Changes

Autonomy is a major factor in medical ethics.There are ethical limitations on the surrogate.<ref name="bioethics1995">{{REFjournal |last=Kohrman |first= |init=A |author-link= |last2=Clayton |first2= |init2=EW |author2-link= |last3=Frader |first3= |init3=JE |author3-link= |last4=Grodin |first4= |init4=MA |author4-link= |last5=Moseley |first5= |init5=KL |author5-link= |last6=Porter |first6= |init6=IH |author6-link= |last7=Wagner |first7= |init7=VM |author7-link= |etal=no |title=Informed consent, parental permission, and assent in pediatric practice. Committee on Bioethics, American Academy of Pediatrics |trans-title= |language= |journal=Pediatrics |date=1995-02 |volume=95 |issue=2 |pages=314-7 |url=https://www.cirp.org/library/ethics/AAP/ |archived= |quote=Such providers have legal and ethical duties to their child patients to render competent medical care based on what the patient needs, not what someone else expresses. Although impasses regarding the interests of minors and the expressed wishes of their parents or guardians are rare, the pediatrician's responsibilities to his or her patient exist independent of parental desires or proxy consent. |pubmedID= 7838658 |pubmedCID= |DOI= |doi= |accessdate=2025-09-23}}</ref> Surrogates are expected to respect the autonomy of the patient to the maximum extent possible, consistent with providing needed medical treatment. There are no medical indications for [[circumcision of the newborn]], so circumcision is neither diagnosis nor treatment. When the patient is a minor, then [[surrogate consent]] is usually granted by a parent acting as surrogate. There are ethical limitations on the , but granting consent for medically-unnecessary, non-therapeutic [[circumcision]] exceeds a surrogate's recognized authority. ==Violation of patient rights=="Circumcision" actually is an irreversible [[amputation]] of a functional body part. In the [[United States]], even babies have legal rights to bodily integrity.<ref>[https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=12998230422916570030&hl=en&as_sdt=8000003&scfhb=1 Union Pac. Ry. Co v Botsford] 141 U.S. 251 (1890).</ref> Circumcision may lawfully be performed only if someone has granted a valid consent for the amputation, however no one has the legal power to grant consent in the absence of a medical indication for a non-therapeutic circumcisionof a minor.<ref name="hill2003">{{REFjournal

The decision to perform non-therapeutic [[circumcision ]] belongs to the patient, not the parents.

The Healthy Children Website fails to tell parents that [[circumcision ]] is a medically unnecessary, non-therapeutic surgical operation /[[amputation]] that may be deferred until the boy can decide for himself if he wants to sacrifice his [[foreskin]].