Queensland Law Reform Commission Research Paper (Queensland Law Reform Commission, Brisbane), December 1993.
The practice of circumcising3 male infants dates at least back to 2340-2180 BC. Egyptian representations of Pharaonic times show the circumcised penis. It is apparent that male circumcision had been practised in Egypt for many thousands of years.4 Because of the uniqueness of Egyptian records, it is not possible to make any conclusive statements about either the origins of male circumcision or about its spread.
In Genesis 17 of the Old Testament God is said to have directed Abraham to circumcise himself, his son and all other males in his house.5
10 -- This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised.
11 -- And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you.
12 -- And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed.
13 -- He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.
14 -- And the uncircumcised man whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant ....
23 -- And Abraham took Ishmael his son, and all that were born in his house, and all that were bought with money, every male among the men of Abraham's house; and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin in the selfsame day, as God has said unto him.
24 -- And Abraham was ninety years old, when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.
25 -- And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old, when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.
26 -- In the selfsame day was Abraham circumcised and Ishmael his son.
27 -- And all the men in his house, born in the house, and bought money with the stranger, were circumcised with him.
In the Islamic religion, Abraham was the first Prophet to be circumcised.6 Dr S N Khan states:7
Circumcision, encouraged in Islam and widely practised by Muslims, is a tradition of the Prophet and an important ritual. It is recommended that it be performed on the newborn but in some communities, it is done just before puberty.
In a submission to the Commission, it was stated:8
We wish to emphasize that Muslim parents or guardians throughout the world enjoy the right to consent to circumcision of young boys on the ground of authentic religious reasons, although some doctors may support it on purely medical grounds.
Rabbi John Levi has summarised the mainstream Jewish attitude to circumcision as:9
Jewish male children must be circumcised on the eight day of life unless there is a danger to the child's life because of the operation, in which case it may be delayed. (The traditional eight days are counted by including the first day of life: a child born on a Sunday is circumcised the following Sunday). Circumcision in Jewish life is a religious ceremony and should, if possible, be performed by a Jewish doctor who has been trained to do it and will read the appropriate religious service and name the child.
Both Jews and Muslims circumcise in accordance with Abraham's covenant with God. Most of the major religions in Australia do not promote routine circumcision or consider it to be a mandated religious practice.10
Non-religious theories of the origin of male circumcision suggest that it was practised as a punitive measure, as a puberty or premarital rite, as an absolution against the feared toxic influences of vaginal (hymeneal) blood, for other health reasons, as a mark of slavery or for cosmetic reasons.
Some claim it as diminution of human sacrifice.11
Hosken observes:12
Some anthropologists also speculate how or if the
tradition of male circumcision, the removal of the
prepuce, is related to cutting off the entire penis
which was offered as a sacrifice to the gods. This
is said to have been practiced in ancient Egypt. The
custom to use the male genitals as war trophies was
also widespead as reported in Middle Eastern history,
and has also been recorded by the ancient Egyptians.
The Gallas, Somalis and the Abyssinians, it is
related, cut the complete genital apparatus off their
enemies. Some warriers offered the genitalia of
their enemies as trophies to the girls they chose to
marry. To use male genitalia as war trophies continues
to be present in some parts of Africa; for instance it
was reported in the two recent upheavals in Zaire
(Biafra and Shaba Province). It was also reported in
Vietnam.
Circumcision of both boys and girls came into fashion
long before Islam, and was practiced in many different
areas of Africa. The practice was unknown to the
Romans until they conquered Egypt and the Middle East.
The Copts in Egypt, and the Abyssinians (Ethiopians)
have practiced circumcision of boys and girls (at a
much younger age than the typical puberty rites of
Sub-saharan Africans) from prehistoric times.
It is stated that both the Jews and the Arabs
learned circumcision in Egypt, rather than vice
versa. The rule in the Middle East, as will as in
Sub-saharan Africa, is that a boy cannot get married
unless he is circumcised. The same rule applied to
excision [in females], which has acquired much the
same rhetoric and similar, though less important,
rituals as the male operation. All rituals connected
with men are more important in the Middle East, as
well as most of Africa because of the dominant
position of men. The purpose and result of excision
and infibulation [in females] are quite the opposite
of the male operation, though they are often
correlated, a fact which was and is not at all known
to the practitioners.
... excision [in females] is practiced to affirm the
sex of the individual, because it is believed that
the clitoris represents a male element in a female,
and the prepuce of the penis represent femininity in a
boy. Hence, the girls are excised and the boys
circumcised in order to establish their sex in
society.
In a number of Western countries such as the United States of America and Australia, the practice of male circumcision for non-religious reasons became prevalent by the beginning of the twentieth century.
Within the miasma of myth and ignorance [when the aetiology of most diseases was unknown], a theory emerged that masturbation caused many and varied ills. It seemed logical to some physicians to perform genital surgery on both sexes to stop masturbation.13
In 1891 P C Remondino, MD, advocated circumcision to prevent or cure alcholism, epilepsy, asthma, hernia, gout, rheumatism, curvature of the spine, and headaches.14
During the First World War circumcision was promoted for hygiene reasons and for prevention of venereal diseases.15
In the 1930's it was considered that circumcision prevents cancer of the penis.16 In the 1950's it was claimed that cervical cancer occurs in women because their partners are not circumcised.17
In World War II male troops were encouraged to be circumcised, given limited personal hygiene facilities in overseas combat zones. Circumcision is not now encouraged unless the person presents with a medical condition indicating a need for circumcision.18
By the 1960's the majority of Australian and virtually all United States and Canadian male infants were circumcised.19
Circumcision of boys and adolescents is also a part of Australian Aboriginal culture, at least in certain area. John Cawte notes:20
Circumcision in adolescence will probably remain a
feature of Aboriginal cultural life in the Centre.
It provides an occasion for social integration,
personal identity, and a holiday. But changes must
be expected with growing westernisation. For example,
requests are being heard for the operative procedure
to be carried out with proper surgical and aseptic
precautions ... with retention of the elaborate tribal
ritual before, during and after the surgical ceremony.
Many educated Aborigines who have grown up without
undergoing the circumcision ceremony, because of
Mission affliations at the time, express an
uncomfortable sense of incomplete tribal
responsibility and status. They are asking for the
operation, even at mature ages. The European doctor who
offers his service finds himself questioning whether
his own culture does not circumcise at the wrong time,
when the little boys are too young to appreciate the
psychological and social implications of the kind that
Aborigines understand very well. Certainly he will have
no wish to interfere with the Aboriginal view of the
procedure's proper timing.21
Money et al have described the circumcision practices of the Yoingu Aboriginal community at Arnhemland. At the age of 8 or 9 boys go through an initiation ceremony of circumcision or `dhapi':22
The ceremonial initiates among the elders carry the
boy off, safe from the view of girls and women,
encircling him in close formation. One of them lies
on his back on the ground, the boy lying face upward
upon him and pinioned in a locked embrace. Another
man holds down the boy's legs. A third does the actual
cutting. In ancient times a stone knife was used.
Today the instrument is a razor blade. The cutting is
more likely to be a series of dissection movements
rather than swift incision. The boy may cry out with
the pain. Immediately the foreskin is removed, the
men in charge carry the boy into the bush nearby where
he is passed through the smoke of a fire for spiritual
cleansing. The bleeding of his penis is stopped by
cauterizing with a piece of hot charcoal and the
application of hot, wet leaves. He returns to his
home camp-fire and there rests and recuperates about
a week.
The meaning of the ceremony is, like the origin of
circumcision itself, lost in the unrecorded annals of
prehistory. My own theoretical guess is that is
represents a substitute for, and attenuation of, a
still earlier practice of human sacrifice. One may
see a similarity with the way in which the symbol of
the Crucifixion became a substitute for, and
attenuation of the animal sacrifice of Old Testament
times.
Similarly, Meggit refers to the circumcision for boys between 11 and 13 in the Walbiri people of Central Australia.
The rite of circumcision and its attendant ceremonies firmly and unequivocably establish a youth's status in Walbiri society. Should he fail to pass through these rites, he may not enter into his father's lodge, he may not participate in religious ceremonies, he cannot acquire a marriage line, he cannot legitimately obtain a wife; in short, he cannot become a social person.
Meggit also notes that:24
The Walbiri explicitly equate circumcision with ritual killing.
Subincision is performed on youths of the Walbiri people at 17 years of age. Subincision has been described by Meggit as follows:25
To the accompaniment of loud chanting by the company, the man deftly slices open the youth's penis from the meatus to a point about an inch along the urethra. An elder brother also hold the penis, to ensure that the "inside bone" is not cut, while others brothers stand ready to kill the incisor if he bungles his task. The operator withdraws immediately he makes the cut ... it is not until he is betrothed, a couple of years after he has been sub-incised that he is regarded as an adult.
Over the last two decades the popularity of neonatal circumcision has decreased.26 By 1980 only 40 percent of Australian male babies were circumcised.27
It is unclear what the current rate of circumcision is in Australia, although estimates range from 25 per cent28 to 35 per cent.29
Note:
The Australian College of Paediatrics, Parkville, Vic., reported that in 1995-96 the incidence of male circumcision from birth to age 6 mos. ranged from a low of 5.4 per cent in Victoria to a high of 17.2 per cent in Queensland with the all Australia incidence being 10.6 per cent.
The number of circumcisions qualifying for Medicare reimbursement in Australia has remained fairly static over the last 5 years30 and may have actually decreased slightly on a per capita basis, given the increase in the number of live births over that time.
The highest proportion of circumcisions Australia-wide and in Queensland were performed on infants less than 6 months of age, which suggests that they were performed for religious, cultural or perceived prophylactic purposes.31 Relatively few circumcisions are performed on public patients in public hospitals in Queensland. Some public hospitals have adopted a policy of not performing routine neonatal circumcisions. When circumcisions are performed in public hospitals, they tend to be performed on older children.32 This may indicate a reluctance to circumcise newborns. It could also indicate a medical need to circumcise older infants.
In the United States, circumcision rates remain high at between 50 - 75 per cent.33 It has been estimated that between 75 per cent34 and 85 per cent of the world's male population are not and will not be circumcised.35 In most European countries circumcision is not a routine approved procedure.
Note:
The US government statistics show an overall rate of 60.2 per cent for 1996. The rate varied from a high of 80 per cent in the Mid West to 35 per cent in the West.??
12 -- As many as desire to make a fair shew in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised; only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ.
13 -- For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law; but desire to have you circumcised that they may glory in your flesh.
14 -- But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.
15 -- For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.
16 -- And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.
Circumcision is neither required nor prohibited by the Salvation Army; it is a matter for parents to decide. Circumcision is not under taken as a religious ritual ....
Manning KM. A Catholic Viewpoint. Australian Family Physician Vol 15 No 4 April 1986 493 at 496:No great importance is attached to this in Christian tradition. Reasons such as hygiene justify its use.
McClean D. Jehovah's Witnesses. Australian Family Physician Vol 15 No 6 June 1986 772.While circumcision was mandatory for Israelite males, it is not seen as applying to Christians but couples may have their child circumcised if they wish.
Baliozian A. Armenian Church. Australian Family Physician Vol 15 No 8 August 1986 1024:Generally [circumcision] is opposed by the Church but accepted if a medical practitioner decides it is for the patient's benefit.
Ewers GA. Churches of Christ. Australian Family Physician Vol 15 No 8 August 1986 1024:Few members, if any, would have objection to ... circumcision although there is no stated policy on these things.
Archbishop Styllanos. Greek Orthodox. Australian Family Physician Vol 15 No 8 August 1986 1024-1025:Circumcision and the like constitute individual issues in Christian ethics and cannot be answered a priori, that is to say, without bearing in mind the person they relate to.
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