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I am responding to JF's request for information on the pros and cons of circumcision. My son, Jacob, was born normal and healthy at Providence Hospital in Anchorage Alaska in 1986, he was routinely circumcised on his second day of life. A few days later, we brought Jacob back to the hospital because an infection had developed at the circumcision site. A decision was made by his pediatrician to hospitalize him and administer antibotics. The next morning, he began to have seizures that went untreated. Twenty-six hours after entering the hospital, he stopped breathing during a massive seizure. As a result my son suffered profound brain damage. Today Jacob is almost ten years old, he requires 24 hour a day care as he will for the rest of his life. The cover-up from this circumcision-related tragedy started almost immediately, Jacob's incriminating medical records were "lost". Jacob's nurses do not "remember" him. WE DID NOT EVEN MEET his circumciser before he performed the surgery on our son.

John, I took the following statement from court records, please give it to your friend who is considering circumcision for his infant son.

INTERROGATORY #3 : As to Dr. Nesbitt, please indicate what if anything you advised the plaintiffs B. and G.S. regarding circumcision, prior to the operation upon their infant son Jacob. With regard to the foregoing, please indicate date, time, place and contents of such communication, if any.

ANSWER: "On the date of the circumcision at the hospital, I, Dr. Nesbitt, met with B.S. It is possible that G.S. was in attendance, however, I do not recall at this time. The following is a synopsis of what I said following as close as possible the exact words I used. Dr. Tulip has informed me that you wish to have your son circumcised. Circumcision is not a medically recommended procedure. Even though we don't recommend circumcision for medical reasons, many parents request it for personal or religious reasons. The reason we don't recommend circumcision is because we feel the risks of circumcision outweigh the benefits. The risks of circumcising a child include bleeding, infection and damage to the penis in varying degrees and in some rare instances, sepsis, which is a generalized infection which can spread rapidly over the entire body. On rare occasions children have even died as a result of being circumcised. Approximately 8 children die each year in the the United States from complications from circumcision out of a total of about 2 1/2 million circumcisions each year."...

As I said, we did not meet Dr. Nesbitt before he circumcised our son (nor was there a circumcision discussion with Dr. Tulip) but this is his what he swore to under oath. This statement clearly illustrates the true pros to circumcision. Profit. If Nesbitt's circumcision numbers are correct, (at $100 a whack) circumcision would be a 250 million dollar business in our country.

Please tell your friend about Jacob and tell him about the eight boys a year (according to Dr. Nesbitt) who die because of a procedure that is not medically recommended.

G.S.