OUT OF LINE: AAP Circumcision Policy Statement Formally Rejected

It's been said before on this blog, and it begs repeating:

The trend of opinion on routine male circumcision is overwhelmingly negative in industrialized nations. No respected medical board in the world recommends circumcision for infants, not even in the name of HIV prevention. They must all point to the risks, and they must all state that there is no convincing evidence that the benefits outweigh these risks. To do otherwise would be to take an unfounded position against the best medical authorities of the West.

While circumcision advocates have taken the latest AAP statement, released by the so-called "task force on circumcision" last year, to be a de facto recommendation, the fact of the matter is that, even though the AAP "task force" tried their best to inch ever so close to making the recommendation many of their fellows and circumcision advocates were hoping for, they stopped short.

Though they tried to get away with chanting the mantra that the "benefits outweigh the risks," they concluded, as they did in their last statement, that the "benefits aren't great enough to recommend" infant circumcision.

Thus, the statement above continues to be true. No respected medical board in the world recommends circumcision for infants, not even the AAP.


The members of the so-called "circumcision task force" were all well aware that they couldn't get away with a full-on recommendation, because such a recommendation would be out-of-line with the rest of Western Medicine. So, they tried to push the envelope as far as they could, just stopping short of a recommendation, in order to both, appeal to public health funding programs and appear "in-line" with the rest of modern medicine.

Despite trying their hardest to portray themselves as neutral, dispassionate and impartial, and to clothe their bias in favor of male infant circumcision with "science," however, the intent of the so called "circumcision task force" was transparent to the rest of Western Medicine.

Since the release of the latest AAP policy statement on circumcision last year, criticism had been mounting, and it has finally culminated in a formal rejection by a number of well-respected pediatric organizations and senior pediatricians from around the world.

38 pediatricians, urologists, epidemiologists, and professors, representing 20 medical organizations and 15 universities and hospitals in 17 countries have published an article in the AAP Pediatrics publication, which rejects and thoroughly dismantles the AAP's 2012 policy statement.

That's 20 professional medical organizations, 15 of which are peer organizations to the AAP,  that weighed the same "evidence" as the AAP.

That's 20 professional medical organizations that didn't find the African "research" compelling.

That's 20 professional medical organizations that reject the AAP claim that "the benefits outweigh the risks."

The article was signed by the heads or spokespeople for the pediatric associations of Austria, Britain, Denmark, England, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden, and the Netherlands, and by senior pediatricians in Canada, the Czech Republic, France and Poland.

"It has become clear that the AAP, not those of us in the intactivist movement who have argued for years against the surgery, is an outlier in the discussion about the efficacy and necessity for male circumcision."
~Georganne Chapin

It was about time non-US medical organizations issued a response to the AAP's fallacious statement. I am relieved to know that the AAP's bias is not being allowed to stand unremarked, as it has for far too long.

The AAP circumcision "task force" has painted itself into a corner. Their last policy statement on circumcision has drawn fire from the rest of Western medicine, and now they're on the defense. The international article is to be published in Pediatrics along with a response from the AAP, which only serves to highlight their bias, and their intent on contradicting the rest of modern medicine.

Several intactivists that I know of are working on rebuttals to this poor response on the part of the AAP. If I have time, I will also try to respond. I will be posting links to rebuttals below, as they are published.

Hugh Young of circumstitions.com has commented on the AAP reply to the international article rejecting its latest policy statement on circumcision:

ILLINOIS: AAP exhibits cultural bias in its denial of it

The following is a list of authors to the Pediatrics article and their affiliations:

Morten Frisch, MD, PhD: Consultant, Statens Serum Institut, Copenhagen, and Adjunct Professor of Sexual Health Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark Yves Aigrain, MD, PhD: Professor of Pediatric Surgery, Hôpital Necker Enfants Malades, Université Paris Descartes, Paris, France Vidmantas Barauskas, MD, PhD: Professor and President of the Lithuanian Society of Paediatric Surgeons, Lithuania Ragnar Bjarnason, MD, PhD: Professor of Pediatrics, Landspitali University Hospital, Reykjavik, Iceland Su-Anna Boddy, MD: Consultant in Pediatric Surgery and Chairman of the Children’s Surgical Forum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, UK Piotr Czauderna, MD, PhD: Professor of Pediatric Surgery, Medical University of Gdansk, Gdansk, Poland Robert P. E. de Gier, MD: Consultant in Pediatric Urology and Chairman of Working Group for Pediatric Urology, Dutch Urological Association, The Netherlands Tom P. V. M. de Jong, MD, PhD: Professor of Pediatric Urology, University Children's Hospitals UMC Utrecht and AMC Amsterdam, The Netherlands Günter Fasching, MD: Professor and President of the Austrian Society of Pediatric and Adolescent Surgery, Austria Willem Fetter, MD, PhD: Professor and President of the Paediatric Association of the Netherlands, The Netherlands Manfred Gahr, MD: Professor and General Secretary of the German Academy of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Germany Christian Graugaard, MD, PhD: Professor of Sexology, Aalborg University, Faculty of Medicine, Denmark Gorm Greisen, MD, PhD: Professor of Pediatrics, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark Anna Gunnarsdottir, MD, PhD: Consultant in Pediatric Surgery, Landspitali University Hospital, Reykjavik, Iceland, and Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden Wolfram Hartmann, MD: President of the German Association of Pediatricians, Germany Petr Havranek, MD, PhD: Professor of Pediatric Surgery, Thomayer Hospital, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic Rowena Hitchcock, MD: Professor and President of the British Association of Paediatric Urologists, UK Simon Huddart, MD: Professor and Honorary Secretary of the British Association of Paediatric Surgeons, UK Staffan Janson, MD, PhD: Professor and Chairman of Committee on Ethics and Children’s Rights, Swedish Paediatric Society, Sweden Poul Jaszczak, MD, PhD: Vice President and Chairman of the Ethics Committee of the Danish Medical Association, Denmark Christoph Kupferschmid, MD: Practicing Pediatrician and Member of Ethics Committee of the German Academy of Pediatrics, Germany Tuija Lahdes-Vasama MD: Consultant in Pediatric Surgery and President of The Finnish Association of Pediatric Surgeons, Finland Harry Lindahl, MD, PhD: Associate Professor of Pediatric Surgery, Helsinki University Children's Hospital, Helsinki, Finland Noni MacDonald, MD: Professor of Pediatrics, IWK Health Centre, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada Trond Markestad, MD: Professor of Pediatrics, Chairman of the Ethics Committee of the Norwegian Medical Association, Oslo, Norway Matis Märtson, MD, PhD: Consultant in Pediatric Surgery and President of the Estonian Society of Paediatric Surgeons, Tallinn, Estonia Solveig Marianne Nordhov, MD, PhD: Consultant in Pediatrics and President of The Norwegian Paediatric Association, Norway Heikki Pälve, MD, PhD: Chief Executive Officer of the Finnish Medical Association, Finland Aigars Petersons, MD, PhD: Professor and President of the Latvian Association of Pediatric Surgeons, Latvia Feargal Quinn, MD: Consultant in Pediatric Surgery, Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Dublin, Ireland Niels Qvist, MD, PhD: Professor of Pediatric Surgery, Odense University Hospital, Odense, Denmark Thrainn Rosmundsson, MD: Chief of Pediatric Surgery, Landspitali University Hospital, Reykjavik, Iceland Harri Saxen, MD, PhD: Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Helsinki University Children’s Hospital, Helsinki, Finland Olle Söder, MD, PhD: Professor and President of the Swedish Pediatric Society, Stockholm, Sweden Maximilian Stehr, MD, PhD: Professor of Pediatric Surgery, Dr. v. Haunersches Kinderspital, Ludwig-Maximilians Universität, Munich, Germany Volker C.H. von Loewenich, MD: Professor and Chairman of the Commission for Ethical Questions, German Academy of Pediatrics, Frankfurt, Germany Johan Wallander, MD, PhD: Professor and Chairman of the Swedish Society of Pediatric Surgery, Sweden Rene Wijnen, MD, PhD: Professor and Chairman of the Dutch Society of Pediatric Surgery, The Netherlands

The publication of this article coincides with the publication of another article of the same nature in the Journal of Medical Ethics, written by Michigan State University Clinical Professor Robert Van Howe and Berkeley international human rights lawyer J Steven Svoboda, which focuses on the ethical issues rather than the medical issues that concern the European pediatricians who published their rebuttal on Pediatrics.

The Pediatrics article can be read here, and the JME article can be read here.

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AAP TRADE SHOW 2012: Silencing Dissent - First the Booth, Now the Protest

 

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