity and sexual health are repeatedly violated through destructive sexual surgeries attacking the most vulnerable members of society." Prof. Anastasios Zavales, Reporting Officer to UN Working Group of International Experts on Violations of Genital Mutilation

"This film focuses squarely and necessarily on the question: Does a child's body belong to his parents or to him?" Jim Senter, Executive Director, National Child Rights Alliance

"Long-term damage from circumcision, which this video identifies, can help one to better understand why growing numbers of men are seeking to regain their natural genital integrity. Whose Body, Whose Rights? gives hope to these men that this is not an isolated or fringe desire." Richard DeSeabra, Director, National Organization of Restoring Men, NYC Chapter

"The painful cries of little boys being circumcised remind me of my own painful experience of female genital mutilation. It is the norm in my culture to mutilate girls, as it is in the U.S. for boys. It really terrifies me to know this. Hopefully this film will educate Americans about the harmful effects of male genital mutilation." Soraya Mire, Somali-born Director/Producer of the film about female genital mutilation, Fire Eyes