Circumcision, an Elephant in the Hospital Excerpts

Through both a review of scientific literature and a discussion of the human cost of the procedure, this presentation explores circumcision from the perspectives of the child, the adult survivor, the parent, and the practitioner.

What is infant circumcision? Why is the practice common in U.S. hospitals and not in other countries? What does it remove and how does that affect the child? Does scientific data suggest that circumcision has benefits? What are the potential complications? How does it affect sexuality? Is it a medical procedure or a social surgery? If it's unnecessary surgery, what about contemporary bioethics principles?

These are excerpts from the whole talk, posted here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ceht-3xu84I

Ryan McAllister, PhD, is a parent, a biophysicist, an Assistant Professor of Physics and Oncology at Georgetown University, and also a volunteer who supports parents and families. Over the last 10 years he has been studying the medicalization of childbirth in U.S. hospitals.

The slides, supplementary material, references and a copy of the video can be downloaded here:
physics.georgetown.edu/~rmca/Elephant_in_the_Hospital/

NOTE: This presentation includes some graphic slides necessary to present the procedure and anatomy being discussed.

Edited by Jackie Karnoff

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Circumcision
• Parenting
• Bioethics
• Social Surgery
• Pediatrics
• Boys
• Infants
• Obstetrics
• Intact
• Pregnancy
• Human Rights
• Sexuality
• Gender
• Penis
• Foreskin
• Sex
• Childbirth
• Men
• Ethics
• Medical
• health
• educational
• nonprofit
• public health

[tommyrocket]

Wow - this is an incredible presentation. Thank you for this. As an adult male, my anger at having been circumcised as a child has not abated. It is a relief to see a scientist fighting for the rights of the intact child.

[McAllisterRyan]

@tommyrocket Thank you for your kind words! Feel free to share the talk widely and or to share the full version, which is here: youtube.com/watch?v=Ceht-3xu84­I

[TheChallenger2011]

Great presentation! Thank you

[McAllisterRyan]

@TheChallenger2011 Thank you for watching and for your kind words.

[fot80]

what was the reception like to this video in your presentation? Did any students say they changed their mind about how they thought? Were there people who said I still think it's ok? I'm just curious.

[tommyrocket]

I must add that I read through the study: "Male Circumcision and HIV Prevention: Insufficient Evidence and Neglected External Validity." I am so relieved to see there is another point of view and a counter-study to the flawed African studies which have (perplexingly) been adopted by the WHO and HIV activists (including Bono who discussed it on The Daily Show recently.) Intactivists have been throwing their hands in the air as more and more people promote those flawed findings.

[MaitriHouse]

@jillbiggs Thank you! Feel free to share.

[jillbiggs]

excellent video, very informative.. i always knew i disagreed but never really been able to articulate why.. this will answer the why. :)

[oh2love4love]

glad you put this up on your own channel :)

[wdmm94]

Circumcision removes the most sensitive part of a man's penis. The five most sensitive areas of the penis are on the foreskin. The transitional region from the external to the internal foreskin is the most sensitive region of the fully intact penis, and more sensitive than the most sensitive region of the circumcised penis.

-------------------

Fine-Touch Pressure Thresholds In The Adult Penis

British Journal of Urology International,

2007, Vol. 99, No. 4, 864-869

Sorrells et al.

[Whiskeybit]

Fantastic job!!!!

[MEbayB]

Seems to me that the amputated foreskin, in adult terms, is about the size of a yarmulke.