The Medical Basis for
Child Circumcision

Are there health benefits which should convince you to circumcise your child? Just ask the public health authorities. None of them recommends routine child circumcision. (For comparison, consider that public health institutions strongly advocate the routine vaccination of children.)

Many years ago, when it was thought important to prevent masturbation, American health authorities began to advocate child circumcision. There is no longer any national or international public health authority in the western world which advocates the routine circumcision of children, either male or female.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is the highest child health authority in the United States. On 1 March 1999 the AAP released its long-awaited recommendations on circumcision. The AAP News Release Video stated, "The AAP does not recommend the policy of routine newborn circumcision..."

Institution	Advocates Circumcision
American Medical Association	No
American Cancer Society	No
Center for Disease Control	No
National Institute of Health	No
American Academy of Pediatrics	No
Pediatric Urologists Association	No
Amer. College of Obst. & Gyn.	No
other countries
Canadian Pediatric Society	No
Canadian Medical Association	No
European Medical Societies (any)	No

All of these public health authorities take seriously their responsibility to protect your child's health. None of them advise you to circumcise your child. Especially in America, there is still a class of doctors who profit from this surgery and strongly recommend that you subject your child to it. Their influence has given many American parents the impression that child circumcision is in the same category of recommended medical procedures as child vaccination. Parents have to look at the issue carefully to see this is not the case.

When your doctor tries to sell you surgery that is not recommended by ANY public health authority, you should be suspicious. Needless to say, this caution goes double for needless surgery on your children.