Interview with Dr. Dean Edell (excerpts)

Question:

Your wife is representing a woman who is suing a Marin doctor for circumcision her infant son. Isn't circumcision one of your big issues?

Answer:

Yes, and there will be a lot more of those suits. It's a very clear, constitutional issue. It is a medically unnecessary procedure and by law you can't subject a child to medical procedure that has no medical benefit. It's like scarification or the binding of feet. A parent doesn't have that right. A parent couldn't sign a consent to have a kidney removed from a child for donation.

Question:

Do all physicians agree that circumcision is unnecessary?

Answer:

No, and there are still people who think the earth is flat. There are still a few vocal pro-circumcisions physicians. But the overwhelming majority of physicians feel it is unnecessary.

Question:

You claim that circumcision is painful. Is there any question about that?

Answer:

There's no question. You'll hear the opposite but those doctors are just now aware of the studies analyzing the spectrum of babies' cries. It's such common sense. Babies squawk if you pinch them--how do you figure they don't feel any pain when you cut off half their genitals?

Question:

Why do you think we still have it then?

Answer:

Many practices persist in societies that are not questioned, and the essentially barbaric mutilation of infant boys has been one of them. Because I'm Jewish I have no compunction about taking on the whole issue. If I wasn't Jewish I'd be accused of being a Nazi because of my position. But a lot of the pro-circumcision urologists are also Jewish. That's like talking to the pope about birth control. Those doctors ought to be up front that it is their religion they feel is being threatened.

But it is changing. Although the U.S. has the highest circumcision rate in the world, in California only 50 percent of boy infants are now being circumcised. That's remarkable because just a couple of years ago it was 90 percent. We are very much with it in California. In the East the figures are still high.

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