Circumcision overview with Intaction : Find out how a baby born today can still be harmed from America’s past of prudish morality, racism, gullibility, scare tactics, and greed that reaches back over 100 years ! It’s the history of circumcision in America ! 1886: Dr. J.H. Kellogg, the inventor of corn flakes, advocated for circumcision to remove the sensitive foreskin from boys as a remedy for masturbation. He sadistically claimed by not using anesthesia the operation would make a good punishment for boys who masturbate.
That’s right. This fact is extensively documented in the historical literature. The idea started in the 1890’s that masturbation was a dirty vile habit that needed to be stopped. Medical experts from across America began promoting circumcision to parents as a way to prevent masturbation. The “experts” led parents to believe that masturbation would cause mental insanity and was also the root cause of many diseases. Notable people of the day like John Harvey Kellogg wrote in his book, “Plain Facts for Young and Old,” about curing masturbation, “A remedy which is almost always successful in small boys is circumcision, the operation should be performed by a surgeon without administering an anesthetic, as the brief pain attending the operation will have a salutary effect upon the mind, especially if it be connected with the idea of punishment.”
There are essentially three stakeholders involved with the decision to circumcise an infant. The baby-patient, the parent-guardian, and the doctor. The physician is supposed to be bound by ethical principles of beneficence (serve the best interests of patients and their families) and non-maleficence (“first, do no harm”). The standard of “serving the interests of families” can be a slippery slope as doctors can be forced to do things against their better judgement to appease parents. Pro-circumcision or religious advocates typically want babies circumcised immediately because older children and adults would opt out if given the opportunity. See more details about circumcision.
As psychologists, we are deeply concerned by the recently announced U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) guidelines promoting circumcision for American males. We are concerned about circumcision’s psychological damage that can arise from the traumatic pain of this unnecessary procedure. It is not well established that traumatic pain to infants causes psychological harm and emotional damage. The CDC guidelines are based on a sharply criticized 2012 policy statement by the American Academy of Pediatrics. The 2012 statement was condemned by a large group of physicians, medical organizations, and ethicists from European, Scandinavian, and Commonwealth countries as “culturally biased” and “different from [the conclusions] reached by physicians in other parts of the Western world, including Europe, Canada and Australia” (Frisch et al., 2013).
Founder Anthony Losquadro combined his leadership and marketing skills from both his military and business career to create a game changing organization. He amassed a reference library on circumcision, its history, anatomy, and hundreds of medical studies, data, articles, and books, from 1890 to the present day. He would apply that knowledge to this challenging cause where big money, habituated cultural practices, cognitive dissonance, sex, religion, and human rights are intertwined. This reach for profits was inflicting unnecessary pain and trauma upon innocent babies born in America. It places PROFIT over HIPPOCRATIC OATH. It damages and disfigures men’s bodies. It can affect quality of life. It can inflict emotional and psychological harm. Find even more info on this website.