28 October 2002
A shadowy Seattle group, the P.L.O., the Penis Liberation ORGANization,
lead by Commander Zero-Circ, modified a University of Washington
Medical Center billboard over the weekend. The UN-circumcised
billboard stands at the south end of the Fremont Bridge in Seattle.
The group opposes the continued practice of non-therapeutic, unconsented
infant circumcision, a practice in steep decline in Washington, Oregon,
California, and British Columbia, but still performed by some physicians.
The PLO's Commander Zero-Circ defended the group's guerilla tactic,
"It is unethical to amputate healthy erogenous tissue from a child who did
not consent to being painfully modified to suit cosmetic tastes of the
past."
The group feels doctors should be open and honest about the lack of
medical necessity and the worldwide decline of this antique practice, one
that not a single European country ever adopted.
The group notes that medicalized circumcision, male and female, only
affected the English speaking world. The female version has been illegal
in the US since 1997. Other English-speaking countries, notably
Australia, New Zealand and Canada, have largely abandoned the male
version. The practice was halted in England in 1952, the country where it
was first championed.
[Commander Zero-Circ's spokesperson is a local attorney.]
