Making America Safe for Foreskins
Two Mindsets
From a conversation with a midwife who circumcises babies:
"If there were anything about circumcision that would
make you stop circumcising babies, would you want to be
aware of it?"
"No."
From a conversation with Marilyn Milos, RN, founder and
Executive Director of the National Organization of
Circumcision Information Resource Centers:
"Was that too heavy? Would you
rather I hadn't told
you that? Are there some aspects of the circumcision issue
you'd rather not be aware of?"
"No -- I want to be aware of
everything."
*****
A Suggestion for Settling the Infant
Circumcision Dispute Once and for All
To the American Academy of Pediatrics (4/18/88):
I read in a recent newsletter of the
National
Organization of Circumcision Information Resource Centers
that the American Academy of Pediatrics is reconsidering its
position on infant circumcision.
There is a way to determine --
quickly, easily and
with great certainty -- exactly what the Academy's position
on that amputation should be.
Ask your friends and colleagues
whose foreskins are
intact how they feel about that fact -- and why -- and how
they feel about the idea of having -- or of ever having had
-- their foreskins cut off -- to "protect" them from AIDS,
urinary tract infections or anything else -- and the only
position possible for an organization whose members
subscribe to the "Do no harm" ethic to have about the
foreskin of a baby -- or anyone else -- should become
perfectly clear.
cc:
Edgar Schoen, MD, Chairman, American
Academy of Pediatrics Committee Revaluating Infant Circumcision
Officers/Executive Boards: American
Academy of Pediatrics, American Medical Association, American College
of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
Aaron Fink, MD; James Roberts, MD;
Thomas Wiswell, MD