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|last=
|first=
|last=
|first=
|first=Christopher R.
|last=Fletcher
REFbook uses <init> key
|last=Narvaez
|first=Darcia
|init=D
|author-link=
|last2=Geisheker
|first2=John V. |init2=JohnJV
|author2-link=John V. Geisheker
|url=https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/moral-landscapes/201110/what-is-the-greatest-danger-uncircumcised-boy
[[Elizabeth Blackwell]], {{MD}}, ({{LifeData|1821|1910}}), was born in England, but attended medical school in the United States. She was the first woman to become a medical doctor in the United States. Blackwell thought [[masturbation]] was immoral but that [[circumcision]] was not the way to correct it. She wrote against it in her 1894 book:
<blockquote>Appeals to the fears of uninstructed parents on the grounds of cleanliness or of hardening the part are entirely fallacious and unsupported by evidence. It is a physiological fact that the natural lubricating secretion of every healthy part is beneficial, not injurious to the part thus protected, and that no attempt to render a sensitive part insensitive is either practicable or justifiable. The protection which nature affords to these parts is an aid to physical purity by affording necessary protection against constant external contact of a part which necessarily remains keenly sensitive; and bad habits in boys and girls cannot by prevented by surgical operations. Where no malformation exists, bad habits can only be forestalled by healthy moral and physical education.<ref>{{REFbook
|last=Blackwell
|first=Elizabeth
|lastinit=BlackwellE
|author-link=Elizabeth Blackwell
|title=The Human Element in Sex; being a Medical Inquiry into the Relation of Sexual Physiology to Christian Morality
|last=Remondino
|first=Peter Charles
|init=PC
|author-link=Peter Charles Remondino
|year=1891
<blockquote>
There are no valid medical indications for circumcision in the neonatal period.<ref>{{REFbook
|year=1971
|title=Standards and Recommendation for Hospital Care of Newborn infants
|url=http://www.cirp.org/library/statements/aap/#a1971
|pages=110
|location=Evanston, {{USSC|IL}} |publisher=American Academy of Pediatrics.
|isbn=
|accessdate=2021-10-05
The AAP supplemented the 1975 statement in 1977 by stating:
<blockquote>There are no medical indications for routine circumcisions, and the procedure cannot be considered an essential component of health care. If an infant is circumcised, the procedure must be delayed until the infant is at least 24 hours old and stable, without bleeding tendency or any other illness. Circumcision must never be done at time of delivery.<ref>{{REFbook
|year=1977
|title=Standards and Recommendations for Hospital Care of Newborn Infants. Sixth Edition
|url=http://www.cirp.org/library/statements/aap/#a1977
|pages=66-7
|location=Evanston, {{USSC|IL}}
|publisher=American Academy of Pediatrics
|isbn=
|last=Erickson
|first=John A.
|init=JA
|author-link=John A. Erickson
|year=1996
<blockquote>
This study reveals that, across the country, American specialties that perform circumcisions are ignorant of the medical facts regarding the penile foreskin and in conjunction with hospitals and misinformed patients, attempt to justify and rationalise newborn male circumcision. In many cases, despite personal beliefs that circumcision is more harmful than beneficial, some physicians are unwilling to give up their participation in this almost uniquely American custom which many of them have personally experienced as infants.<ref name="fletcher1998!>{{REFbook
|last=Fletcher
|first=Christopher R.
|init=CR
|url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-0-585-39937-9_19
|chapter=[https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-0-585-39937-9_19 Circumcision in America in 1998: Attitudes, Beliefs and Charges of American Physicians]
|publisher=Kluwer/Plenum
|title=Male and Female Circumcision
|last=Svoboda
|first=J. Steven
|init=JS
|author-link=J. Steven Svoboda
|year=2001
|last=Hill
|first=George
|init=G
|author-link=George Hill
|year=2008