The Executive Director of Doctors Opposing Circumcision, John V. Geisheker, offers this personal remembrance of Dr. Mark D. Reiss, a long-time D.O.C. Vice President, who passed recently at age 92, in San Francisco: Dr. Mark was an ‘early-adopter’ (1996) of D.O.C., who added a vital and unique asset to our efforts. Mark was an [...]
The following memorial essay was originally published on Beyond the Bris: The Circumcision Conversation, January 22, 2016. It is reposted here with kind permission of the author, Rebecca Wald. Dr. Mark D. Reiss (1933–2025) Remembering a physician, Jewish ritual reformer, and elder of the genital-autonomy movement. Dr. Mark D. Reiss, a retired physician and [...]
A newly published article in the Journal of Medical Ethics is shaking up the medical establishment’s stance on infant circumcision. Titled “As controversies mount, circumcision policies need a rethink,” it exposes deep flaws in the conclusions of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ (AAP) most recent circumcision policy. The article includes unprecedented interviews with two [...]
In November 2020, Peter Adler, Robert Van Howe, Travis Wisdom, and Felix Daase published an article, "Is Circumcision a Fraud?," in the Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy. DOC is now pleased to announce that Peter Adler, law professor at the University of Massachusetts, has turned the article into a book entitled "Circumcision is [...]
The survey is open to anyone over the age of 18 within or outside of the U.S. who was: ‐ born with a penis or assigned male at birth (including intersex and transgender persons); ‐ circumcised as a child without their consent or who later voluntarily chose circumcision; ‐ and is/was engaged in foreskin restoration methods, even if the process was abandoned.
Participants Needed for Research on Circumcision Attitudes A sociology doctoral student from University of California, Irvine is currently conducting a study titled "Circumcision: Individual Attitudes and Emotional Processes" and is seeking participants. The study aims to explore the way that individuals experience negative feelings around circumcision. The goal is to publish works that will [...]
PSYCHOLOGISTS SEEKING MEN WHO HAVE EXPERIENCED CIRCUMCISION DISTRESS We invite men who have experienced circumcision-related emotional distress to complete a brief confidential survey. The survey runs through the month of April 2021. To participate you must be an US resident who has not attended therapy to address this concern. This survey is part of a [...]
Dr. Sumeet G. Dua argues that, ethically, male circumcision should be deferred until the age of sexual consent, noting that “male circumcision stands out as the only body part removal performed on healthy, low-risk individuals without their explicit consent, […] thus violat[ing] one of the cardinal ethical rules in medicine.” [...]
DOC applauds the recent publication of an article whose title effectively encapsulates some of the problems with the African circumcision campaigns. It is a melancholy reminder that we at DOC warned against such outcomes over 14 years ago, to no avail. “A new Tuskegee? Unethical human experimentation and Western neocolonialism in the mass circumcision [...]
Circumcision and COVID-19: Which surgeries are "essential" during a pandemic? On a failure of ethics at the American Academy of Pediatrics On April 2, 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Committee on Fetus and Newborn issued “Initial Guidance: Management of Infants Born to Mothers with COVID-19.”[1] The AAP’s 18-page [...]