Cultural bias in the AAP's 2012 Technical Report and Policy Statement on male circumcision.
نویسندگان
چکیده
The American Academy of Pediatrics recently released its new Technical Report and Policy Statement on male circumcision, concluding that current evidence indicates that the health benefits of newborn male circumcision outweigh the risks. The technical report is based on the scrutiny of a large number of complex scientific articles. Therefore, while striving for objectivity, the conclusions drawn by the 8 task force members reflect what these individual physicians perceived as trustworthy evidence. Seen from the outside, cultural bias reflecting the normality of nontherapeutic male circumcision in the United States seems obvious, and the report's conclusions are different from those reached by physicians in other parts of the Western world, including Europe, Canada, and Australia. In this commentary, a different view is presented by non-US-based physicians and representatives of general medical associations and societies for pediatrics, pediatric surgery, and pediatric urology in Northern Europe. To these authors, only 1 of the arguments put forward by the American Academy of Pediatrics has some theoretical relevance in relation to infant male circumcision; namely, the possible protection against urinary tract infections in infant boys, which can easily be treated with antibiotics without tissue loss. The other claimed health benefits, including protection against HIV/AIDS, genital herpes, genital warts, and penile cancer, are questionable, weak, and likely to have little public health relevance in a Western context, and they do not represent compelling reasons for surgery before boys are old enough to decide for themselves.
منابع مشابه
Cultural Bias and Circumcision: The AAP Task Force on Circumcision Responds
The members of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Task Force on Circumcision appreciate the opportunity to respond to the concerns raised by Frisch et al in their commentary, “Cultural Bias in AAP’s 2012 Technical Report and Policy Statement on Male Circumcision.” The central claim of these authors is that the conclusions of the task force report are culturally biased, leading the task fo...
متن کاملThe AAP Task Force on Neonatal Circumcision: a call for respectful dialogue.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Task Force on Circumcision published its policy statement and technical report on newborn circumcision in September 2012. 2 Since that time, some individuals and groups have voiced objections to the work of the Task Force, while others have conveyed their support. The AAP task force is pleased that the policy statement and technical reports on circumcisi...
متن کاملSeven things to know about female genital surgeries in Africa.
HASTINGS CENTER REPORT 19 Starting in the early 1980s, media coverage of customary African genital surgeries for females has been problematic and overly reliant on sources from within a global activist and advocacy movement opposed to the practice, variously described as female genital mutilation, female genital cutting, or female circumcision. Here, we use the more neutral expression female ge...
متن کاملOut of step: fatal flaws in the latest AAP policy report on neonatal circumcision.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recently released a policy statement and technical report on circumcision, in both of which the organisation suggests that the health benefits conferred by the surgical removal of the foreskin in infancy definitively outweigh the risks and complications associated with the procedure. While these new documents do not positively recommend neonatal circumcision, ...
متن کاملCircumcision policy statement.
Male circumcision is a common procedure, generally performed during the newborn period in the United States. In 2007, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) formed a multidisciplinary task force of AAP members and other stakeholders to evaluate the recent evidence on male circumcision and update the Academy's 1999 recommendations in this area. Evaluation of current evidence indicates that the...
متن کاملذخیره در منابع من
با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید
عنوان ژورنال:
- Pediatrics
دوره 131 4 شماره
صفحات -
تاریخ انتشار 2013