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'''Abraham Leo Wolbarst''', M.D.,({{LifeData|1872|1952}}) a New York City physician, was a notorious promoter of non-therapeutic neonatal male circumcision.

He == Myth: protection against penile cancer ==Wolbarst was solely responsible for the invention of the myth that [[circumcision]] rendered males immune to [[penile cancer]].<ref name="wolbarst1932Wolbarst 1932">{{REFjournal |last=Wolbarst, AL |first=A.L. |author-link=Abraham L. Wolbarst |title=Circumcision and penile cancer. '' |journal=Lancet'' |volume=1 |issue=5655 |date=1932; -01-16 |pages=150-3.153}}</ref> Wolbarst wrote an article that was published in ''The Lancet'' in 1932, implicating human male smegma as carcinogenic.<ref name="wolbarst1932Wolbarst 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="fleiss1996Fleiss 1996">{{REFjournal |last=Fleiss |first=P.M. |author-link=Paul M. Fleiss PM, |last2=Hodges |first2=F. [http://www |author2-link=Frederick M.cirp.org/library/disease/cancer/fleiss/ Hodges |title=Neonatal circumcision does not protect against cancer]. '' |journal=BMJ'' |date=1996; |volume=312( |issue=7033): |pages=779-80.780}}</ref>

Wolbarst was directly responsible for its proliferation. All subsequent repetions of this myth are directly traceable to Wolbarst's article, though Wolbarst himself advocated universal neonatal circumcision principally as a preventive for epilepsy, paralysis, and [[masturbation]]. Circumcision advocates such as Wolbarst do not seem to have promoted this myth because they have a genuine interest in reducing penile cancer; they used it instead as a scare tactic in the promotion of neonatal circumcision.<ref name="fleiss1996Fleiss 1996" />

}}</ref> Epidemiological studies disproved Wolbarst's myths long ago. In North America the rate of penile cancer has been estimated to be 1 in 100,000.<ref>Cutler SJ, Young JL Jr. ''{{REFdocument |title=Third national cancer survey: incidence data''. Bethesda |url= |contribution= |last=Cutler S.J., MdYoung J.L. Jr. |first= |publisher=US Dept of Health, Education, and Welfare, Public Health Service |location=Bethesda, Md. |format= |date=1975 |accessdate=}}</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 |first=C, . |last2=Sherman KJ, |first2=K.J. |last3=Beckman AM, |first3=A.M. |last4=Hislop TG, |first4=T.G. |last5=Teh CZ, |first5=C.Z. |last6=Ashley RL, ''et al'' |first6=R.L. |etal=yes |title=History of circumcision, medical conditions, and sexual activity and risk of penile cancer. '' |journal=JNCI'' |date=1993; |volume=85: |pages=19-24}}</ref> Their study also shows that the rate of penile cancer among men circumcised neonatally has risen in the United States relative to the rise in the rate of neonatal circumcision.