On December 4, 2015, from 2PM to 3PM, the Association for Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health (APPPAH) is featuring a session titled, “From Circumcision to Genital Autonomy: Protecting the Rights of the Child,” co-presented by Marilyn Milos, Hida Viloria, Soraya Mire, and Steven Svoboda. Hida is Chairperson of the intersex genital autonomy Organization Intersex International United States, Soraya is Executive Director of Persistent Productions, Steven is Executive Director of Attorneys for the Rights of the Child, and Marilyn is the Executive Director of NOCIRC. The session will be held at Berkeley’s DoubleTree hotel at 200 Marina Drive in Berkeley.

This event is a reprise of the May 1, 2015 first BirthKeeper Summit (http://birthkeepersummit.com) at which the same team spoke.

The event will be videotaped thanks to filmmaker Troy Christian, who is Marilyn’s son.

Presentation Title: From Circumcision to Genital Autonomy: Protecting the Rights of the Child

Brief Description: To help create a peaceful world, we must begin with how we welcome babies into the world and how we treat them once they’re born. Protecting infants from unnecessary pain and trauma is crucial to health and wellbeing and non-therapeutic genital cutting is one of the first medicalized interventions from which babies must be protected.

There is considerable controversy today about the practice of non-therapeutic genital cutting of male, female, and intersex infants and children. This session will begin with an overview of the issues; female genital cutting will be discussed by a survivor; protecting intersex infants and children from years of surgeries, secrecy, and shame will be addressed by an intersex person; and an attorney will explain the legal and ethical issues of cutting the normal genitals of non-consenting minors and the importance of protecting children’s rights to genital autonomy.

Steven Svoboda
Executive Director
Attorneys for the Rights of the Child