Physicians' Harm*
*iatrogenic harm
Time for a Change

We do not provide medical advice. Consult with physicians who are informed on the normal anatomical development and physiology of the genitals of children about any problems that may arise. Even if parents protect their sons as infants, our culture has an history of cutting boys and men rather than using less invasive treatments for problems which are often caused by inappropriate physician care and information.

The decision to perform penile reduction surgery on healthy individuals is not a medical issue. It is a moral and legal issue on which physicians are not uniquely qualified. Our position (in light of the AAP statement on proxy consent above) affirms the right of the individual to make his own decision on whether to live with diminished genitals.  Parents do not have the moral or legal right to cut their son's healthy genitals nor hand them over to another to redesign with a knife. Physicians do not have the right to usurp the child's rights in complying with a parent's requests to have the child cut.

If you need medical advice, we may be able to put you in contact with a physician who understands the normal anatomical development of children. Perhaps in time the following lists will be helpful in locating competent physicians in our communities.

The information provided comes from many sources: public pronouncements by individual physicians, from people who have had experience with the physician, from those employed by the physician or clinic where the physician practices. We also encourage you to solicit  information directly from physicians. If you provide us with information. we will post it. If any information is found to be incorrect or out of date, we will update it immediately.  

Fortunately more and more physicians are learning the developing foreskin is not meant to be manipulated or pushed back until it matures and detaches from the glans penis on its own. More and more physicians are refusing to cut, even though it may still have a negative impact on their income. Some are refusing even to solicit parents to have their sons circumcised. We want to do all we can to reward those physicians who are up to date on the foreskin's normal physiology and who protect the bodily integrity of their infant and child patients.

• No physician should be manipulating (retracting) your son's normal foreskin. This is as personal and intimate to the male as the hymen is to a female.
• No one should be asking whether you want to submit your child to this medically contra-indicated procedure.
• No one should be amputating healthy tissue with its many important functions.
• No one in North Dakota should be billing Medicaid for circumcisions of healthy infants and children: It is against Medicaid policy for North Dakota Medicaid to pay for "routine" circumcisions.
  

Physicians who:

Physician and Affiliation

Bill Medicaid for the Amputation

?

Yes

”Shame: A Major Reason Why Most Medical Doctors Don't Change Their Views” By Frank Davidoff, British Medical Journal 2002;324:623-624 March 16, 2002