Christoph Kupferschmid

Dr. Christoph Kupferschmid is a paediatrician who spoke at the WWDOGA in 2014, 2016, and 2016, representing the BVKJ.

2016 WWDOGA speech

His WWDOGA 2016 speech (translated by Stefan Schritt):

I'd like to thank for the invitation and the opportunity to speak here today. Please excuse that I can't do this hands-free, I somewhat need my sheet music to sing.

I speak to you as a pediatrician, as representative of the professional association of pediatricians in Germany which has their head office here in Cologne and represents almost all residential pediatricians and a very big part of the pediatricians that work in hospitals. All German pediatric associations disapprove of circumcision of young boys when there is no urgent medical indication, when there are no important medical reasons for this surgery. The vast majority of pediatricians in Germany have a different opinion than the majority of the members of the German Bundestag. Parents should not be allowed to decide whether or not their boys get circumcised without indispensable medical reasons.

Circumcision is a physical injury of the child's body that can not be undone. It's not just a little scar that remains like after a surgery, after circumcision the boy lacks something. There's a lack of protection, a lack of sensitivity at his penis. But not only is the body being harmed, the soul of the child is harmed as well. The most intimate, the most sensitive area is subjected to pain that last for days. The adults dictate that, they hold him down, they make him will-less, he has to endure it, he does not understand it, and it still hurts so much for so long.

We pediatricians are convinced that human rights are at the very top of our value system. Children's rights are human rights. A child's right to an unharmed body counts more than the parental right to consent. The child's right to self-determination counts more means more to us then religious command. No one accepts corporal punishment just because some people read from the bible that beating is necessary for a child's upbringing.

We pediatricians want that in our society boys are granted the same level of protection that girls are. We thoroughly oppose considerations from so-called medical ethicists in America to allow a - what they call it - small female circumcision, and that this small circumcision was a protection for the girls from a later, big circumcision. Those are totally unproven claims, those are abstruse considerations that have been published in big ethical journals in the American medial world now in 2016. Big or small, boy or girl, who wants to beat will beat, who wants to circumcise will circumcise. That is no ethical situation, that is no ethical stance, that is no medical stance - we can not allow that.

Yet we doctors may as well not ignore that a huge number of boys in Germany are circumcised without any religious and without any medical reason. The are being circumcised because doctors a badly trained. In their studies and advanced vocational training medical students and doctors learn things about the foreskin that date back all the way to the first half of the last century. They learn that the foreskin was dispensable, that it it could be cut off, and many still believe that with school age, a boy must be able to retract his foreskin with ease, or otherwise we doctors would have to intervene. A few years ago we proved that each year 30,000 boys are circumcised in Germany without religious motivation and also without any medical indication. Almost 30,000 victims, boys, of mutilation by doctors. Mutilation due to nescience, mutilation due to neglect, and a mutilation with which individual people make good profits.

If we pediatricians take children's right seriously, if we take our medical mission seriously, than we have a huge responsibility in terms of circumcision, and we still have a lot to do. We need to ensure that our colleagues stop to needlessly hurt thousands of boys each year. We need to educate them better, we need to inform them about the risks and side-effects and the nonsense of their actions.

And sometimes we need to fall into their arms and take away their knifes. It has to stop that small boys are needlessly subjected to pain. It has to stop that small boys have an organ cut off that they will later miss. It has to stop that small boys are subjected to emotional distress, that for some results in loss of some of the pleasures of life for years, or even for their whole lives. It has to stop that adults subject children to lasting bodily and emotional harm, when there is no reason for it regarding the best possible health development. We need to fall into the circumcisers arms, we need to take away the knife from ritual circumcisers, when we can not convince them. We need to take away the circumcision knife from doctors if they use it negligent and without sufficient knowledge.

I thank you for standing here for this effort, and that you gave me the opportunity to once more formulate and clarify our responsibility and our tasks as pediatricians.

Thank you!

2020 WWDOGA speech

In 2020 Dr. Kupferschmidt spoke in a video message on WWDOGA:

“

Hello, my name is Christoph Kupferschmid. I have been a pediatrician for 40 years and have been active in protecting children and adolescents for almost as long. Today I speak as a representative of the professional's association of pediatricians in Germany. Our association represents almost all resident pediatricians and many practicing in clinics and in the public health service. Already in 2012, all associations of pediatric and adolescent medicine in Germany had spoken out against cutting off the penile foreskin of children or adolescents without a medical reason. The Commission for Ethical Questions of the German Academy for Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine confirmed once again in 2016 that such interventions are not in line with the child's best interests. They contradict medical ethics not to harm. Since the Cologne ruling in 2012, I have been thinking a lot about the circumcision of children and adolescents and I wrote many articles about it. I was involved in the statement of our ethics committee and also in the formulation of the medical guidelines on circumcision, which have been published in 2016 and currently are being revised. We all know that Muslim and Jewish boys are circumcised for religious reasons and that these circumcisions are not medically necessary. However, most people do not know that many more boys are circumcised in the medical field than would be necessary due to a disease of the foreskin. Without any religious background. Billing data from the health insurance funds tell us that every tenth boy is operated on the foreskin. Year for year. Scientific data on the diseases of the foreskin show that for at most 3% of all cases a surgery is necessary. So it is very likely that two out of three circumcisions made for medical reasons are not necessary. We adopted the medical guideline in 2017 especially to help doctors to operate unnecessarily less often. This was done with the knowledge and conviction that with the removal of the foreskin the boy loses a large part of the erotically sensitive tissue of his penis. In addition, the operation is not free from complications. Unfortunately, the publication of the guideline had no significant effect on the frequency of circumcision for allegedly medical reasons. The number of circumcisions decreased only slightly from 2017 to 2019. That means that even today, two out of three circumcisions that are made in the outpatient area and paid for by the health insurance companies are probably not medically necessary. As a doctor and as a medical ethicist, I'm sad about that. Because we as doctors shouldn't harm with our work. I know that many men never feel at a disadvantage because they were circumcised as children. But I also know that there are many men who suffer from it throughout their life. We cannot predict the development. However, one thing is certain: a removed foreskin can never be restored. What about circumcision for religious reasons or due to tradition? As doctors, we cannot and do not want to talk anyone into one's religion. However, we can and must always explain that there are usually no medically reasons for these circumcisions. The alleged medical benefit is repeatedly held towars us, but is does not exist, at least not in Germany and not in Europe. Today we have different hygienic standards and different medical options than in the days of Abraham and Mohamed. The pediatricians in Germany have been demanding for years that we should have a societal dialog about this. After the Cologne ruling and after the German Bundestag passed the so-called "Circumcision Law" in 2012, many groups found this dialog necessary. They were almost enthusiastic. However, the idea fell asleep. Everyone lives well with the current situation, except those affected. One acts according to the motto: Better not touch it. Parents have the right to have their sons circumcised because the state has given parents' rights and the fundamental right to freedom of religion priority over children's right to physical integrity. This was also possible because children's rights are still not anchored in the constitution. Today is corona crisis, today everything is different. In the light of great health risks for the population - especially for older people - it was surprisingly easy to restrict free exercise of religion. It was just as surprisingly easy to limit parenting rights by closing the playgrounds and drastically limiting contacts and freedom of movement. Mind you, I am not against these measures. On the contrary, I think it is urgently needed until we have a vaccine or a good drug in our hands. But perhaps one of the lessons from this crisis is that traditional beliefs are being put to the test. That it always has to go on with the unnecessary injury to so many little boys. Violation from religious and traditional motives, violation from disregard for medical standards and violation because the parents want it that way. I wish that all children can grow up with their genitals intact unless there are good medical reasons for early surgery. I wish that all children can find and live their sexual identity independently and without traumatic stress. Thank you for listening and I wish you health and perseverance. – Dr. Christoph Kupferschmid (WWDOGA 2020)

External links

• WWDOGA 2017, speech Dr. Christoph Kupferschmid
• WWDOGA 2016, speech Dr. Christoph Kupferschmid
• WWDOGA 2014, speech Dr. Christoph Kupferschmid