Circumcision Benefits & Risks

Although many doctors may attempt to convince trusting parents that there are benefits which outweigh the risks of circumcision, the actual facts do not support this whatsoever and this attempt by doctors is inappropriate since it violates basic medical ethics and the guidance of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia.

“Current understanding of the benefits, risks and potential harm of this procedure, however, no longer supports this practice for prophylactic health benefit. Routine infant male circumcision performed on a healthy infant is now considered a non‐therapeutic and medically unnecessary intervention. Parental preference alone does not justify a non‐therapeutic procedure.

Circumcision is painful, and puts the patient at risk for complications ranging from minor, as in mild local infections, to more serious such as injury to the penis, meatal stenosis, urinary retention, urinary tract infection and, rarely, even haemorrhage leading to death.

Under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, an infant has rights that include security of person, life, freedom and bodily integrity. Routine infant male circumcision is an unnecessary and irreversible procedure.

This procedure should be delayed to a later date when the child can make his own informed decision.”

– College of Physicians and Surgeons – British Columbia, September 2009