Circumcision is no longer widely practiced or accepted in much of the world. The United States is a notable exception, who's doctors still promote circumcision as a normal medical surgery. However, attitudes about circumcision are quickly changing, in November 2020, a major new paper was published by prominent legal scholars in the Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy, with the simple title "Is Circumcision a Fraud?", this paper lays out in detail why circumcision is not only a violation of medical ethics, but also unlawful, and fraudulent under current U.S. law. The scale of the fraud is potentially vast, possibly in the tens, or even hundreds of billions of dollars. This has enormous implications for doctors, hospitals, patients, and American society.

Here are five take-notes from the paper that greater paints the circumcision epidemic.

https://ww3.lawschool.cornell.edu/research/JLPP/upload/Adler-et-al-final.pdf

1) Circumcision is impossible to justify under medical grounds.

This view is widely accepted within the international medical community. But U.S. doctors present circumcision as a normal and routine procedure. In reality, circumcision is a harmful, unnecessary, and irreversible surgery, that removes important and healthy tissue that can never be replaced. 38 international medical authorities have spoken out on how circumcision is unethical, unlawful, and violates a doctors Hippocratic oath to do no harm. For these reasons, circumcision is impossible to justify as normal or routine.

2) Circumcision violates a child's right to bodily integrity.

A cherished American ideal, is that citizens have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The supreme court has ruled that no right is more carefully guarded then the right of every individual to be free and safe from harm. Parents, however, do not have the right to consent to unnecessary surgery, for example, they can't cut off a baby's finger just because they want to, nor may doctors conduct unnecessary surgery due to their Hippocratic oath to do no harm.

3) Non-therapeutic circumcision constitutes criminal assault and battery under U.S. law.

In simple terms, circumcision is violence, not medicine. When surgery is performed on a child without informed legal consent, under U.S. law, it is considered assault, battery, and child abuse. Internationally, circumcision is viewed as "child violence - not medicine."

The United Nations partner council on violence against children, has stated that circumcision is a "gross violation of a child's rights."

4) Doctors routinely withhold critical information regarding circumcision, which is a breach of trust, and a violation of medical ethics.

Before performing any surgery, doctors must always obtain informed consent from patients or parents, to obtain consent, doctors must fully inform patients or parents of surgery's risks or complications. Circumcision has a list of at least 50 possible complications. By routinely withholding this critical information, doctors breach their duty to fully inform patients and tell the truth. This is illegal and unethical.

5) The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has knowingly misrepresented the risks and complications of circumcision. Which is fraud by AAP.

Parents are being deceived into routinely performing surgery that has no meaningful childhood benefits yet carries significant risks and a lifetime of harm. Internationally the medical rule is to never operate unnecessarily on healthy children, the AAP knows this but still positions circumcision as a normal and beneficial procedure, this is so their doctors can be reimbursed for the procedure from insurance companies, and taxpayers. Medicaid and insurance companies pay for at least one-third of circumcisions, if circumcision was recognized as the unnecessary surgery that it is, AAP stakeholder members would be impacted by a significant decline in revenue.

The AAP knows circumcision is harmful and unnecessary, but they continue to endorse it publicly so their doctors can continue to profit. This is wrong, and illegal.