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→Surrogate consent: Add citation.
The AAP does not inform parents on the limitation of surrogates to grant consent for non-therapeutic procedures.
===Surrogate consent===
Autonomy is a major factor in medical ethics. There , so there are ethical limitations on the surrogate.<ref name="bioethics1995">{{REFjournal
|last=Kohrman
|first=
|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, 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 circumcision of a minor.<ref name="hill2003">{{REFjournal