AIDS and circumcision

As recently as April 4th a writer for the UCLA Daily Bruin demanded that circumcision be outlawed, calling it “genital mutilation” and a “violation of human rights.” She is not alone. Earlier this year a bill was introduced in the California state legislature that would make circumcision illegal. After reading the bill, it is hard for me to wonder whether the real agenda isn’t anti-religious bigotry since the arguments against circumcision are vastly are overstated and Jews and Muslims would be the primary targets. http://www.mgmbill.org/camgmbill.htm

This controversy, however, is what makes the article in the July 5, 2005 Wall Street Journal so interesting. The Wall Street Journal reports “…French and South African researchers have apparently found that male circumcisions reduce by about 70% the risk that men will contract HIV through intercourse with infected women.” If scientists even remotely suspected that they had discovered a medication which might reduce AIDS by 70%, every major news outlet in the country would be on the story like flies on cowpies! So far, the San Francisco Chronicle is the only major news source to have picked up on the Wall Street Journal story. Radio commentator Dennis Prager suspects that many in the media are so biased against religion that they suppress the story deliberately. It’s hard to imagine that so many journalists could be so bigoted as to suppress news which--if confirmed--could save millions of lives. I sincerely hope that religious bigotry is not the reason the lack of widespread media attention.