References

misc.kids #277490 (0 + 536 more)
From: gburlin@eskimo.com (Gary Burlingame)
[1] Re: Circ: Here's Your Answer
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Date: Fri May 31 17:18:11 GMT-0400 GMT-0400 1996
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biow@intr.net (Christopher Biow) writes:

> gburlin@eskimo.com (Gary Burlingame) wrote:
> >biow@intr.net (Christopher Biow) writes:
> 
> [trimming a debate which is starting to repeat]
> 
> >Explain how I am "out of context and over-literal".
> 
> You have chosen to disregard the document which explicitly defines the
> ethical standard for circumcision in the US in favor of a single phrase
> that you have literally removed from the context of the proceedings of a
> committee dealing with a different area of medical ethics.

The AAP has waffled all over this issue, which document from which year are you referring to?

> >Parents generally don't make the decision to circumcise on medical grounds.
> >When that is the case, what business does a *doctor* have performing
> >amputative surgery on an unconsenting minor? That would be patently
> >unethical.
> 
> In Gary Burlingame's utopian world, this might be defined as unethical. In
> North America, it is not, per the relevant documents by which the
> professional organizations explicitly define their ethical standards.

The motto of medicine, First Do No Harm, although not a document, indicates that circumcision is not ethical. It must be recognized that the child is normal as born and that circumcision inflicts loss of a normal body part and leaves a scar.
In the Int'l J of Gyn & Obst, 1994; 46:127-135, N. Toubia says in FGM: Responsibility of Reproductive Health Professionals that the unnecessary removal of a functioning body organ in the name of tradition, custom or any other non-disease related cause should never be acceptable to the health profession ...and breaches fundamental medical ethics.
In the British Medical Journal, May 1994; 308:1182-1183, JPH. Shield says in Children's Consent to Treatment that children too young to give consent must be treated as individuals. The child must live with the outcome of decision.

> >What I believe the AAP Bioethics Committee understands, and you do not, is
> >that even when parents ARE making the decision to circumcise on medical
> >grounds, it is unethical for a doctor to perform a circumcision without
> >[end of post]
> 
> Please quote the context in which the AAP Bioethics Committee applies this
> phrase to the circumcision issue.

You can see it yourself at: https://www.cirp.org/library/ethics/AAP/

Throughout this document it is clear that it is medical intervention that is being discussed, not social customs that happen to involve amputating the healthy prepuce from infants.

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