Comment & Debate
“Task force says circumcision has benefit”. Science News. 11 Mar. 1989 – “Marking a subtle but significant change of view, the American Academy of Pediatrics this week concluded there are “medical benefits and advantages” to circumcision. The nation’s largest pediatric organization stopped short of recommending the procedure, which involves the surgical removal of foreskin from the penis. But the new statement, the first from the academy in five years of heated debate on the topic, represents a departure from past statements declaring circumcision has “no absolute medical indications.” The percentage of boys circumcised as newborns has fallen from about 95 percent in the 1960s to about 60 percent in 1978, in part because of a growing movement among parents and some physicians emphasizing the shortage of documented medical benefits.”