Emeritus Professor Brian J Morris, DSc, PhD, is a retired professor
of molecular biology, formerly at the University of Sydney. He is a
prolific writer of scientific papers, with a distinguished record in
his specialties, high blood pressure and the genetics of cardiovascular
disease. He is also one of the highest-profile promoters of infant
circumcision. In this, his record is not so distinguished.
He endorses every possible reason for infant male genital cutting, no matter how trivial:
(And the bathroom splatter of circumcised males can not?)
His output on the subject is prodigious, and in argument he is a master of the Gish Gallop, issuing misstatements faster than they can be checked and refuted.
He has compared his own work to that of Einstein!
"The Culture War Against Circumcision", Slate. February 2014
(Einstein did not cite his own work, nor appeal to the authority of his position as a patent clerk.)
Here are some of his clearest misstatements of fact:
Please find copied below a letter sent to the SMH today in response to this article from the RACP.
Dear Editor,
Your Friday 11 article “Doctors circumspect on circumcision” warrants clarification on a number of issues.
The key point of the recently released RACP statement on circumcision is that the RACP believes that at the present time there is not evidence to support routine circumcision of newborn and infant males.
Your article sends a dangerous public health message that circumcision prevents HIV transmission. It is vital that everyone engage in safe sexual practices such as condom use, whether circumcised or not.
...
It should be noted that Professor
Morris, quoted in your report, is not a member of the RACP and is not
and has not been engaged as a reviewer for the College. Yours faithfully,
David Forbes,
Chair, Paediatrics & Child Health Policy & Advocacy Committee
Royal Australasian College of Physicians.
His reference: 20 out of 75 boys undergoing elective circumcision had frenular chordee
Griffin AS and Kroovand RL, "Frenular Chordee: Implications and Treatment"
Morris et al.: 3.6% of "uncircumcised" boys have had a UTI by the time they are 16.
Reference: Coulthard MG, Lambert HJ, Keir MJ. Occurrence of renal scars
in children after their first referral for urinary tract infection. .
BMJ 1997; 315: 918-919.
Their reference: no mention of circumcison
A search of the paper finds no reference to circumcision.
Morris: "19% of uncircumcised boys get recurrent UTIs"
Greer: Rather than, than actually remove healthy tissue in order to
avoid possible disease, we should be thinking of attacking the
diseases, that we've got a wrong priority there.
Male genital mutilation is seldom condemned. Men mutilate the
genitals of other men... In England a doctor will be struck off the
medical register if it is found that he has carried out a female
circumcision of any kind… . Any suggestion that male genital mutilation
should be outlawed would be understood to be a frontal attack on the
cultural identity of Jews and Muslims.
Notwithstanding, the opinion that male circumcision might be bad for
babies, bad for sex and bad for men is steadily gaining ground… in the
US between 60 per cent and 70 per cent of male babies will have their
foreskins surgically removed. No UN agency has uttered a single
protocol condemning the widespread practice of male genital mutilation,
which will not be challenged until doctors start to be sued in large
numbers by men they mutilated as infants. Silence on the question of
male circumcision is evidence of the political power both of the
communities where a circumcised penis is considered an essential
identifying mark and of the practitioners who continue to do it for no
good reason. Silence about male mutilation in our own countries
combines nicely with noisiness on female mutilation in other countries
to reinforce our notions of cultural superiority.
In 2004, the Professional Services Review Determining Authority
resolved to reprimand and counsel Dr Russell, and fine him $A4,488.88
for opportunistically diagnosing tongue-tie on boys referred to him for
circumcision in 1999.
Kirby: "Circumcision cannot be a universal strategy"
Histological Correlates of Penile Sexual Sensation: Does Circumcision Make a Difference? by Guy Cox, John Krieger and Brian Morris Sexual Medicine, 23 April 2015, https://doi.org/10.1002/sm2.67
Lamenting the loss of parts we discarded as children, whether it be baby teeth, appendixes or even tonsils, is not only misguided, it's downright silly.
'...Morris states in a recent e-letter that Donovan
“and other senior academic colleagues in Australia have come a long way
in the past 15 years and now universally congratulate me for being right about IMC all those years ago”. It is unclear what specifically Morris is referring to. ...
... In response to an email from one of the present authors, Donovan stated: “My stance hasn’t really changed much [in the past 15 years],” and that if he lived in a developed nation he “probably wouldn’t bother” with infant circumcision.'
A video of the "Danish individual Morten Frisch"
explaining the extremes Brian Morris went to in order to try to prevent
his study showing sexual difficulties in circumcised males from being
published,
including breaking confidentiality norms of peer review.
(In this "policy statement," Morris and his co-authors list "No
conflict of interest". Yet two of Morris' co-authors derive substantial incomes from performing circumcisions; C. Terry Russell boasts of having 35,000
circumcisions performed in his private practice.)
Morris's "Circumcision as a biomedical imperative for the 21st century" thanks the Gilgal
Society in his acknowledgements (p 1156)
A list of circumcisers
in Australia and New Zealand, on his website (as of July 3, 2014)
carried the Gilgal Society logo. It was removed less than 10 days
before Vernon Quaintance's trial began.
Morris has slowly removed other Gilgal- and Quaintance-related material from his website. Follow the chain of news items in reverse order.
Brian Morris and Vernon Quaintance (head of the Gilgal Society)
It is not evidence of anything that Morris was associated with
Quaintance before Quaintance was convicted of possessing child
pornography or charged with crimes against boys, but Morris's
credibility is undermined by his attempts to deny the association and
the seriousness of Quantance's crime/s.
Morris: VQ was "fined a small amount" for "a misdemeanour" involving one videotape
It may be true that Morris has never met Quaintance in the flesh, but electronically they were on first-name terms.
Fact: VQ given a suspended prison sentence for three seriously abusive videotapes
Professor Morris has published with the academic circumcison
advocate Cox and treats him as distinct from the circumcision
pornography writer Badger (who also promotes anti-masturbation
underwear), though there is every reason
to suppose they are one and the same. For example, Morris's own website
at one time identified the aboutcirc.org website with Cox, but later
with Badger.
Professor Cox/Badger can also play fast and loose with fact:
Cox: Pythagoras was circumcised to enter the Library of Alexandria
- New Scientist, August 9, 2014
Warbruton: The Library of Alexandria opened long after Pythagoras' death
- New Scientist, September 6, 2014
Brian Morris and the Circumcision Foundation Academy of Australia
Professor Morris is a founding member of "the Circumcision Foundation of Australia" (2010). Some time between May 17, 2014
and June 18, 2014 it changed its name to "the Circumcision Academy of
Australia", but for some reason it wants to rewrite its history and
backdate the name change to 2010. Unfortunately, nobody has told
Professor Morris, and his website was continuing to call it
"Foundation" as recently as June 19, 2014
The words "evidence based" were added in September or October 2012.
"Individual choice" to stay intact is impossible if it has been
second-guessed by "parental choice", but the Foundademy thinks only of
the choice to circumcise.
NB: The Twitter account @BrianMorrisCirc was not set up by Professor Morris (although it uses his photo) but by an enemy of his, although no friend of Intactivism - in other words, a troll.
