NOCIRC of Australia: Fact Sheet on Male Circumcision

The foreskin is the natural protective covering of the glans and is the most erogenous tissue of the penis, containing over 240 feet of nerves and over 1,000 nerve endings. The foreskin provides a lubricated gliding sheath that enhances sexual pleasure.
Infant circumcision deprives the male of over one-third (approximately 15 square inches) of the most erogenous tissue on the penis.
The naturally adherent, non-retractile infant foreskin is torn from the glans before circumcision. We now know that infants feel pain. They rarely receive anaesthesia or or postoperative pain relief.
85% of the world's males are intact with very few foreskin problems. Australia, an advanced nation, still circumcise 20% of its' newborn males for non-medical reasons.
Every year in Australia about 15,000 baby boys are circumcised.
The medical profession has failed to prove unequivocally and conclusively that circumcision carries any significant medical advantage over the intact state for the majority of males or partners.
Long-term harm includes: skin tags, skin bridges, prominent scars, tight/painful erections, bleeding during sex, bowing/curvature, loss of sensitivity, excessive/painful stimulation required to attain orgasm, sexual dysfunction, anger, resentment, feelings of parental betrayal, mutilation/human rights violation, not feeling whole or natural, inferiority to intact males, low self esteem, addiction and or dependencies.
Worldwide, the medical community considers infant circumcision unnecessary and unethical.
Painless circumcision won't mitigate human rights issues.
Children have no constitutional guarantee of safety, liberty or protection. No adult would be forcibly restrained and exposed to the risks of circumcision surgery.
In Australia, no comprehensive medical records are kept of infant circumcision practices or complications.
Obstetricians, specialists in female genitalia, practising out of their field, perform most newborn circumcisions.
The longterm negative effects on men of infant circumcision have never been investigated or acknowledged.
The Queensland Law Reform Commission in December 1993, in their landmark document Circumcision of Male Infants calculated that Medicare paid $3.2 million for circumcisions from 1988 to 1993 (5 year period). The cost of infant circumcision was $1.76 million.
Some doctors charge $275 per circumcision. The Medicare Benefits Schedule fees for infants is $33.10, boys from 6 months to 10 years is $76.95 and males from 10 years to adulthood is $106.65. In Scandinavian countries, circumcision is very rare (0.001%) as nonsurgical treatments for the foreskin are used.
Boys are operated on in parents' homes, hospital corridors, nurseries and nursing stations. The operating theatre is the appropriate and safest place for any operative procedures.
Lay persons perform infant circumcisions.
The consent cannot be informed and is illegal as the infant isan unconsenting minor.

Compiled by NOCIRC of AUSTRALIA {3-6-95}

NOCIRC of Australia
P. O. Box 248
Menai Central, NSW 2234
Fax (2) 543-0510

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