MATANZIMA LAUDS PENIS OPERATION
Transplant to aid many initiates
A SENIOR South Africa traditional leader has thrown his support behind the ground-breaking surgery which led to the world’s first penis transplant by Cape Town surgeons.
Thembu chief Ngangomhlaba Matanzima, the Eastern Cape Traditional House of Chiefs chairman, said the transplant was a “solution” to problems faced by scores of young men who lost their penises while undergoing traditional circumcision.
“That is exciting news. We are grateful and excited. ”
He said it had become common, especially in the Eastern Cape, for initiates to have their penises amputated due to botched circumcisions or bad wound treatment.
Eastern Cape health department spokesman Sizwe Kupelo said there have been more than 200 circumcision-related penis amputations since 2006 in the province. This has led to a large number of psychological problems, with those who had lost their penises not knowing how to face society.
Some people did not recognise them as “proper ” men who had undergone the rite of passage to manhood.
Matanzima said: “Young men who lose their penises face lots of complicated psychological problems as they battle to overcome rejection from society.
“Some lose hope and even commit suicide. They are ridiculed when they sit down to pee like women.”
Professor Andre van der Merwe, who led the trans- plant surgical team, said victims of botched ritual circumcision were at a high risk of ending their lives.
“In the research interviews … these patients expressed that if they hadn’t heard about this programme, they would have committed suicide.”
Nicola Barsdorf, Stellenbosch University health research ethics head, said that as a matter of social justice, determining who would benefit from the surgery was an important ethical issue.
“The idea is that if members from a particular community agree to participate in the research, the community should benefit.
“There would be a commitment to deliver the results of the research to those who needed it most … the population [which] suffers from the loss of [its] penis after ritual circumcision.” –