Filmmaker Brendon Marotta, director of the upcoming movie “American Circumcision,” has very generously worked with ARC to prepare a release of an audio clip from October 19, 2013, the second day of the Charleston, South Carolina debate between J. Steven Svoboda and Dr. Michael Brady of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).

The audio clip demonstrates that two members of the AAP Circumcision Task Force — Dr. Brady and Dr. Douglas Diekema — do not know the foreskin’s functions and incorrectly believe that no one knows them.

The Twentieth Pitts Lectureship in Medical Ethics was held on October 18-19, 2013 at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, and Dr. Brady effectively conceded defeat on the second day, stating that he was unable to respond to any of our arguments.

A special issue of the Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics published the proceedings of the event, including an article by Svoboda, Peter W. Adler, and Robert S. Van Howe, titled, “Circumcision is Unethical and Unlawful“. Two other physicians on the Charleston panel told Svoboda that they changed their positions to pro-intact based on the evidence we presented.

Leaked audio from a panel at the 2013 Pitts Lectureship in Medical Ethics at the Medical University of South Carolina reveals that members of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) task force on circumcision don’t know the functions of the foreskin and believe no one does.

This audio comes from the open comment period of the conference, where Dr. Michael Brady and Douglas Diekema of the AAP task force on circumcision spoke with Steven Svoboda from Attorney’s for the Rights of the Child, and several other human rights activists. One of the human rights activists was asked to film the conference, but their camera was shut off after the first day. Thankfully, audio was still running, and this recording was obtained by the documentary film American Circumcision.

The same doctors’ group was also revealed on GotNews to be lying about the effects of circumcision on the penis.

In the audio, Angel Alonso, a man who has his foreskin, asks the AAP if any of them know the functions of the foreskin. “I don’t think anybody knows the functions of the foreskin,” Dr. Michael Brady replies. Douglas Diekema agrees.

Steven Svoboda corrects both of them, citing John Taylor’s ridged band study, and numerous others describing the functions of the foreskin. Dr. Michael Brady replies, “no function is lost,” despite saying a moment ago no one knows the function of the foreskin.

Angel Alonso explains the functions of the foreskin to the AAP physicians – such as the gliding motion of the foreskin and the fact it does away with the need for lubrication. The AAP doctors reply that circumcised men don’t need lubrication either, despite the fact the United States is the largest market in the world for personal lubricants, and also has the highest non-religious circumcision rate of any industrialized country.

Dr. Michael Brady is currently a candidate for President of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Shouldn’t the potential president of the AAP know the functions of the foreskin before cutting this body part off?

Written by Brendon Marotta, director of the documentary American Circumcision.