No medical society in the world recommends male circumcision - yet newborn circumcision is the most common surgical procedure in the U.S.
Safer sexual practices and abstinence - not circumcision - prevent sexually transmitted diseases. And we know that there is NO link between infant circumcision and better health.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is reviewing new health claims about the "benefits" of circumcision - and may recommend this unnecessary surgery for our baby boys based on flawed studies that ignore the risks and ethics of circumcision.
As a U.S. agency safeguarding public health, the CDC has a responsibility to share the truth about this painful and unnecessary practice. Help prevent a government recommendation of routine newborn male circumcision by signing our petition to the CDC.
Dear Centers for Disease Control,
As the foremost expert on public health in our country, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has a responsibility to share the truth about public health issues that can affect millions of Americans.
Newborn male circumcision is the most common surgical procedure in the U.S. - yet this painful and unnecessary surgery carries serious risks, including hemorrhage, infection, surgical mishap and death.
The role of circumcision in preventing sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and other health claims has been investigated by public health researchers and remains highly debatable. Only safe sexual practices, such as the use of condoms and abstinence, can prevent STDs, including HIV/AIDS. Circumcision cannot be responsibly recommended as a way of preventing disease.
[Your comments inserted here]If the CDC chooses to promote newborn male circumcision, it is supporting a procedure called "non-therapeutic" by the American Medical Association - in favor of inconclusive and highly debatable research.
I ask that the CDC not recommend circumcision as a means of preventing HIV/AIDS and formally recognize the risks and harms of the procedure and the right of every child to bodily integrity.
