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Did you know that infant circumcision is the most commonly performed surgery in the US at 3300 per day. At a cost of $500 to $800 million dollars, almost 50% of the baby boys are currently being circumcised. This figure is lower than the figure of 90% in the 1960's. In the Western United States, a majority of baby boys are being left intact. In the future, circumcised boys and men in the U.S. will be seen as different from the norm - as they are in Europe and most of the world today. Estimates of complications from circumcision vary widely, depending on the definition of the word "complication and on the accuracy of medical records on botched circumcisions. Between 2 and 10 percent is probably accurate. Documented infection and complications had led to impotence, loss of penis shaft skin, increased sensitivity to pain, sexual dysfunction, and even loss of the glans or entire penis. Infants' penises have been lost in a slip of the scalpel. Botched circumcisions have created , in the words of a past president of the Virginia Urologist Society a "lifetime of genital cripples." Many men circumcised in adulthood report a lessening of the sensitivity of the penis, starting soon afterward or two or three years later. This desensitation is probably greater in infant circumcision, due to the ripping apart of the foreskin and glans (head of the penis) prior to surgery. In adults, they have already naturally separated. The foreskin (also called the prepuce ) us a natural protective covering for the glans (head). The average adult male foreskin consists of one and one-half inches of inner mucosal lining and five inches in circumference when the penis is erect. Containing over 240 feet of nerves and 20000 unique nerve endings, the foreskin is the most densely nerve-laden part of the penis and therefore the most erogenous part. Infant circumcision removes all of these nerves in what would in an adulthood become about 15 square inches of erogenous tissue. It's all sliced away in circumcision. During over a hundred years of performing circumcisions, the medical profession has never studies the consequences of the procedure. In 1996, an article by three canadian doctors in the British Journal of Urology broke new ground. Titles, " The Prepuce: SPecialized Mucosa of the penis and its loss in Circumcision" it concluded that "The amount of Tissue loss estimated in the present study is more than most parents envisage from pre-operative counseling in the informed consent process. Circumcision also ablates junctional Mucosa that appears to have an important part of the overall sensory mechanism. And finally, the United States, and its position on RIC (routine infant circumcision): “Existing scientific evidence demonstrates potential medical benefits of newborn male circumcision; however, these data are not sufficient to recommend routine neonatal circumcision. In circumstances in which there are potential benefits and risks, yet the procedure is not essential to the child's current well-being, parents should determine what is in the best interest of the child.” “The true incidence of complications after newborn circumcision is unknown. Reports of two large series have suggested that the complication rate is somewhere between 0.2% and 0.6%. Most of the complications that do occur are minor. The most frequent complication, bleeding is seen in ~0.1% of circumcisions. It is quite rare to need transfusion after a circumcision because most bleeding episodes can be handled quite well with local measures (pressure, hemostatic agents, cautery, sutures). Infection is the second most common of the complications, but most of these infections are minor and are manifest only by some local redness and purulence. There also are isolated case reports of other complications such as recurrent phimosis, wound separation, concealed penis, unsatisfactory cosmesis because of excess skin, skin bridges, urinary retention, meatitis, meatal stenosis, chordee, inclusion cysts, and retained Plastibell devices. Case reports have been noted associating circumcision with such rare events as scalded skin syndrome, necrotizing fasciitis, sepsis, and meningitis, as well as with major surgical problems such as urethral fistula, amputation of a portion of the glans penis, and penile necrosis.” American Academy of Pediatrics Task Force on Circumcision. Circumcision Policy Statement, Pediatrics 1999;103(3):686-93. Speaking of risk: “About 1,350,000 newborn American males are circumcised annually, and about 230 of them die as a result of this operation.” The AAP was, and always has been reluctant to disclose the precise number of deaths, and for good reason. The number was painstakingly calculated by Thomas Szasz, MD, in his book published in 1990. To put this statistic into clearer terms, about 1 in every 5,869 infants circumcised at birth die as a result. This obliterates any possible benefit one could hope to gain for their son, by opting to have him circumcised. It is very well understood that no reputable medical association in the entire world recommends that infants be circumcised routinely, period. Sex by Prescription, by Thomas S. Szasz, MD, Syracuse University Press, 1990. The Australians, New Zealanders and most others in Europe offer the same basic statement as the United Kingdom’s and the Canadian’s regarding infant circumcision.Lately, though, some countries have sought more aggressive laws regulating and proposing that circumcision of infants be banned completely. This is from Finland’s recent statement by the Central Union for Child Welfare: “The Central Union for Child Welfare considers that circumcision of boys that violates the personal integrity of the boys is not acceptable unless it is done for medical reasons to treat an illness. The basis for the measures of a society must be an unconditional respect for the bodily integrity of an under-aged person. Circumcision Deterred. Australian Medicine; (6-20 January) 1997:5 Belmaine SP. Circumcision. Med J Aust 1971;1:1148