Changes

It is becoming more and more apparent that routine circumcision of boys raises the same basic [[human rights ]] issues as FGM. Two of our leading medical ethicists, Dr. Eike-Henner Kluge and Dr. Margaret Somerville, have warned that infant male [[circumcision ]] presents serious ethical and legal difficulties. Dr. Kluge, a former Director of Ethics and Legal Affairs at the Canadian Medical Association, has characterized infant male circumcision as "non-consensual mutilation of a minor." Dr. Somerville, Founding Director of the [https://www.mcgill.ca/study/2010-2011/faculties/law/information/law_centre_for_medicine_ethics_and_law McGill Centre for Medicine, Ethics and Law], has likened infant male circumcision to criminal assault.

Evidence suggests that except in rare cases when it is performed in response to a specific medical need, male circumcision confers no net medical benefit and may harm the person who undergoes it. The [https://www.cps.ca/ Canadian Paediatric Society ] concluded in 1996, after an exhaustive review of the medical literature, that any potential benefit from neonatal circumcision does not outweigh the surgical risks associated with performing the procedure. <ref name="cps1996">{{REFjournal |last=Outerbridge |first=Eugene |author-link= |etal=no |title=Neonatal circumcision revisited |journal=Can Med Assoc J |location= |date=1996-03-15 |volume=154 |issue=6 |pages=769-80 |url=https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1487803/ |quote= |pubmedID=8634956 |pubmedCID=1487803 |DOI= |accessdate=2019-12-07}}</ref> Paediatric organizations in other countries, including the United States, have come to similar conclusions.

The [[foreskin ]] is an integral, normal part of the external genitals. It forms the anatomical covering of the glans penis and clitoris. One recent medical study concluded that the inner surface of the male foreskin may be "an important component of the overall sensory mechanism of the human penis"<ref>{{REFjournal