Male and Female Circumcision: Medical, Legal and Ethical Considerations in Pediatric Practice

Abstract

Articles by Van Hower and Paul M Fleiss, for instance, note that justifications for the routine operation of circumcision in North America are usually based on alleged medical conditions. [...]the practice has gained stronger rational justification than is generally given to the religious or traditional demands of many other cultures. The same was earlier true in the case of female circumcision in which a form of clitoridectomy was used both in Europe and in America either for hygienic reasons or as a medical cure for masturbation and for mental disorders such as hysteria. Since both male and female circumcision were practised by qualified doctors for allegedly legitimate medical indications in the Western countries, they were not considered to be the same brutal and intervening mutilations of the human body as they were seen to be elsewhere in more primitive societies.