Pediatricians turn away from circumcision
The United States is the only country that routinely circumcises baby boys for non-religious reasons
CNN, U.S.A.
March 1, 1999
ATLANTA (CNN) -- American pediatricians are turning away from the practice of routine circumcision, concluding that doctors have no good medical reason to perform the procedure.
The United States is the only country in the world that routinely removes the foreskins of infant boys. Critics of circumcision got additional ammunition Monday from the American Academy of Pediatrics, a leading medical organization.
The academy concluded the benefits "are not compelling enough" for circumcision to be routinely administered.
A newborn winces in pain after a circumcision
Monday's statement, published in the March edition of the journal Pediatrics, was the academy's first in 10 years on the practice. But in recent years, medical societies in Canada, Britain and Australia have come out in opposition to routine circumcision.
Critics have long contended that removing the foreskin from the penis is traumatic, medically unnecessary and may reduce sexual pleasure later in life. As one critic, Dr. George Denniston, put it: "Who are we to question mother nature?"
Canadian researchers, whose study was published in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association, studied the heart rates and crying patterns of babies during different stages of circumcision.
In fact, in the study they found the babies suffered so much trauma that they stopped the study part way through.
The results were so compelling that they took the unusual step of stopping the study before it was scheduled to end rather than subjecting any more babies to circumcision.
One baby stopped breathing for 25 seconds from the trauma of having part of his foreskin severed. More..
Circumcision - Male Genital Mutilation
"...the foreskin as an important component of the overall sensory mechanism of the penis"
Dr. John R. Taylor, Winnipeg researcher, whose revolutionary 1996 paper ("The prepuce: Specialized mucosa of the penis and its loss to circumcision") describes the foreskin as "an important component of the overall sensory mechanism of the penis."
He and his colleagues published a report describing anatomically 21 foreskins in the British Journal Of Urology.
The thing that is unique about Taylor's paper is that it identifies a structure called the "ridged band." Located just inside the tip of the foreskin, the "ridged band" is a half-inch wide zone of special tissue that expands and contracts like an accordion during sexual intercourse, triggering sexual reflexes.
References to Dr. Taylors click here
