To protest the circumcision of children, NOCIRC of Michigan is co-sponsoring the Michigan March for Integrity. It begins at noon on Saturday in front of William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak. Forty men and women will march to demand professional integrity from physicians and genital integrity for all children.

The march is in response to Monday’s announcement from the American Academy of Pediatrics. “The American Academy of Pediatrics has fumbled its new policy statement by favoring infant circumcision to prevent AIDS,” says Norm Cohen, state director of NOCIRC of Michigan.

“Circumcision is the only surgery performed on children without a diagnosis.  It violates their inalienable right to bodily integrity.

“The AAP’s policy statement continues 6,000 years of myths, misery and mutilation. The genital cutting of children is an ancient obsession in need of a rational basis. American parents have been misled by a long history of false health claims. Pediatricians still believe that our ‘naughty bits’ are dirty. All members of the AAP committee have cultural and financial interest in promoting this elective procedure.”

There are over 1,900 boys circumcised each year at Beaumont Hospital, an average of five boys a day. About a third of these elective surgeries are paid for by Medicaid.

In Michigan, 87 percent of newborn boys are circumcised annually (over 51,000) at a cost of $13 million. The Midwest has the highest rate of non-religious and non-therapeutic circumcision in the entire world. Complications are not routinely monitored or recorded.

“Pediatricians are simply not qualified to evaluate sexual behavior or the function of the adult penis,” Cohen continues. “Their claims of partial protection by removing normal tissue are dwarfed by the large risks circumcised men face from sexually transmitted diseases. Nevertheless, the new policy will convince some circumcised men that they can now engage in high risk behavior.

“The policy of surgery to prevent disease is extraordinary when compared to all other preventive health practices. The removal of tissue to prevent disease is otherwise non-existent in children. No other surgery is ever considered as an alternative to proper hygiene. Removing parts of a child’s genitals in the absence of disease, deformity or injury is a violation of the child.”

Source: NOCIRC of Michigan.