NEWS RELEASE

 

    



                                                                            



For Release: March 1, 1999



             5 p.m. (ET)







Contact: Marilyn Milos, R.N.



                415-488-9883

 

ROUTINE CIRCUMCISION NOT RECOMMENDED, AAP SAYS

After analyzing almost 40 years of medical research on circumcision, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has stated that "the potential medical benefits of newborn male circumcision...are not sufficient to recommend routine neonatal circumcision." The AAP's new policy statement was published in the March issue of the AAP's journal, Pediatrics.

Since the AAP can find no medical reason to recommend routine circumcision, NOCIRC calls upon the AAP to:

• educate its members about the erogenous, sexual, protective, and immunological functions of the foreskin;

• educate its members about the care of the normal intact penis;

• acknowledge that no amount of analgesia prevents circumcision pain;

• address the psychological, sexual, and social effects of circumcision;

• uphold the first maxim of medical practice, "First, do no harm," by recommending that the foreskins of babies routinely be kept intact.

NOCIRC director Marilyn Milos said, "Now that the American Academy of Pediatrics has aligned itself more closely with medical organizations worldwide by not recommending routine male circumcision, the already declining circumcision rate in the U.S. should drop dramatically."

 

http://www.nocirc.org/

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