Summary of responses

doi:10.1136/bmj.39451.714606.BE

BMJ 2008;336:60 (12 January), doi:10.1136/bmj.39451.714606.BE

Letters

Circumcision: right or wrong?

Summary of responses

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The head to head debate on whether infant male circumcisionis an abuse of the rights of the child provoked almost 100 responses,¹²³⁴all forceful and emotive opinions on a custom whose foundationsseem to be primarily sociocultural and religious. Respondents—mostof them men—included a doctor who had never received anycomplaints from his circumcised patients in many years of practiceand respondents reporting their own beneficial or adverse effectsof the procedure; advocates of circumcision and adversarieswho see it as an act of trauma, betrayal, or aggression, tantamountto amputation or mutilation.

Reasons for infant circumcision include medical indicationsand protective effects in the transmission of sexually transmittedinfections (especially HIV/AIDS).

Reasons against include the lack of a medical indication, withoutwhich it is "cosmetic" surgery at best and abuse and mutilationat worst. The side effects can be serious, and deaths have beenreported.

The foreskin has . . . [Full text of this article]

Birte Twisselmann, assistant editor, bmj.com

¹ BMJ, London WC1H 9JR

btwisselmann@bmj.com