Changes

|last=Holt

|first=L. Emmet

|author-link=

|etal=no

|last=Wolbarst

|first=Abraham L.

|author-link=

|title=Universal Circumcision as a Sanitary Measure

|last=Van Howe

|first=Robert S.

|author-link=Robert Van Howe

|etal=no

Wolbarst was solely responsible for the invention of the myth that [[circumcision]] rendered males immune to [[penile cancer]].<ref name="Wolbarst 1932">{{REFjournal

|last=Wolbarst

|author-link=Abraham L. Wolbarst

|title=Circumcision and penile cancer

}}</ref> Wolbarst wrote an article that was published in ''The Lancet'' in 1932, implicating human male smegma as carcinogenic.<ref name="Wolbarst 1932"/> 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="Fleiss 1996">{{REFjournal

|last=Fleiss

|author-link=Paul M. Fleiss

|last2=Hodges

|author2-link=Frederick M. Hodges

|title=[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2350473/pdf/bmj00534-0065d.pdf Neonatal circumcision does not protect against cancer]

|last=Boczko

|first=Stanley

|last2=Freed

|first2=Selwyn

|title= Penile carcinoma in circumcised males

|journal=N Y State J Med

}}</ref> Maden ''et al'' (1993) reported penile cancer among a fifth of elderly patients from rural areas who had been circumcised neonatally and had been born at a time when the rate of neonatal circumcision was about 20% in rural populations.<ref>{{REFjournal

|last=Maden

|last2=Sherman

|last3=Beckman

|last4=Hislop

|last5=Teh

|last6=Ashley

|etal=yes

|title=History of circumcision, medical conditions, and sexual activity and risk of penile cancer

|last=Hill

|first=George

|author-link=George Hill

|etal=no

|title=The Ghosts of Abraham Wolbarst and Aaron Fink

|journal=BMJ

|location=