Is infant male circumcision an abuse of the rights of the child? No

doi:10.1136/bmj.39406.523762.AD

BMJ 2007;335:1181 (8 December), doi:10.1136/bmj.39406.523762.AD

Head to head

Is infant male circumcision an abuse of the rights of the child? No

Kirsten Patrick, former Roger Robinson editorial registrar

¹ BMJ, London WC1H 9JR

Kpatrick@bmj.com

doi: 10.1136/bmj.39406.520498.AD

Most circumcisions take place for religious rather than medicalreasons. Geoff Hinchley believes that the practice is harmfuland should be stopped but Kirsten Patrick argues that the futuresexual health benefits justify parental choice

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

Circumcision is one of the commonest surgical procedures performedon males, despite there being few absolute medical indicationsfor it. The tradition of male infant circumcision accounts forthis paradox. About 30% of men are circumcised; in most Englishspeaking and Muslim countries circumcised men are in the majority,and most were circumcised in infancy.¹ Although opponents arguethat infant circumcision can cause both physical and psychologicalharm, recent strong evidence shows that circumcision is medicallybeneficial. If competently performed, it carries little risk.²It cannot be compared with female circumcision, which has beenshown to be no more than genital mutilation without medicalbenefit and with an unacceptably high likelihood of pain, immediateand long term medical complications, and psychosexual scarring.³

Although any surgical operation can be painful and do harm,the pain of circumcision, if done under local anaesthesia, iscomparable to that from an injection for immunisation. . . . [Full text of this article]

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