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Wikify American Academy of Pediatrics.
}}</ref> This may have contributed to his being appointed as chairman of the new AAP task force on circumcision.
In 1987, Schoen was appointed head of the Task Force on Circumcision by the [[American Academy of Pediatrics]],<ref>''American Journal of Diseases in Children'', Vol 141: 128. February 1987</ref> where he pushed for routine, non-therapeutic infant circumcision, but the neonatologists on Schoen's committee wouldn't go for it. According to Schoen, not performing circumcision would be "taking us back to nineteenth-century medicine on the eve of the 21st century," and that circumcision will prevent "dermatological problems".<ref name="Slack">{{REFjournal
|last=Slack
|first=Gordy
|publisher=
|website=
|date=1989 |accessdate=2020-03-18
}}</ref> This was despite their own admission that evidence linking circumcision to prevention of any diseases was inconclusive, with the sole exception of penile cancer (which they noted was mainly caused by unhealthy lifestyles). Given Schoen's history of circumcision advocacy and his position as taskforce chair, he may have influenced the committee significantly.