Genital Autonomy: Protecting Personal Choice with Marilyn Milos, RN

The Voice of Change welcomes Marilyn Milos, Registered Nurse to the program. The focus of the program is: Genital Autonomy: Protecting Personal Choice. Marilyn Milos, Founder and Executive Director of the National Organization of Circumcision Information Resource Centers (NOCIRC), the Coordinator of the International Symposia on Circumcision, Genital Integrity, and Human Rights, and the co-editor of seven books of symposia proceedings, has been called the “Mother of the American Genital Integrity Movement.” Regarding this program Marilyn writes: While the history of circumcision as a puberty ritual or religious rite has been lost in antiquity, the infiltration of circumcision in the mid-1800s in English-speaking countries as a way to prevent masturbation—which was believed to cause disease--is well documented and will be discussed. From masturbation onward, we’ve used one excuse after another to perpetuate this non-therapeutic surgery, which is a billion-dollar-a-year industry in the USA, while the other English-speaking countries have worked to bring the practice to an end. The rate of circumcision in the USA in 1979, when I began my work was 85-95%. Today, the CDC says the national rate has dropped to 32.5%. Today’s parents are saying “No!” to circumcision. We’ll talk about why.