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}}</ref> Medical doctors have a general duty to respect the [[human rights]] of their patients.
<b>Ethics</b> is defined as "the principles of conduct governing an individual or a group". <b>Medical ethics</b> or <b>bioethics</b> provide guidance on protecting the human dignity of patients in medical treatment.
Male circumcisions are usually performed by medical doctors for profit, so the more specific principles of <b>medical ethics</b> or <b>bioethics</b> are applicable to the practice of [[circumcision]].
* <b>Informed consent.</b> Informed consent is required by law. See [[Informed consent]].
* <b>Patient exploitation.</b> (See below.)
* <b>Duties to child-patients.</b> The Committee on Bioethics of the American Academy of Pediatrics stated that pediatric health care providers 'have legal and ethical duties to their child patients to render competent medical care based on what the patient needs, not what someone else expresses. Although impasses regarding the interests of minors and the expressed wishes of their parents or guardians are rare, the pediatrician's responsibilities to his or her patient exist independent of parental desires or proxy consent."<refname="aapcp1995">{{REFjournal
|last=American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Bioethics
|first=
}}</ref>
A surrogate's powers to grant consent are more circumscribed than the powers granted to a competent individual acting on his own behalf.<ref name="conundrum" /><ref name="bioethicsaapcp1995">{{REFjournal |last=Committee on Bioethics |title=Informed consent, parental permission, and assent in pediatric practice |journal=Pediatrics |date=1995 |volume=95 |issue=2 |pages=314-317 |url=http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/95/2/314.full.pdf |pubmedID=7838658}} Reaffirmed May 2011.</ref> A surrogate may only act in the best interests of the patient.<ref name="conundrum"/> A surrogate may not put a child at risk for religious reasons.<ref name="conundrum"/> A surrogate may grant consent for a medical procedure that has ''no'' [[medical indication]] ''only'' if it is the child's best interests.<ref name="conundrum"/>
The attending physician must provide the surrogate with all material information concerning the proposed benefits, risks, advantages, and drawbacks of the proposed treatment or procedure.<ref name="conundrum"/><ref name="bioethicsaapcp1995"/>
The Committee on Bioethics of the AAP (1995) states that parents may only grant surrogate informed permission for ''diagnosis and treatment'' with the assent of the child whenever appropriate.<ref name="bioethicsaapcp1995"/>
There was an unresolved question whether surrogates may grant effective consent for non-therapeutic child circumcision.<ref name="povenmire">{{REFjournal
=== The emerging consensus on surrogate consent for non-therapeutic newborn, infant, and child circumcision ===
The power of parents and other surrogates to grant consent is dependent upon the existence of a physical or medical condition in a minor child that requires diagnostic and/or treatment.<ref name="richards"/> <ref name="aap1995aapcp1995">{{REFjournal |last=Committee on Bioethics |etal=no |title=Informed consent, parental permission, and assent in pediatric practice |trans-title= |language= |journal=Pediatrics |location= |date=1995-02 |volume=95 |issue=2 |article= |page= |pages=314-7 |url=http://www.cirp.org/library/ethics/AAP/ |archived= |quote= |pubmedID=7838658 |pubmedCID= |DOI= |accessdate=2023-05-26}}</ref> The right to grant surrogate consent cannot exist in the absence of such a condition. The AAP Committee on Bioethics (2016) now states: "A parent’s authority is not absolute but constrained by respect for the child."<ref name="aviva2016">{{REFjournal
|last=Committee on Bioethics
|etal-no