Changes

'''Abraham Leo Wolbarst''', M.D.,({{LifeData|1872|1952}}) a New York City physician, was a notorious promoter of non-therapeutic neonatal male circumcision.  Holt (1913) reported that tubercular ''mohelim'' were infecting baby boys with tuberculosis by the performance of ritual circumcision in an article published in the ''Journal of the American Medical Association'' (JAMA).<ref name="holt1913">{{REFjournal |last=Holt |first=L. Emmet |author-link= |etal=no |title=Tuberculosis acquired through ritual circumcision |trans-title= |language= |journal=JAMA |location= |date=1913-7-12 |volume=61 |issue=2 |pages=99-102 |url=http://www.cirp.org/library/complications/holt1/ |quote= |pubmedID= |pubmedCID= |DOI= |accessdate=2020-03-30}}</ref> Wolbarst was incensed by what he perceived as an attack on ritual circumcision, so he resolved to defend ritual circumcision by arguing that it provided health benefits. Wolbarst's defense of circumcision was published in ''JAMA'' in 1914 and entitled "''Universal Circumcision as a Sanitary Measure''".<ref name="wolbarst1914">{{REFjournal |last=Wolbarst |first=Abraham L. |author-link= |title=Universal Circumcision as a Sanitary Measure |journal=JAMA |date=1914-1-10 |volume=62 |issue=2 |pages=92-97 |url=https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/453164 |accessdate=2020-03-30}}</ref>  This was before the days of evidence-based medicine, when doctors relied on medical ''opinion'', instead of scientific evidence. Wolbarst collected the ''opinions'' of several physicians and published those opinions as evidence for his argument that circumcision prevented diseases. Wolbarst argued that non-therapeutic neonatal circumcision prevented numerous diseases including venereal disease. He was solely responsible for the invention of the myth that [[circumcision]] rendered males immune to [[penile cancer]].<ref name="wolbarst1932">Wolbarst, AL. Circumcision and penile cancer. ''Lancet'' 1932; 150-3.</ref> Wolbarst wrote an article that was published in ''The Lancet'' in 1932, implicating human male smegma as carcinogenic.<ref name="wolbarst1932"/> Wolbarst's myth was based entirely on unverifiable anecdotes, ethnocentric stereotypes, a faulty understanding of human anatomy and physiology, a misunderstanding of the distinction between association and cause, and an unbridled missionary zeal, and it had absolutely no basis in valid scientific and epidemiological research.<ref name="fleiss1996">Fleiss PM, Hodges F. [http://www.cirp.org/library/disease/cancer/fleiss/ Neonatal circumcision does not protect against cancer]. ''BMJ'' 1996;312(7033):779-80.</ref>