Indexing Title: CLEYSONs Medical Anecdotal Report [04-8]

MAR Title:  Breaking a Tradition

 Date of Medical Observation: Nov, 2003

 Narration:

One peaceful evening, a 16-year-old male stepped into the emergency room looking pale, shaking and holding his crotch. I noticed that it was bleeding. On examination, a 6 cm incised wound at the dorsal aspect of the shaft with hematoma and continuously bleeding. As I was controlling the bleeders, I asked him what happened. He hesitated at first; then he timidly said that he incised himself using a Gillette blade.

He said that his friends found out that he was not yet circumcised. They started teasing him, calling him names like “Boy Supot” or “Boy Duwag”.  Some of his peers were insinuating that he might be thrown out of the “Barkadahan”. He was humiliated; he felt an outcast. He tried to go to a doctor and have his skin cut but he was too embarrassed to do so because he was already 16-year-old. Confused as he was, he decided to mutilate himself.

Insights (Physical, Psychosocial, Ethical) (Discovery, Stimulus, Reinforcements)

Philippines…a country rich with traditions. Not all these traditions are based on facts, just like circumcision. In our society, it is a belief that every young male should have their dorsal skin cut. To most Filipinos, this is a paves the way to manhood.  It is a depiction of strength and maturity.  Any young male who is not circumcised will face a lifetime of ridicule. He will be tagged as a weakling or even a “fag”.

By bestowing this knowledge to our children, we are handing down to them a tradition that has no basis, no beneficial effects. We are pushing them to do injustice to those people who are not circumcised.

The campaign of our department against circumcision will provide our countrymen the facts regarding circumcision. We have to impart to them that it has no beneficial effects. In continuing our battle against it, we will slowly change the outlook of our citizens. In time we will be able to change the tradition that we grew up with.