NOCIRC North Carolina – PRESS RELEASE

March 1, 1999

AAP DOES NOT RECOMMEND ROUTINE INFANT CIRCUMCISION

Children's health advocates lauded the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) today for its refusal to recommend infant circumcision. The AAP policy has now come in line with all of the other medical societies' circumcision policy statements in the English speaking world. This position underscores the idea – widely accepted around the world – that circumcision does not specifically contribute to children's health in any way. In countries that do not circumcise, including all of continental Europe, urological health appears to be as good as, or better, than in the United States.

While the AAP was negligent in its omission of the many health benefits of the intact penis in the March 1999 Circumcision Position Statement, they did show integrity by refusing to concede to a medical lobby that seeks to profit from this unnecessary surgery on children. Circumcision of infants consumes over 500 million national health-care dollars a year in unnecessary surgery. An unusually high percentage of these surgeries, 2%-15%, have notable complications, primarily hemorrhaging and infection. Although rare, death has occurred on several occasions. The most recently reported circumcision death occurred in Cleveland, Ohio on October 16, 1998, when three-week-old baby Dustin Evans Jr., died from complications related to his circumcision repair.

An increasing number of physicians and other health professionals have called for an end to the social practice of circumcising American boys. As such, the rate of infant circumcision has fallen steadily in the United States from over 90% to 60% during the last 30 years. It is generally expected that the United States will soon join the rest of the medically advanced world in rejecting circumcision altogether.

For the first time in the AAP's history, the AAP's new position statement also acknowledges the extreme trauma and pain suffered by infants during circumcision. The AAP states that it is essential that pain relief be provided during circumcision. A recent study showed that only 25% of obstetricians, the physicians most likely to perform infant circumcisions, are willing to use anesthesia. The AAP was derelict, however, in recommending a topical analgesia, EMLA, for pain relief, since it's tested effectiveness is extremely poor during circumcisions and it's manufacturer, Astra, warns strongly against its use on infants less than 6 months of age, citing riskof toxic methemoglobinemia.

NOCIRC of North Carolina does seriously question, however, why the AAP attempts to legally validate a non-medical surgery in their new statement. The AAP states that it is legitimate for parents to take into account cultural, religious and ethnic traditions when deciding on circumcision, yet the AAP's position on female circumcision makes clear that non-medical, non-prophylactic surgery is unethical, regardless of personal or traditional values. The AAP has now officially recognized that both male and female circumcision is not medically indicated and does not provide any significant prophylactic benefits. While the AAP places the rights of the female child to bodily integrity above cultural and religious factors, the AAP unfortunately fails to bestow male children with these same rights to bodily integrity.

NOCIRC of North Carolina is the North Carolina State Chapter of the National Organization of Circumcision Information Resource Centers (NOCIRC), a nonprofit health educational organization that presents the medical community and the general public with the latest documented medical evidence on male circumcision.

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