I am sorry to report that Dr Greg Canning is unable to join us at the London conference. A few days ago he sent me an email with the following, which he has cleared me to publish:

Hi Mike,

Unfortunately 2016 is not playing out the way I would have liked and due to a succession of family, practice and health issues I have decided reluctantly to forego attending the ICMI. Of course this means you will be less one presentation and I am sorry for that, but heartened by the extensive line up of speakers you have attracted. I wish you every success with the conference.

With best wishes

Greg

We hope that the various issues are resolved to Greg’s satisfaction, and thank him for letting us know in good time.

From the disappointing news to the good news. We have a speaker to take Greg’s place, Professor Martin Evison, Northumbria University Centre for Forensic Science. His talk title will be, ‘Ideology as a threat to due process and the presumption of innocence’.

Martin is an expert in forensic human identification, and has contributed to a variety of criminal and humanitarian investigations. He has published research on the pattern of fatalities in forensic anthropology cases, whether due to homicide, suicide or other causes, and also researched and given evidence on facial image comparison from CCTV.

I asked Martin for a few words for this blog post, and he sent this:

Forensic science is ‘science in the service of the Courts’ and is meant to offer reliable physical evidence that can help the jury make decisions regarding disputed facts and the guilt or innocence of the accused.

Forensic science is also expected to support crime reduction and prevention. My academic and professional work has made me aware of the considerably disproportionate number of male fatalities in criminal, coronial and humanitarian cases, and to consider what policies might address these public health problems.

I have also become aware of wrongful convictions arising from the improper use of forensic evidence, particularly following moral panics. The rise of digital evidence—such as from social media and CCTV—raises new issues and new risks.

Due process, the presumption of innocence, and equality before the law are core principles of English and other Common Law jurisdictions. I am worried we seem to believe Anglo-American culture is immune from the fate of societies that abandon legal principles for ideologically-motivated policies.

I have found it very difficult to sensibly debate gender-related and other justice or educational policies in academia—even scholarly ‘disinterest’ involves questioning Marxist-feminist orthodoxy—and having lived for five years in Ontario, Canada—I feel immensely encouraged by the work of CAFE, Professor Janice Fiamengo and others who are actively and thoughtfully addressing serious problems facing men and boys—and hence society as a whole, regardless of personal and professional consequences for them.

Dr Martin Scurr writes the ‘Ask the Doctor’ column in the Daily Mail. Our thanks to Jeff for pointing us to his piece in today’s edition. Extracts:

Regardless of the method of pain relief, the baby will be in agony for days afterwards, until the wound has healed.

And last year, a very careful study in Denmark of 340,000 boys born between 1994 and 2003 showed that those who undergo circumcision at birth run a greater risk of developing autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

For many years, we have known that pain and stressful surgery in early childhood can have long-term psychological consequences — indeed, newborns perceive pain and stress in the same way as older children and adults. Other studies have confirmed a link between a single painful injury and lifelong problems with stress response.

This sort of information prompted the vast Danish study, which found a 46-62 per cent increased risk of ASD in circumcised boys in the first ten years of life, and an 80-83 per cent increase in the first four years. This is shocking…

And then what about the ethics? Many children do not later share their parents’ beliefs or even their cultural values.

In my view, circumcision is a violation of human rights, and society has an obligation to protect children too young to object.

I had until today assumed that the illegality of MGM in the UK hadn’t been revealed publicly by a legally qualified person before a barrister revealed it in his talk at a conference in 2013. I was wrong. Earlier today I received an email from Patrick Smyth, reproduced here in full:

Mike

I don’t recall mentioning the work of Chris Price to you. I sadly never met him since he died before I became involved with NORM UK. He was a solicitor and a staunch intactivist. He compiled an absolutely monumental thesis on the illegality of infant male circumcision in 1996 which is still available on the Circumcision Reference Library website:

http://www.cirp.org/library/legal/price-uklc/

He also submitted an article to the Bulletin of Medical Ethics in 1997:

http://www.cirp.org/library/legal/price/

As well as contributing to an impressive tome on the subject:

https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Male_and_Female_Circumcision.html?id=ljZZ9ZvD_kQC&source=kp_cover&redir_esc=y

that can be viewed here:

http://www.cirp.org/library/legal/price2/

I understand that he was he was a chain smoker as a result of the effects of circumcision, and he died on the operating table whilst undergoing a lung transplant. I very much regret never meeting him.

Just thought it might be helpful as additional reference material on the legal position.

Regards.

Patrick

In the UK, as many men die from prostate cancer as women die from breast cancer. If the government cared a jot about the lives of men, it would fund this project. Because the government doesn’t care, a crowdfunder has been deemed necessary. Please donate what you can. Be sure to catch the video (2:55) which includes footage of Kevin Vardy, a hero in our eyes. Thank you.

[Note added 29.9.16: Sadly, the ‘Jews Against Circumcision’ website to which we linked in this post was taken down in the autumn of 2016. So we invite you to read their excellent leaflet.]

Brit shalom is a naming ceremony for newborn Jewish boys. It’s an alternative to Brit milah, which involves genital mutilation.]

Doubtless we’ll be hearing the lie that we’re an anti-Semitic party in the days preceding the Golders Green protest, despite the fact we’re not. Do those last five words need expressing? Probably, sadly. It seems as good a time as any to link to the website Jews Against Circumcision. The start of the home page:

We are a group of educated and enlightened Jews who realize that the barbaric, primitive, torturous, and mutilating practice of circumcision has no place in modern Judaism.

Rabbi Moses Maimonides himself acknowledged that circumcision is done to desensitize the penis and curb masturbation.

Jews are some of the smartest people in the world. We are 1/3rd of 1% of the population, yet we hold 33% of Nobel prizes. We are smart enough to understand that mutilating a little boys’ penis is not an acceptable practice in modern times.

Jasmin Newman is an Australian Honey Badger. She wanted to come to the London conference, but sadly didn’t have the funds available. Our thanks to Rick for this.