Circumcision Series - World's Most Controversial Surgery

 

CNN: Fewer Baby Boys Being Circumcised in the U.S.

 

June 18, 2007

 

According to a study by the National Health and Social Life Survey, the U.S. circumcision rate peaked at nearly 90 percent in the early 1960s but began dropping in the '70s. By 2004, the most recent year for which government figures are available, about 57 percent of all male newborns delivered in hospitals were circumcised. In some states, the rate is well below 50 percent. About one in three males worldwide is circumcised. In the United States, the rates vary widely by region.

 

Experts say immigration patterns play the biggest role in the decline, which is steepest in Western states with big populations from Asian and Latin American countries where circumcision is uncommon. The trend has also accompanied a change in Americans' attitudes toward medicine and their bodies.

 

Circumcision remains the nation's most common surgery, and the United States is still one of the few developed countries where a majority of baby boys are circumcised. But circumcision is a heated issue and the subject of vehemently pro and anti Web sites.

 

Many doctors still recommend circumcision because of some evidence that it reduces the risk of penile cancer, urinary tract infections, HIV and perhaps other sexual transmitted diseases. Many major insurance companies still cover it, and many hospitals offer it free for newborns. But circumcision opponents say the medical benefits are dubious. Since 1999, the American Academy of Pediatrics has not endorsed routine circumcision.

 

 

 

Circumcision Statistics

 

 

Year

1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
Northeast Region 69.6% 68.3% 66.5% 68.3% 68.0% 65.4% 64.6% 66.9% 68.9% 64.7% 66.4% 66.9% 63.6%
North Central Region 80.1% 79.8% 80.9% 81.6% 82.9% 81.4% 81.4% 81.0% 81.0% 77.8% 79.5% 78.7% 77.9%
Southern Region 64.7% 66.1% 63.6% 64.5% 64.6% 64.1% 63.9% 62.5% 64.0% 57.7% 58.5% 58.7% 55.3%
Western Region 34.2% 42.6% 36.3% 38.0% 38.3% 36.7% 37.3% 40.9% 32.6% 31.4% 31.7% 31.5% 33.8%
All Regions 62.7% 64.1% 60.2% 62.8% 63.2% 61.5% 62.4% 63.1% 60.1% 55.9% 57.4% 57.3% 56.1%


 

Books

 

Desert Flower by Waris Dirie, fashion model who was born in Somalia and suffered an agonized mutilation at age five, was appointed special ambassador to the United Nations to lead a crusade against ritualized female circumcision.

 

The Golden Bough by James Frazier: Tremendously influential work. According to Frazier’s progressive model, humankind passed through three stages: magic, religion, and science. Within this scheme, religious circumcision as practiced by the Jews contained ancient magical elements, like sucking the bloody wound, that linked it to the world’s most archaic rites. Frazier’s magnum opus, like Ernest Crawley’s Mystic Rose [1902], compiled an immense stock of stories and observations of varying reliability taken from missionaries, traders, and adventurers.

 

 

Groups

 

San Francisco Bay Area the National Organization of Circumcision Information Resources Center [NOCIRC]  http://www.nocirc.org/

 

National Organization to Halt the Abuse and Routine Mutilation of Males [NOHARMM], http://www.noharmm.org/

 

J.P. Taylor, Canadian pathologist, University of Manitoba, popular presenter at anti-circumcision forums.

 

http://www.circumstitions.com/  [Nice play on words]