Male Circumcision is Medically Beneficial
The Center for Disease Control is silent about the issue. The American Academy of Pediatrics has no comment on this. But two epidemiologists from John Hopkins are speaking for it; Male circumcision is medically beneficial.
In their editorial of the Journal of the American Medical Association, the two doctors, Dr. Aaron Tobian and Dr. Ronald Gray cite several observational studies and clinical trials showing how circumcision reduces the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV, HPV, herpes by about 30% in both men and their female sexual partners.
Despite the studies, anti-circumcision groups, "inactivists", continue to campaign and gain support to their cause.
“It’s like the anti-vaccine campaigns,” Tobian says. “The more vocal you are, the more press coverage, and people believe what people are yelling, despite what the medical evidence shows.”
The controversy gained publicity when ABC News covered a proposal in San Francisco banning male circumcision on persons below the age of 18 be put in the city ballot.
Lloyd Schofield who spearheaded the proposal told ABC News that "The foreskin is there for a reason... It's not a birth defect. It serves an important function in a man's life, and nobody has a right to perform unnecessary surgery on another human being..."
The ban would have made it illegal to "circumcise, excise, cut or mutilate the whole or any part of the foreskin, testicles or penis of another person who has not attained the age of 18 years." Any person who performs it will face a misdemeanor charge and have to pay up to a fine of up to $1,000 or serve a maximum of one year in prison.
A San Francisco Superior Court Judge ruled that the bill be withdrawn from the November ballot because according to California Law, the regulation of medical procedures is a state and not a city matter.
It must be noted that male circumcision is an important ritual to both the Jewish and Muslim religion.
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