15,677
edits
Changes
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Wikify subincision and circumcision; Link to APS
A report on circumcision in Australia.
Australia, like other English-speaking countries, once had a rather high rate of non-therapeutic neonatal circumcision of male infants, however Australia now (2019) has a very low rate of non-therapeutic neonatal circumcision.
==History==
The indigeous people of Australia, the Aborgines, have variously practiced [[Religion and culture#Australia| subincision ]] and [[circumcision ]] since before the first contact with Europeans.
The incidence of non-therapeutic neonatal circumcision in Australia approached that of the United States in the 1930s through 1960s.
==Position statements of medical societies==
After considering the three papers published in the ''Australian Paediatric Journal'', the [http://auspaediatrics.com.au/ Australian Paediatric Society ] adopted a resolution on April 24, 1971 that the circumcision of male infants should not be performed as a routine measure. That resolution subsequently was reported in a letter published in the ''Medical Journal of Australia'' on May 22, 1971.<ref name="belmaine1971">{{REFjournal
|last=Belmaine
|first=SP
|url=http://www.cirp.org/library/statements/apa1971/
|accessdate=2019-10-28
}}</ref>
The incidence of non-therapeutic child circumcision in Australia started to decline after the publication of the Belaine (1971) letter. By 1978, only 50 percent of newborn boys were being circumcised.
The incidence of circumcision continued to decline, so that by 1996, when the Australian College of Paediatrics issued a statement, it reported that the incidence of "routine" (i.e. non-therapeutic) circumcision was estimated at ten percent of newborn boys.<ref name-"acp1996>{{REFweb
|url=http://www.cirp.org/library/statements/acp1996/
|title=Routine circumcision of normal male infants and boys
|trans-title=
|language=
|last=Statement
|first=
|author-link=
|publisher=Australian College of Paediatrics
|website=
|date=1996-05-27
|update=
|accessdate=2019-10-28
|format=
|quote=
}}</ref>