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'''Informed consent''' is a legal and ethical prerequisite for surgery and other procedures in the [[United States ]] and many most other nations.

|title=Informed conesntconsent

A treatment decision should be guided by the best interests of the child, and must balance the potential benefit over the potential harm or risk.<ref> {{REFjournal |last=Bioethics Committee, Canadian Paediatric Society |first= |author-link= |etal=no |title=Treatment decisions Information for infants and children |trans-title= |language= |journal=CMAJ |location= |date=1986-09-01 |volume=135 |issue= |pages=447-8 |url=https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1491550/pdf/cmaj00125-0033.pdf |archived= |quote= |pubmedID=3742387 |pubmedCID=1491550 |DOI= |accessdate=2020-07-23}}</ref> A [[circumcision]] of a boy may be therapeutic or parents regarding non-therapeutic. Therapeutic circumcision may be justified only in rare cases when the foreskin is deformed, diseased, or damaged by irreparable trauma and the apparent benefit to the patient exceeds the risks and harmsof infant boys.==

HoweverThis section is for all parents of boys, but is addressed primarily to parents of boys who are located in the [[United States of America]], who appear to be most uninformed or misinformed about the vast [[foreskin]] and overwhelming majority [[circumcision]]. Information is not making it to parents. Studies have shown that doctors provide parents with almost no accurate or useful information about circumcision. After several generations of circumcisions promotion of children and near universal neonatal circumcision in the United States, most Americans are performed to excise healthy, functional tissue from the body profoundly ignorant of a child normal body part and its valuable functions.=== Surrogate consent ===Parents act as surrogates for their minor children who is are too immature young to personally grant consent. The Bioethics Committee of Surrogate consent ethically is limited to the American Academy granting of Pediatrics (1995) considered the power granted to parents to grant surrogate consent for diagnosis and treatment of a child. The Committee says that a parent may give "informed permission" for investigation and treatment of disease. The difference bettween informed consent and informed permission is unclear. When a child is ill, it is the practice to allow a parent to grant informed permission for diagnostic tests and appropriate treatment.<ref name="aap1995">{{REFjournal |last=Committee on Bioethics Committee, American Academy of Pediatrics. |first= |author-link=

|accessdate=20202023-0709-2314}}</ref>  Infant boys are born with a healthy [[foreskin]]. No disease or deformity is present to be diagnosed or treated. Circumcision of an infant boy is neither a diagnostic procedure nor a treatment for disease. The limited parental surrogate powers to grant informed permission recognized by the Bioethics Committee do not extend to the granting of permission or consent for the non-therapeutic circumcision of a minor child. <ref name="aap1995" />  If the medical industry had actually followed this sound ethical guidance, then the [[circumcision]] of male infants would have ended abruptly. The medical industry has chosen to ignore this advice and allow parents to grant consent for non-therapeutic circumcision of male children, so that the physician income derived from circumcision may be maintained. Svoboda et al. (2000) examined the ethics and legality of informed consent for non-therapeutic neonatal circumcision. With regard to ethics, they concluded:<blockquote>Amputating a highly sensitive and functional part of the body is extremely intrusive and should be undertaken only in situations of extreme urgency. Neonatal circumcision as it is routinely performed in this country clearly does not satisfy this criterion. It is therefore unethical and unlawful, and no parental permission should be effective.<ref name="svoboda2002aviva2016">{{REFjournal |last=SvobodaCommittee on Bioethics |first=J. Steven |init=JS |author-link=J. Steven Svoboda |last2=Van Howe |first2=Robert S. |init2=RS |author2etal-link=Robert S. Van Howe |last3=Dwyer |first3=James G. |init3=JG |author3-link= |etal=no |title=Informed Consent for Neonatal Circumcision: An Ethical and Legal Conundrumin Decision-Making in Pediatric Practice

|language=English |journal=J Contemp Health Law PolicyPediatrics

|date=20002016-0908 |volume=17138 |issue=12 |article= |page=e20161484. |pages=61-133 |url=https://scholarshippublications.lawaap.eduorg/pediatrics/article/138/2/cgie20161484/viewcontent.cgi52512/Informed-Consent-in-Decision-Making-in-Pediatric?article=1255&contextautologincheck=jchlpredirected

|pubmedID=27456514

|doi=10.1542/peds.2016-1484 |accessdate=20202023-0709-2214

The [[medical trade association| medical trade associations]], such as the [[American Academy of Pediatrics]], the [[American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists| American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists]], the [[American Academy of Family Physicians]], and the [[American Urological Association ]] have a primary responsibility to their fellows (members) of advancing the profitability of medical practice. Consequently their public statements regarding medically-unnecessary, non-therapeutic [[circumcision ]] of boys are strongly biased in favor of promoting the practice, so that their fellows can earn more money for the additional service of [[circumcision]]. The public statements are silent on the [[human rights]] of the child-patient and the multiple physiological [http://www.intactaus.org/information/functionsoftheforeskin/ functions of the foreskin]. They describe "potential" benefits which are imagined benefits that cannot be proved to actually exist. They understate the risks of the surgical procedure, which can include loss of the penis and [[death]]. They are purposefully silent on the [[foreskin]]'s nature and functions, [[Sexual effects of circumcision| sexual]] , and [[Psychological issues of male circumcision| psychological]] harms of having the most erogenous<ref name="winklemann1959">{{REFjournal |last=Winkelmann |init=RK |author-link= |title=The erogenous zones: their nerve supply and significance |journal=Mayo Clin Proc |date=WinkelmannRK 1959-01-21 |volume=34 |issue=3 |pages=39-47 |url=http://www.cirp.org/library/anatomy/winkelmann/ |quote= |pubmedID=13645790 |pubmedCID= |DOI= |accessdate=2020-07-21}}</ref> part of the penis amputated. For all of these reasons, their public statements should not be used as a basis for informed consent.

[[J. Steven Svoboda | Svoboda]] et al. {2000) commented:

Even more troubling in the common occurrence of parents being presented with the circumcision question for the first time when a mother is in labor at a hospital. Surgeon [[George W. Kaplan ]] notes that "all too often the consent to circumcise is included in a sheaf of papers that the mother signs hurriedly on her way to the delivery room. No discussion has been held regarding the merits of the procedure or of the inherent risks." [[George W. Kaplan|Kaplan ]] characterizes this practice as "inexcusable". Raising the circumcision issue for the first time upon the mother's arrival at the hospital to give birth amounts to manipulation and coercion. Because the physician and the hospital benefit financially from the parent's decision, such a practice raises grave concerns about unethical profiteering.<ref name="svoboda2002" />

}}</ref> This suggests that doctors are very well aware that [[circumcision ]] is a harmful, [[Pain| painful]], [[Trauma| traumatic]] non-therapeutic surgery (in short, a ritual); but they do not appear to share this knowledge with parents.

|first=PaulM. |init=PM

Many [[circumcised ]] men, some of whom are [[Circumcised doctors|doctors]], experience a strong denial of loss which in turn fuels an emotional compulsion to repeat the [[trauma ]] to normalize their loss.<ref>{{REFjournal |last=Van der Kolk |init=BA |url=http://www.cirp.org/library/psych/vanderkolk/ |title=The compulsion to repeat the trauma: re-enactment, revictimization, and masochism |journal=Psychiatr Clin North Am |date=VanderKolkBA 1989 |volume=12 |issue=2 |pages=389-411}}</ref><ref>{{REFjournal

}}</ref><ref>{{REFjournal

The use of local anesthetics significantly drives up the costs of surgeryand the time to execute a circumcision [[amputation]], so may not be used. When anesthetics are used, they can only reduce the [[pain]], not eliminate it. Infants can not be given general anesthesia because of the medical risks involved. In the recent past, anesthesia was rarely used, if ever. Because of this, circumcision has always been an extremely traumatizing experience causing an array of short and long term behavioral and developmental problems<ref>{{REFjournal

}}</ref>, including altered perceptions of pain<ref>{{REFjournal |last=Taddio |init=A |last2=Goldbach |init2=M |last3=Ipp |init3=E |TaddioA etal=yes |url=http://www.cirp.org/library/pain/taddio/ |title=Effect of neonatal circumcision on pain responses during vaccination in boys |journal=Lancet |date=1995 |volume=345 |pages=291-292 |accessdate=2011-03-21}}</ref><ref>{{REFjournal |last=Taddio |init=A |last2=Katz |init2=J |last3=Ilersich |init3=AL |last4=Koren |init4=G |url=http://www.cirp.org/library/pain/taddio2 |title=Effect of neonatal circumcision on pain response during subsequent routine vaccination |journal=Lancet |date=TaddioA KatzJ IlersichAL KorenG 1997 |volume=349 |issue=9052 |pages=599-603 |accessdate=2011-03-21}}</ref><ref>{{REFjournal

}}</ref>, [[post -traumatic stress disorder ]] (PTSD)<ref>{{REFjournal |last=Boyle |init=GJ |author-link=Gregory J. Boyle |last2=Goldman |init2=R |author2-link=Ronald Goldman |last3=Svoboda |init3=JS |author3-link=J. Steven Svoboda |last4=Fernandez |init4=E |url=http://www.cirp.org/library/psych/boyle6/ |title=Male circumcision: pain, trauma and psychosexual sequelae |journal=J Health Psychol |date=BoyleGJ GoldmanR SvobodaJS FernandezE 2002 |volume=7 |issue=3 |pages=329-343}}</ref><ref>{{REFjournal

|first2=G.Gregory J. |init2=GJ

* [[Human rightsTrauma]]