ARC Letter to San Jose Mercury News

Circumcision advocate Edgar Schoen continues to tout the supposedly miraculous benefits of removing functional tissue from males (November 24). Schoen has the nerve to urge his readers to “face the facts” while simultaneously recycling medical myths discredited decades ago suggesting that circumcision can help prevent cervical cancer or penile cancer. Recent studies prove condom use 95 times more cost-effective in preventing HIV infection than male circumcision, and prove the lifelong damage to sexual sensitivity. The American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics agree on the lack of justification for neonatal circumcision. Europeans don’t do it and have fewer STD’s and lower HIV rates than we do. Non-prophylactic amputation of male genital tissue should be no more permissible than a similar procedure on girls.

J. Steven Svoboda
Attorneys for the Rights of the Child
2961 Ashby Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94707