by Tom Gualtieri

Updated November 28, 2021

Circumcision Suicide – The Story of David Reimer

In the annals of severe cases, David Reimer’s is one of the most extreme. Reimer’s horror story remained largely unknown until an expose in Rolling Stone Magazine in December of 1997. Reimer and his twin brother were scheduled for circumcision several weeks after birth due to phimosis diagnosis. Phimosis is a tight foreskin which is often misdiagnosed and mistakenly treated through surgery. The first crime here is that it is impossible for an infant to have phimosis since the foreskin is naturally fused to the head of the penis. This is a normal state for all infants and children. Despite this fact, the doctor proceeded with a circumcision on David anyway.

When Reimer’s surgery went horribly wrong, his brother’s surgery was aborted. The brother’s “phimosis” cleared up on its own without surgical intervention. But Reimer’s penis turned black and fell off.

The loss of Mr. Reimer’s penis resulted in a series of tragic decisions. First, his parents were convinced by a Johns Hopkins expert Dr. John Money to choose sexual reassignment for David. What followed was an orchiectomy (the complete removal of Reimer’s testicles) and an attempt to raise him as a girl via hormones and dozens of genital surgeries throughout his life. In his teen years, Reimer’s father disclosed what had happened and Reimer attempted to live his life as a man until his suicide in 2004.

Reimer’s story went unreported for three decades. Other stories like it, told by horrified nurses, doctors and O.R. staff, are available to those who will listen. Reimer’s life is another casualty in the debate on the advantages and disadvantages of circumcision.  Read more about David’s tragic story at Slate.

Debate on Circumcision Advantages and Disadvantages Must Include Botches and Coverups

In an unrelated case, one nurse, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told me: “I had a baby who, shortly after his circumcision, his penis turned black and necrotic. [Author’s Note: Just like David Reimer’s tragedy, above] He was transferred to our hospital for evaluation and died within two weeks. Then several months ago, we had a partial amputation with urethral involvement. That baby had to be transferred to a another hospital for surgical repair and recovery. He will have lifetime urologic complications. His father was inconsolable.”

Hospitals don’t report the damage and deaths as directly caused by circumcision. Doctors prefer to list subsequent issues which would never had arisen if circumcision was not done. They will cite hemorrhage, seizures, shock, or a bad reaction caused by a drug. It’s kind of like saying a patient died because they stopped breathing, not from the gunshot wound. Hospitals obviously do this to shield themselves from malpractice lawsuits.

The associated complications of circumcision include infection, accidental amputation and sepsis. Death due to use of the wrong anesthesia and death from blood loss – whether or not a child is hemophiliac – are also risks. These things are often not discussing when debating the advantages and disadvantages of circumcision.

Children Can Die – Further Debate on Advantages and Disadvantages of Circumcision.

On March 9, 2013, an 11-day-old boy, whose parents posted about his surgical complications from circumcision, died as a result of blood loss due to his circumcision. He was a hemophiliac. Clotting disorders are a condition which could have been discovered first with specialized testing. But the test is never done prior to circumcision. There is not enough time to conduct the test. If the baby had not been circumcised, he would not have “bled out.” (The loss of a mere 2.3 ounces of blood is enough to kill an infant.)   Baby dies from circumcision

Noted sex advice columnist Dan Savage, (whose position on circumcision has changed since the adoption of his son in 1996), had no consolatory words for a young man who wrote to him in a 2004 column.  The young man said, “I am 24 years old and lost my entire glans penis, the head of my dick, in a botched circumcision. Basically, I have a shaft but there’s no head at the end…” Savage used this man’s example in response to a reader’s inquiry about circumcising her infant. Savage said, “…even if the odds are low–even if they’re infinitesimal, I would rather teach my son to wash under his foreskin.” “Why assume even the tiniest risk of him losing the head of his penis in a botched circumcision.” http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/SavageLove?oid=19705

Circumcision Advantage? | Pediatric Urologists Profit from Patching Disfigurements

Dr. M. David Gibbons, Associate Professor, Pediatric Urology at Georgetown University School of Medicine (who has an impressive list of affiliations in his field) said. “In my practice, as a pediatric urologist, I manage the complications of neonatal circumcision. I handled more than 275 newborns and toddlers in just two years. They all had complications from neonatal circumcision. Forty-five percent required corrective surgery – minor as well as major, especially for amputative injury. [With] 300 pediatric urologists in this country who have practices similar to mine… one can do the math.”
A case need not be extreme to cause sexual dysfunction (which does not always mean erectile difficulties but could include pain, irritation, anorgasmia and lack of sensitivity) or emotional trauma.

Further Debate | Advantages and Disadvantages. Circumcision Harms Men Throughout Life

Adam Z., a handsome 30-year-old in the computer industry, told me he became “enraged” when he learned that he had lost a part of his body. Adam said, “No one feels sympathy when you tell them you were harmed by circumcision. We vehemently oppose the cutting of female genitals. However male genitals are not protected. This sexist double-standard regarding genital cutting in this society is absolutely staggering.”

Activist Jonathon Conte

Thirty-one-year-old Intactivist Jonathon Conte is open about his anger but finds it a difficult subject to revisit. He channels his feelings into “the human rights movement to abolish non-therapeutic, non-consensual genital cutting. I believe that all individuals – male, female and intersex – have a fundamental right to bodily integrity.” An activist and events coordinator for Bay Area Intactivists, Conte wants people to understand that “circumcision negatively impacts a man and those around him throughout life.” With Americans in denial that the foreskin serves a necessary function, the job of activists like Conte becomes doubly difficult, struggling with their own resurfacing feelings while trying to educate. [ Editor’s note: Conte committed suicide in May 2016, which further underscores the pain and depression some young men are suffering through.]

More Guys Comment on Circumcision Disadvantages

Another intactivist, here referred to as “Leo” asks, “Why do you think the foreskin covers the head of the penis? Why does it exist? Why does it move the way it does? One moment of scientific thought should get you thinking.” Leo tries to get people to understand that there are no mistakes in nature’s design. “Why?” Leo says, is one of the first things a child learns to ask. The child is quickly taught to stop asking because there are some things parents and society don’t want to acknowledge. I kept asking ‘why’ about my circumcision. I was disgusted when I found out the answer. They cut a delicate baby’s genitals from his body. It was mine. What right did anyone have to take a part of my sex organ?”

Peter C., a Filipino man residing in New Zealand after being raised in the Philippines, was circumcised in adolescence. “Getting cut,” he maintains, “didn’t really stop me from [masturbating.] It only made it less enjoyable.”

Jonathan Friedman was circumcised in a bris. A bris is a Jewish religious ceremony which is performed on boys on the eighth day after birth. As Jonathan matured, he realized that his shaft skin was very tight. He said, “I always injured myself and had to stop masturbating or having sex.” He further said, “I don’t feel anything when I have penetrative sex and I orgasm unexpectedly or not at all.”

Suffering and Depression Not Part of debate on Circumcision Advantages and Disadvantages

Some men have no feelings at all about their circumcision. Other men live with rage. At the present we must examine the long-term, psychological effects of circumcision through anecdotal evidence. No one has conducted any extensive high-profile studies. But columnist Dan Savage had a remarkably erudite and direct way of addressing the question of whether or not to circumcise an infant.

He writes, “…most cut men are happy with their dicks… and most uncut men are happy with theirs. The thing about the unhappy cut men, though, is that they can’t get uncut, you know what I’m saying?”

After all, when debating the advantages and disadvantages of circumcision, shouldn’t it be a man’s choice? A choice made for him is no choice at all.