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A new study found [[circumcision]] so traumatic that doctors ended the study early rather than subject any more babies to the operation without anesthesia.<ref name="lander1997">{{LanderJ etal 1997}}</ref>
The researchers discovered that for those [[circumcised]] without anesthesia there was not only severe [[pain]], but also an increased risk of choking and difficulty breathing.
The necessity of [[circumcision]] is the subject of increasing debate , but the traditional reasons for the operations have always been prevention.
[https://www.northside.com/providers/find-a-provider/provider-profile/arthur-gumer-md/1550 Dr. Arthur Gumer of Northside Hospital in Atlanta ] says circumcision has been thought to provide "protection against infectious diseases later in life which would include either sexually transmitted diseases or urinary tract infections."
Up to 96 percent of the babies in the [[United States]] and [[Canada]] receive no anesthesia when they are [[circumcised]], according to a report from the {{UNI|University of Alberta|UAlberta}} in Edmonton.<ref name="lander1997"/>
One of the reasons anesthesia is not used, the study found, is the belief that infants feel little or no [[pain]] from the procedure. It has also been argued that injecting anesthesia can be as painful as circumcision itself, and that infants don't remember the procedure, anyway.
"To say that the baby doesn't remember it is not an adequate excuse to me," he said. "Babies experience other painful procedures and we worry about that, and we do give them anesthetics for those procedures."
But the Edmonton researchers, whose study was published in this week's ''Journal of the American Medical Association'', studied the heart rates and crying patterns of babies during different stages of circumcision. Some babies were given an anesthetic and others were not.<ref name="lander1997">{{LanderJ etal 1997}}</ref>
=== Topicals woefully inadequate ===
{{SEEALSO}}
* [[Canada]]
* [[Pain]]
* [[Protection of intact newborns in hospital]]