Paul M. Fleiss - What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Circumcision: Untold Facts on Americas Most Widely Perfomed--and Most Unnecessary--Surgery

This book is not intended as a substitute for medical advice of physicians. The reader should regularly consult a physician in all matters relating to his or her health, and particularly in respect of any symptoms that may require diagnosis or medical attention.

Copyright 2002 by Paul M. Fleiss, M.D.

All rights reserved.

The title of the series What Your Doctor May Not Tell You about... and the related trade dress are trademarks owned by Warner Books, Inc. and may not be used without permission.

The authors are very grateful to the publishers and authors of the following works for permission to use and freely adapt articles and essays that have appeared elsewhere:

Paul M. Fleiss. Foreword. In: Billy Ray Boyd. Circumcision Exposed: Rethinking a Medical and Cultural Tradition. The Crossing Press: Freedom, California, 1998, pp. 79.

Paul M. Fleiss. Protect Your Uncircumcised Son: Expert Medical Advice for Parents: Mothering (Nov/Dec 2000): 103, 4047.

Paul M. Fleiss. The Case Against Circumcision Mothering (Winter 1997): 85, 3645.

Paul M. Fleiss and Frederick M. Hodges. Sweet Dreams: A Pediatricians Secrets for Babys Good Nights Sleep. McGraw Hill: New York, 2000, pp. 6266.

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ISBN: 978-0-7595-2751-5

First eBook Edition: September 2002

The answers may surpriseeven shockyou!

• Isnt a circumcised penis cleaner?
• Im told that circumcision can prevent urinary tract infections, HIV infection, and cancer, including cervical cancer in women. Is this true?
• My husband is circumcised. Wont my son want to look like his daddy?
• Will circumcision cause my baby pain?
• My mother told me I should circumcise my baby right after hes born so he wont have to endure the procedure later in life. Does this make sense?
• My pediatrician says my sons foreskin is too long. Is this healthy?
• My sons foreskin is red, inflamed, itching, and uncomfortabledoes this mean he will need to be circumcised?
• My ten-year-old is having his tonsils out and the doctor suggested circumcising him as well since he will be under anesthesia. Does this make sense?
• What if an adult still has a non-retractable foreskin?

PROTECT YOUR CHILDS RIGHT
TO AN INTACT BODY. FIND OUT...

WHAT YOUR DOCTOR MAY
NOT TELL YOU ABOUT CIRCUMCISION

This book has been a labor of love. We are very grateful to all the people who assisted us in its creation.

We are especially grateful to Marilyn Milos, the director of the National Organization of Circumcision Information Resource Centers, for sharing with us the wisdom gained by her years of experience providing parents with accurate information on circumcision. We are also deeply indebted to her for permission to use and adapt several of the professional pamphlets that her organization has produced.

This book has also been enriched by the wisdom of the legendary human rights ethicist John A. Erickson. We would like to express our indebtedness to him for his years of work on behalf of children everywhere.

Special thanks are also due to Billy Ray Boyd for permission to use and adapt some sections of a preface I wrote for his excellent book, Circumcision Exposed: Rethinking a Medical and Cultural Tradition. With equal gratitude, we would like to thank Dr. Mark David Reiss for permission to reproduce examples of his beautiful writings.

Special thanks are also due to our editor at Warner Books, John Aherne, as well as to his editorial staff for all their hard work and for their expert advice and judicious assistance.

Babies are a miracle. They arrive into the world complete and perfect with all their functional parts. It is our job as parents, teachers, and concerned human beings to guide them in their growth and development so that they can become intelligent, compassionate, responsible, and healthy individuals in mind, body, and spirit.

A baby is born into an imperfect world, yet he or she is pure and full of trust. A babys wants and needs are simple. A baby needs nourishmentnot only physical, but emotional nourishment. A baby wants to be held and hugged and loved and kissed and touched, to hear musicsoothing and gentle soundslike those produced by a loving human voice.

As a young medical student in the 1960s, I was excited about entering a profession that would enable me to help, comfort, and protect babies. And yet, ironically, one of the things I was required to learn as a medical student was the technique of performing the surgical procedure of male circumcision. It was not difficult to learn how to do this procedure, and I rapidly became expert at removing the foreskin from a newborn. I was able to do circumcisions in a very short amount of timefour or five minutes. I did this at the parents request, and yet I was oblivious to the infants cry. I had been taught that circumcision was just a routine proceduresomething that was just done to little boys when they were born. I naturally assumed that there were sound medical reasons for the surgery. I was an expert at cutting off the foreskin, but I knew nothing about the foreskin. I had little understanding about what its functions were. I was ignorant of how this surgery would affect a male for the rest of his life.

After several years into my pediatrics career, and after having performed perhaps a hundred circumcisions, a strange thing happened to me: I became aware of the suffering, pain, and trauma that a baby experiences when he is circumcised. Somehow, I had previously managed to put the babys trauma out of my consciousness. I now realized that every baby I circumcised cried in terror and pain, and that I had failed to respond to their pain. I also realized that I was harming rather than helping babies. I then decided that I would henceforth be on their side; as a doctor, my job was to protect babies, not harm them. After all, I had taken an oath to first do no harm.

That was when I began to study the foreskin and how nature intended the intact penis to look and function. Through diligent research, I learned how the foreskin is unlike any other part of the human body. I learned that the foreskin has a great number of special and important functions. I learned that the foreskin provides its owner with a lifetime of benefits and advantages.

Another thing that I quickly learned was that circumcision is an emotionally charged subject that most peopleand this includes doctorsare reluctant to discuss openly, let alone objectively. I should know: As a pediatrician, I have been on the front line of the circumcision debate for more than thirty years.

Although I have provided information on circumcision for expectant couples for years, it long ago became clear to me that the decision about whether or not to circumcise a boy is seldom made on the basis of medical facts. Even when parents think that they know the medical facts about circumcision, I find that most of what they believe is incorrect. Most of this incorrect information comes from friends, relatives, newspaper headlines, magazines, and talk radio. In other words, it comes from non-professionals and journalists rather than from informed and objective doctors.

The sad truth is that doctors can be poor sources of information as well! Most doctors today know very little about circumcision. They know even less about the anatomy and functions of the foreskin. How can doctors give parents accurate advice on circumcision if they are ignorant of the facts about the body part that is being cut off? Thankfully, there is a large body of medical literature that does provide all the facts you will ever need to help you make the right decision for your son.