Tag: Genital Integrity

Doctors Group: AAP conflict of interest hampers honest circumcision policy

A non-profit doctors group has issued a policy statement on protecting the genital integrity of male infants and children.  The independent report provides what the group claims major American medical associations have not; An evidence-based policy for the well-being of children, free from conflicts of interest.  The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is deeply conflicted, and its policy statements reflect “an ongoing tug-of-war between the two opposing forces who seek to dominate the AAP’s circumcision policy,” says Doctors Opposing Circumcision.  Consequently, “AAP circumcision policy statements are compromises that have scant relationship to the real evidence.”

The medical literature relating to male circumcision is polarized by the 130-year-old debate between the circumcised doctors and the others; the AAP may be equally polarized with respect to non-therapeutic male circumcision because of the presence of so many circumcised doctors within its fellowship.

The report, which includes review of “the position of the circumcision of male children under international human rights law, domestic law, and contemporary bioethics,” concludes “America needs and is ready for a new policy of genital integrity for its children.”

The Genital Integrity Policy Statement is published at the group’s website and in pdf format.