Newsletter added to "ridged band" Web site
Manitoba pathologist Dr. John R. Taylor, recognized expert on foreskin anatomy, has added a newsletter to his Web site. In the first issue, Dr. Taylor discusses the results of his online survey of intact adult males.

AGI admitted to law school
The Association for Genital Integrity figured in an exam conducted two years ago at the University of Saskatchewan's College of Law. The exam contained a question that outlines AGI's proposed court challenge, then asks students to explain if the Association has standing to proceed.

Earlier this year a presentation on circumcision and Charter rights was given by a third-year law student at the University of Ottawa. The presentation included a documentary on circumcision originally shown in 1997 on "W5," CTV's flagship current affairs program.

Newborn circumcision trending downward
Recent data from provincial ministries of health indicate that neonatal circumcision in Canada is continuing its downward course.

In Saskatchewan, where a caveat regarding infant male circumcision was issued in 2002 by the province's medical licensing authority, the incidence of newborn circumcision plunged from 26 percent in 2001/02 to 17 percent in 2002/03, the latest year for which statistics are available.

A decade ago, infant circumcision rates in Saskatchewan hospitals approached 40 percent. [More detail]

Meanwhile in Ontario, Canada's most populous province, the hospital newborn circumcision rate in 2002/03 stood at less than 16 percent, compared with nearly 26 percent six years earlier. [More detail]

In the early 1990s, the incidence of newborn circumcision in Ontario topped 40 percent.

In recent years circumcision rates have tumbled in Canada, held firm in the United States and edged upward in Australia. This divergence in trends is significant, as it has persisted for a decade.

David Reimer dead at 38
David Reimer, the boy who was raised as a girl after losing his penis to a botched circumcision in 1966 at the age of 8 months, took his own life in Winnipeg on May 4th.

According to media reports, Reimer was depressed over the breakup of his marriage, the loss of his job, the death of his twin brother, and the failure of a financial investment.

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