News articles on circumcision

July 14, 2004

Docs fear circumcision violates human rights

New B.C. doctors' guidelines that suggest circumcising male babies may be a human-rights abuse could put a chill on doctors who perform the surgery.

"Routine infant male circumcision is an unnecessary and irreversible procedure," say the B.C. College of Physicians and Surgeons guidelines. "Therefore, many consider it to be unwarranted mutilating surgery.

"Many adult men are increasingly concerned about whether their parents had the right to give consent for infant male circumcision."

The guidelines refer to an infant's Charter and United Nations rights to security of person and bodily integrity.

"Most physicians reading this are going to feel a certain degree of apprehension about doing or continuing to do circumcisions," said Vancouver pediatrician Dr. David Smith. "No physician wants to be in practice and sued 10 years later for a procedure they did that was acceptable 10 years earlier."

The blood-loss death of one-month-old Ryleigh McWillis two years ago after a circumcision at Penticton Regional Hospital raised a public outcry that led to the new guidelines, said Dr. Peter Seland, in charge of ethics for the college.

"There are no medical benefits when you balance the risks and benefits," Seland said.

"People can make their own ethical decisions but they need to be informed."

Jennifer Jarek of Cloverdale had her two-week-old son Ryan circumcised yesterday.

"Mostly for us, it was cleanliness and appearance," Jarek said. "It's so he looks like his daddy . . . so he looks like most other boys.

"We're doing what we feel is best for him, and if he doesn't agree with us in the future then so be it."

Dr. Neil Pollock of Vancouver performs a circumcision in 35 seconds, 2000 times a year.

Hospital statistics suggest circumcision rates are falling, but Pollock said because private-clinic circumcisions aren't tracked, there's no way to know what the real numbers are.

"My volume has gone up every year," Pollock said.

Provincial health officer Dr. Perry Kendall, speaking as an individual, drew a parallel between routine male circumcision and the much-reviled practice of female circumcision in sub-Saharan Africa.

"You're mutilating the genitalia," he said.

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