Correspondent:

MANITOBA
HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION

I acknowledge receipt of your email message of January 5th, 2000 which has been forwarded to me by Dianna Scarth, Executive Director of the Manitoba Human Rights Commission.

I apologize for not responding to your letter of August 30th 1999. I have reviewed the information that you provided in your letters. It is my view that, given the provisions of the Manitoba Human Rights Code and the policies that the Board has adopted, this is not a matter on which the Board of Commissioners would wish to take any position at this time.

Thank you for bringing this information to my attention.

Yours truly,
 
[signed]
 
Ken Filkow
Chairperson
 

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January 20, 2000

Dear Mr Filkow,

Thank you for your letter of January 7th. I am surprised you consider that male circumcision for no reason other than cosmetic does not fall within the mandate of the Human Rights Commission. My reading of the goals of the Commission suggest otherwise but I am not a lawyer: I am a medical doctor interested in the inalienable right of a child to an intact body. I am supported in this view by Dr Margaret Somerville, one of Canada's leading ethicists, and lawyer. She states, flatly, that routine circumcision is indeed a violation of a child's right to an intact body.

I am shocked and astonished by the fact that Manitoba is the last Province to retain routine circumcision as an insured service. It is now well established that, without the profit motive, this practice would have long since dwindled to very small numbers, as it has in, say, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. I would also remind you that the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba, and others, have recommended that routine circumcision is not necessary and that it be de-insured, a move that would eliminate the profit motive.

The Manitoba Human Rights Commission appears to be the only arbiter and court of appeal on matters of human rights and I therefore respectfully request that you look at the evidence against the routine circumcision of male infants, and find some way to accord baby boys the same rights as baby girls. As the published author of medical scientific evidence favouring the abandonment of routine male circumcision I am prepared to discuss this matter with you, at your convenience.

Yours faithfully,

[signed]

(Dr) John R Taylor MB FRCPC