[This page is in progress.]


Current Sources of False and/or Misleading
Information About the Foreskin and Circumcision


"Informed consent is consent given in full awareness
of all the known facts and considerations that could
influence one's decision to give or to withhold consent.
Consent given without that awareness is misinformed."
John A. Erickson


One could fill an entire website with sources of the false and misleading information about the foreskin and circumcision that "experts" and "authorities," abetted by the media, have been systematically purveying to a trusting, unsuspecting American public for more than a hundred years now. Indeed, the history of the foreskin and circumcision in the U.S. is a history of false and misleading information. The purpose of this page is to document that false and misleading information about the foreskin and circumcision is still being propagated.

If these "experts" and "authorities" aren't aware of the information on the Checklist below, why aren't they? If they are aware of it, why do they withhold it? If they aren't aware of it, they are not experts. If they are aware of it but withhold it, they are guilty of deception by a deliberate act of omission -- which, in medicine, constitutes malpractice.

The question, then, is: Are those who disseminate false and/or misleading information about the foreskin and circumcision, and those who continue to circumcise children and babies, ignorant or lying -- or both?


CHECKLIST (Information essential for informed choice)

The bottom line -- the one consideration that outweighs all other considerations combined -- is that infant circumcision is foreskin amputation by force. When you circumcise a baby, you are cutting off a part of his penis that you can cut off only because the person you're cutting it off of can't protect himself because he is a baby. Compared to this one essential consideration, the points listed below are really "side issues."

Erogenous functions of the foreskin
Protective functions of the foreskin
Immunological functions of the foreskin
Possible functions of the foreskin not yet known or understood
Intact males glad their sex organs are whole and intact
Value intact males place on their sexual wholeness
Circumcised males who would rather their sex organs were whole and intact
Circumcised males who have re-covered or are in the process of re-covering their glans ("foreskin restoration")
Pain
Risks/complications/consequences of circumcision (death, total loss of penis)
Possible risks/complications/consequences of circumcision not yet known or understood
What is lost
Trafficking and marketing of foreskins of circumcised human babies
Books, videos, organizations, and websites with accurate information


BOOKS
Circumcision: Frankly Speaking, by Gerald N. Weiss, MD
Encyclopaedia Britannica CD, Standard Edition (single-disc version) 1998
In Favour of Circumcision, by Brian Morris
Oxford Dictionary
Stedman's

NEWSPAPERS
The New York Times (John/Joan -- withheld the fact that the baby's penis was burned off while he was being circumcised)
The Washington Post (John/Joan -- withheld the fact that the baby's penis was burned off while he was being circumcised)
The Wall Street Journal (John/Joan -- withheld the fact that the baby's penis was burned off while he was being circumcised)

MAGAZINES
Cosmopolitan
Discover, Nov. 1999
Parenting

MEDICAL DOCTORS
Edgar Schoen
Gerald Weiss
Thomas Wiswell

MEDICAL ORGANIZATIONS
American Academy of Pediatrics
       Care of the Uncircumcised Penis (pamphlet)
       Circumcision: What Parents Need to Know (pamphlet)
       Circumcision Policy Statement (March 1, 1999)
American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
       Newborn Circumcision (March 1999) (pamphlet)

MEDICAL PUBLICATIONS
British Medical Journal (AIDS)
The Lancet (Male circumcision and HIV infection: 10 years and counting, by T. Halperin and C. Bailey, 11/20/99)

TELEVISION
20/20

WEBSITES
ABC's of Parenting
Circumcision Online News
ICIRC
Malka
Morris
Paula
Ruth Westheimer
http://www.baby-care.com/
http://www.babycenter.com/debates/cons7.html
http://www.ummed.edu/dept/cmc/webster/yourchild/!circumc.htm
http://www.northcoast.com/~thumphry/circ.html

MISCELLANEOUS
Freeman
Miara

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