February:  The medical licensing board for the province of Saskatchewan, the Saskatchewan College of Physicians and Surgeons, issued a strongly worded memo to the province’s doctors advising them not to perform routine infant male circumcision. The memo cautions physicians that it would generally be considered “imprudent if not improper” to perform surgery whose expected benefit does not outweigh the documented risks. [Read more...]

March:  Dr. Gifford-Jones, nationally syndicated medical columnist, condemned routine infant circumcision in an article highlighting the anatomical studies of Dr. John R. Taylor and the ethical analyses of Dr. Margaret Somerville. [Read more...]

May:  The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Saskatchewan kept the pot boiling by issuing a second memo. This time the College warned doctors that if they performed routine infant circumcision, they could be vulnerable to lawsuits brought by the parents or the infant himself when he reaches the age of majority.

August:  A five-week-old Penticton infant bled to death two days after his circumcision, giving further impetus to the moves to end infant male circumcision in Canada. [Read more...]

Ethicist Jackie Smith, writing in the National Post the day after the report of the infant’s death, called infant male circumcision unethical. [Read more...]

September:  Echoing the position of the provincial College of Physicians and Surgeons, the vice-president of the Saskatchewan Medical Association, Dr. Joel Yelland, said he couldn’t understand why physicians would perform infant male circumcision given the medical and legal risks involved. [Read more...]

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