CIRCUMCISION INFORMATION RESOURCE CENTRE

CANADIAN GROUP RAPS U.S. CIRCUMCISION POLICY

MONTREAL -- The head of the Montreal-based Circumcision Information Resource Centre says a new policy statement on newborn male circumcision issued today by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has serious flaws.

The statement concludes that circumcision is not necessary for a child’s health but leaves the final decision up to the parents.

“This new policy is already out of date,” says John Antonopoulos, president of the Centre. “It doesn’t take into account recent studies showing that the foreskin is a specific erogenous zone with important sexual functions. Nor does it come to grips with the growing ethical and legal problems associated with the medically unnecessary circumcision of children.”

Citing a report issued by the AAP’s own Committee on Bioethics, Antonopoulos says physicians have a duty to provide competent medical care based on what a child needs, not what a parent suggests. He adds, “physicians are not like chauffeurs, who must go where they are told.”

One of Canada’s top medical ethicists, Dr. Margaret Somerville, has stated in the past “If you’re doing surgery on a child you normally have to show it’s medically necessary. The Canadian Pædiatric Society has said infant male circumcision is not medically necessary.”

Dr. John Taylor, a pathologist at the University of Manitoba, says the AAP statement leaves out important information. “They made a glaring mistake by failing to consider the value of normal anatomy,” says Taylor. “The foreskin is highly specialized sexual tissue.”

Taylor is the co-author of two scientific studies of the foreskin published in the British Journal of Urology.

Montreal physician David Alwin, a member of Doctors Opposing Circumcision, questions the low rate of complications referred to in the policy statement. “They mention only two studies on complications, and claim ludicrously low complication rates of 0.2 to 0.6 percent,” says Alwin. “A rate of 2 to 10 percent is more realistic--that’s what British researchers have found.”

Alwin says the AAP ignored evidence. “They promised to deliver an evidence-based report,” Alwin says, “but in many areas, they seem to have been very selective in the material they looked at.”

Alwin also criticizes the AAP for not showing leadership. “If the AAP experts sifted through almost 40 years of medical evidence and concluded newborn circumcision was not necessary, then how can parents come to a different conclusion?” asks Alwin. “The AAP should be educating and leading rather than reinforcing myths and superstitions,” Alwin says.

The Canadian Pædiatric Society recommends that circumcision of newborns not be routinely performed.

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