Between Prophylaxis and Child Abuse: The Ethics of Neonatal Male Circumcision

@article{Benatar2003BetweenPA,
  title={Between Prophylaxis and Child Abuse: The Ethics of Neonatal Male Circumcision},
  author={Michael Benatar and David Benatar},
  journal={The American Journal of Bioethics},
  year={2003},
  volume={3},
  pages={35 - 48}
}
Opinion about neonatal male circumcision is deeply divided. Some take it to be a prophylactic measure with unequivocal and significant health benefits, while others consider it a form of child abuse. We argue against both these polar views. In doing so, we discuss whether circumcision constitutes bodily mutilation, whether the absence of the child's informed consent makes it wrong, the nature and strength of the evidence regarding medical harms and benefits, and what moral weight cultural… 
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132 Citations
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132 Citations

Neonatal Male Circumcision: Ethical Issues and Physician Responsibility

TLDR
It is reasonable to wait for the infant to grow, develop his own set of values, and ultimately decide on whether to pursue the option of circumcision, and at this later date it might be permissible for medical doctors to partake in circumcision procedures.

Cutting History, Cutting Culture: Female Circumcision in the United States

TLDR
Doctors who come to the opposite conclusion should conscientiously refuse to perform the procedure, even when it is requested by parents.

Newborn Male Circumcision with Parental Consent, as Stated in the AAP Circumcision Policy Statement, Is Both Legal and Ethical

  • M. Brady
  • Medicine
    Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics
  • 2016
TLDR
The CDC and the AAP believe that parents should be allowed to make the decision concerning circumcision of their male infants after receiving non-biased information on health risks and health benefits.

Neonatal circumcision – violation of children’s rights or public health necessity?

TLDR
The article concludes that the rights of neonates to bodily integrity should not be tampered with lightly, and that only a severe public health hazard such as the HIV/AIDS pandemic may justify incursion into this constitutionally protected right.

Male circumcision: a scientific perspective

  • R. Short
  • Medicine
    Journal of Medical Ethics
  • 2004
TLDR
In this issue, John Hutson has reiterated the conventional Western medical view that “the surgical argument for circumcision of all neonatal males at present is very weak” and he criticises many of the circumcisions performed in later childhood, without anaesthesia, as “physically cruel and potentially dangerous”.

Short Changed? the Law and Ethics of Male Circumcision

TLDR
This chapter suggests that the medico-legal failure to take seriously the risks involved is understandable if the authors recognise that the concept of harm is inherently fluid and that pain is often incapable of articulation.

Male Circumcision and the Rights of the Child 1

TLDR
This paper examines guidance on male circumcision issued by professional medical associations in countries which share a similar tradition of circumcision to the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand and adopts a more progressive and less tolerant approach to the issue of elective neonatal circumcision.

Routine (Non-Religious) Neonatal Circumcision and Bodily Integrity: A Transatlantic Dialogue

  • W. Dekkers
  • Medicine
    Kennedy Institute of Ethics journal
  • 2009
TLDR
The practice of RNC is questionable from a variety of viewpoints including not only the ideal of evidence-based medicine and human rights considerations, but also the notion of respect for bodily integrity.

Male Circumcision, Religious Preferences, and the Question of Harm

  • M. Sheldon
  • Philosophy
    The American journal of bioethics : AJOB
  • 2003
TLDR
It is proposed that, arst, the choice of whether to circumcise a male child is an acceptable choice and a choice appropriately left to parental prerogatives, and, second, that the participation of the physician is permissible as well.

Ethical challenges of female genital mutilation and of male circumcision

This article is about the ethical challenges related to female genital mutilation and male circumcision, by showing similarities and differences. Male circumcision is a medical procedure to some…
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