Doctors Opposing Circumcision
Medical School Curriculum on Circumcision - Recommended Materials

We are making these materials available through the Net to all medical students in the world. It is your opportunity and your responsibility to inform yourselves of the true nature of this procedure before becoming involved in performing it. Many physicians today fervently wish they had had this information before acquiescing to this bizarre and tragic practice. If you would prefer not to violate all nine Principles of the AMA Code of Ethics, you need to learn more about circumcision before you are told to perform one.

Step One: Read and Study the brief Foreskin Curriculum.

Step Two: For further study, and for informing other students, see below:

BOOKS

Doctors Re-examine Circumcision

2002 By Thomas Ritter MD & George Denniston MD

Americans have been unable to obtain accurate information on this procedure, and every American parent has the right to correct information so they can make an informed choice for their son. Already, fourteen (14) States are refusing to pay for Medicaid circumcisions.

This book, if read by a parent, will prevent circumcision.

This is the third edition of this book. Published in 2002, Third Millennium Publications. ISBN 0-9711878-0-0

Available from Amazon.com or directly from the publisher?s representative at 717-285-2839, or MusiciansUnited@comcast.net or NO-CIRC, PO Box 103, Mountville, PA 17554

Cost: $11.95 plus $3 S&H = $14.95. Generous bulk discounts available.

The Joy of Uncircumcising!, 2nd Edition

Jim Bigelow PhD

This book not only describes the best tested methods of foreskin retoration; it goes into the history (excellent), psychology, and myths surrounding circumcision, and also discusses the loss of sexual pleasure and human rights. The very existence of this book is testimony to the tragedy of a totally unnecessary, indeed contra-indicated, procedure.

Hourglass Book Publishing, P O Box 171, Aptos CA 95001. phone 408-688-7535 $19.95 + $3 S&H

Circumcision, The Hidden Trauma

1997 by Ronald Goldman PhD

This book describes how an American cultural practice affects infants, and ultimately us all. In a pioneering effort, it explains in detail the broad impact this practice has on American Society. It is the first intensive exploration of the unrecognized psychological and social aspects of this practice. The book addresses two main questions: (a) Why are circumcisions really being done? and (b) What effect does circumcision have on us? It explains both the tenacity of the practice and the contradictory information and beliefs about it. We learn that circumcision has potential effects not only on men, but also on mother-child relationships, male-female relationships, and societal traits and problems. This book identifies an important source of early pain and simultaneously points us in the direction of both healing and preventing this pain.

Vanguard Publications, P O Box 8055, Boston, MA 02114 $18.95 + $3 S&H (US and Canada)

order via tollfree number 1-888-445-5199

Another review of this book

Questioning Circumcision, A Jewish Perspective

1997 by Ronald Goldman PhD

The perspectives of a number of Jewish individuals, including rabbis, on a most difficult issue. Courageous, trailbreaking, riveting.

Vanguard Publications, P O Box 8055, Boston MA 02114 $11.95 + $3 S&H [US and Canada]

order with credit card tollfree # 1-888-445-5199

Coverage of Circumcision CMAJ (1995) 153(10): 1420

[Canadian] Provincial health agencies no longer pay for this procedure. How can anyone justify doing circumcisions in a society where the health system, which normally pays for everything, refuses to pay for it?

Also see Circumcision in Canada: A Twenty Year Decline

VIDEOTAPES

Whose Body, Whose Rights?

This provocative documentary explores the growing debate over routine male circumcision in America, showing that the practice has only the flimsiest medical rationale and is primarily a repressive social custom based on medical and cultural myths. Traces the history in English-speaking countries, and demystifies male anatomy and foreskin structure and function. Includes commentary by men of diverse ages, races, religions, and sexual orientations. They evaluate the psychological, ethical, and legal issues and share individual and collective testimony about the adverse physical, sexual, and psychological impact of a traumatic surgery they did not choose. Produced by Lawrence Dillon and Tim Hammond.

1996, 56 min, color, VHS $195 (sale), $70 (rental)

University of California Extension
Center for Media and Independent Learning
2000 Center St, 4th Floor
Berkeley CA 94704

phone 510-642-0460 Fax 510-643-9271 email: cmil@uclink.berkeley.edu

The Nurses of St Vincent Say No to Circumcision

"In 1992 three nurses at a New Mexico hospital informed doctors that they would no longer help circumcise baby boys. Within days they were joined by more than 20 of their co-workers, all of whom objected to circumcision on ethical grounds. I went to Santa Fe to find out why the nurses opposed circumcision. What had they seen behind the closed doors of the circumcision room? What did they know that parents didn't know? What could they tell me about an event that I bear the scar of, yet cannot remember?" The nurses speak. You are privileged to listen.

1994,18 minutes, color, VHS. $29 postpaid (NY State residents add 8.25% sales tax.)

Fireball Films Ltd
874 Broadway, #1005
New York, NY 10003

ESPECIALLY FOR NURSES

Some nurses have already become conscientious objectors, and refuse to participate, while still working in labor and delivery. Contact Nurses for the Rights of the Child, 369 Montezuma #354, Santa Fe, NM 87501. phone 505-989-7377

Milos MF, Macris D. Circumcision: A Medical or a Human Rights Issue? J Nurse-Midwifery (1992) 37 (No 2 Suppl):87S-96S.

ESPECIALLY FOR CHIROPRACTORS, NATUROPATHS...

Many health care practitioners have traditionally been opposed to unnecessary operations. They have helped millions avoid unnecessary surgery. Here is one procedure they can oppose with reason and with vigor.