Alan F. Guttmacher
Alan Frank Guttmacher, M.D.[a 1], (19 May 1898 – 18 March 1974), was an American obstetrician/gynecologist. He served as president of Planned Parenthood and vice-president of the American Eugenics Society.[1] Dr. Guttmacher founded the American Association of Planned Parenthood Physicians, now known as the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals, as a forum for physicians to discuss the birth control pill and other advances in the field. He founded the Association for the Study of Abortion in 1964. He was a member of the Association for Voluntary Sterilization. The Guttmacher Institute is named after him.[2]
Contents
Family
Alan Guttmacher was born in 1898 to Rabbi Adolf (Adolph) Guttmacher, and Laura (Oppenheimer) Guttmacher, German Jewish emigrants.[2]
Professional history
Guttmacher was a graduate of Johns Hopkins University and the Hopkins Medical School. He served as Director of Obstetrics and Gynecology and was appointed Obstetrician and Gynecologist-In-Chief at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York for approximately ten years. In 1962, ten years after moving to New York, he became president of the Planned Parenthood Federation. He extended this endeavor by founding the Association of Planned Parenthood Physicians which included scientists and medical practitioners. From 1964 to 1968, he served as Chairman of the Medical Committee of the International Planned Parenthood Federation. Guttmacher was also a fellow of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists, the American Fertility Society, New York Academy of Medicine, and the American Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.[3]
Circumcision promoter
Although Guttmacher was probably circumcised on the eighth day of life in accordance with the Abrahamic covenant, and would have no personal experience of a foreskin, he claimed expert knowledge. As a circumcised doctor, one would expect him to be biased in favor of circumcision.
In 1941, Guttmacher erronously claimed the presence of a foreskin would cause dirt to collect under the foreskin in newborns. He spread the false claim that a baby's foreskin must be forcibly retracted and scrubbed daily which is basically impossible without violence due to the synechia which adheres the foreskin to the glans. He promoted mass circumcision as a means of blunting male sexual sensitivity.[4] So he unintentionally confirmed that the foreskin is an important part for sensation in the male genitals.
See also
External links
Who was Alan Guttmacher?
, Guttmacher Institute. Retrieved 11 October 2021.-
Alan F. Guttmacher papers, 1860, 1898-1974. H MS c 155
, Harvard Medical Library. Retrieved 11 October 2021.
Abbreviations
- ↑
Doctor of Medicine
, Wikipedia. Retrieved 14 June 2021. In the United Kingdom, Ireland and some Commonwealth countries, the abbreviation MD is common.
References
- ↑
Franks A (2005): Margaret Sanger's Eugenic Legacy. McFarland. P. 76. ISBN 978-0-7864-2011-7.
- ↑ a b
Alan Frank Guttmacher
, Wikipedia. Retrieved 11 October 2021. - ↑ "Dr. Alan Guttmacher dies." The Baltimore Sun. 19 March 1974.
- ↑
Guttmacher AF. Should the baby be circumcised?. Parents Magazine. September 1941; 16(9): 26,76-78.
