Changes

This section is for all parents of boys, but is addressed primarily to parents of boys who are located in the [[United States of America]], who appear to be most uninformed or misinformed about the [[foreskin]] and [[circumcision]]. Information is not making it to parents. Studies have shown that doctors provide parents with almost no accurate or useful information about circumcision. <ref name="alissa2025-03-25A">{{REFdocument |title=What Every Doctor Should Know About Circumcision: A Call for Better Medical Practices |url=https://intactamerica.org/what-doctors-should-know-about-circumcision/ |contribution= |last=Alissa |first=Kristel |publisher=Intact America |format= |date=2025-03-25 |accessdate=2025-03-28}}</ref> After several generations of promotion of and near universal neonatal circumcision in the United States, most Americans are profoundly ignorant of a normal body part and its valuable functions.

Parents act as surrogates for their minor children who are too young to personally grant consent. <ref name="alissa2025-03-25A"/> [[Surrogate consent ]] ethically is limited to the granting of consent for diagnosis and treatment of disease.<ref name="aap1995">{{REFjournal

|quote=Continuing limits on the widespread use of pediatric assent/refusal makes this review and restatement of AAP policy important.

}}</ref> This suggests that doctors are very well aware that [[circumcision]] is a harmful, [[Pain| painful]], [[Trauma| traumatic]] non-therapeutic surgery (in short, a ritual); but they do not appear to share this knowledge with parents.Doctors usually omit information on the nature of the [[foreskin]] and its functions.<ref name="alissa2025-03-25A"/>

A busy physician can supplement their income by as much as $60,000 per year from circumcision surgeries alone.<ref>{{REFbook

If the medical [[circumcision industry ]] had actually followed this sound ethical guidance, then the [[circumcision]] of male infants would have ended abruptly. The medical industry has chosen to ignore this advice and allow parents to grant surrogate consent for non-therapeutic circumcision of male children, so that the physician income derived from circumcision may be maintained.<ref name="alissa2025-03-25B">{{REFweb |url=https://intactamerica.org/ethical-debate-behind-circumcision/ |title=Are We Sacrificing Newborns for Tradition? The Ethical Debate Behind Circumcision |last=Alissa |first= |init=K |author-link=Kristel Alissa |publisher=Intact America |date=2025-03-25 |accessdate=2025-03-29}}</ref>

At the present time, ethics and law notwithstanding, non-therapeutic circumcisions of boys are performed with parental consent. <ref name="alissa2025-03-25B" /> Parents will be offered medically-unnecessary, non-therapeutic circumcision and encouraged to grant consent, the sole beneficiary being the bank accounts of the hospital and the doctor. The information supplied below is intended to inform and assist parents of boys.

Although this may be an a slight advance, Wasserman et al., speaking for the [[AAP]], still do not recognize the [[human rights]] of children.