Don't Retract Pack

3rd Year Medical Student Describes First Circumcision Surgery



This video was originally uploaded by a third year medical student at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons on August 13, 2009. Because of the dramatic increase in attention that he received after posting this video, we've removed his name from this post, and he chose to make his medical school blog private and viewable by permission only.

His reflections from that day remain just as impacting today as they were then. It is commentary we've heard time and time again, told many different ways, by many medical students, but always with the same underlying theme of disgust and disbelief that an establishment would ever perform such an unnecessary, yet cruel and painful surgical procedure on the tender body of a healthy, brand new baby - and almost always without anesthesia.

The following reflection comes from another physician whose eyes were once also opened to the horrors of MGM. Doctors Opposing Circumcision (DOC) publishes an ethical principles and medical school curriculum for physicians who may be working with newborn babies and their parents. Find these resources and more at Doctors Opposing Circumcision.

What happened today... 
As a medical student at America's oldest hospital, Pennsylvania Hospital, I was happy to be on the obstetrics rotation. While still in college, I had heard an obstetrician speak enthusiastically about his optimistic specialty. So now I was enjoying helping to bring babies into the world. While professors provided good background information in formal lectures, my real teachers were residents only a few years older than I was. They took turns talking me through normal deliveries. 
Almost every doctor can recall the joy of delivering a healthy normal infant. This joy was shattered one day when one of the residents said, "There are some circumcisions that need to be done, go and do them." At the time I guess I knew what a circumcision was, but that was about it. I had certainly learned nothing about the subject in medical school. Obediently, I proceeded to the newborn nursery, where another medical student was already waiting. I felt nervous, and he looked quite nervous, too. Strapped to a board on the long counter in front of each of us was a bawling male infant. Beside the infant was a surgical tray filled with instruments. Imagine our consternation when we found there was no one to tell us what to do. Obediently, we put on surgical gowns, then surgical gloves. Then we began to try to figure out how to use what I later learned was a Gomco Clamp.
As far as I know, I made a fairly neat job of it. But my abiding memory of that day is of my colleague. He was one of the more brilliant members of our class, and was planning to become a radiologist. As for surgery, forget it. He was all thumbs. I still remember him, standing beside me, fumbling with the complicated instruments, proceeding to use them on the helpless penis before him, all the while just shaking his head!
I look back on the only time I have ever performed any circumcisions with regret and resentment. I resent having had no opportunity to study circumcision in medical school or to consider whether I thought it a treatment for anything. I resent the resident commanding me to do it, while offering no further guidance or help. In fact, I was treated just as the medical profession treats innocent new parents today. Doctors tell them a circumcision needs to be done. Before the new parent has time to consider, it is all over. Then it is too late to say no, and everyone has to live with the consequences. I was a medical student, so a lot of the responsibility was mine. I clearly violated, all in one instant, the Golden Rule (I certainly would not have wanted that done to me), the major tenet of medical practice, First, Do No Harm, and all seven principles of the American Medical Association's Code of Ethics. Mind you, I did not realize it then, just as unwary medical students do not realize it today. Now I know there are no valid medical indications for routine neonatal circumcision. I realize much harm can be done, evidenced by the thousands of men who have written their testimony and who have told me personally of the harm done to them. Now I also realize that I violated my patient's basic human right to enjoy his entire body intact, while all he could do was scream his tiny head off. That was some years ago, but it might just as well have been last year.
The United States is the only country in the world that, for no religious reason, severs part of the penis from many of its newborn males. I speak out in the hope that parents and doctors will read this before getting swept into the cultural madness of routine neonatal circumcision. What should one do if called upon to consent to or to perform circumcisions? Just say NO! In so doing, you will be taking the only ethical position there is on this issue.


Additional resources on the prepuce organ (foreskin), intact care and circumcision at: Are You Fully Informed?


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5 comments:

  1. I am a family doctor and during my training I have refused to learn how to perform (participate in) abortions and circumcisions, in both medical school and residency. It is a little off the beaten path, but they will let you bypass those, as they are not lifesaving or essential to medical practice. Just wanted to say hello and keep up the good work - love the blog and all the info in it :)

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  2. Watching this description makes me all the more thankful that we left our son intact. I can't imagine why anyone would put their child through this useless procedure. I can assure you that if parents actually had to watch the number who choose to have them would definitely go down, quickly.

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  3. It's a shame he has made his blog private. He should want the word out, unless he's afraid he did one of those circs wrong and the parents will come after him? It horrifies me to think that hospital would throw any untrained doctor in a room and expect him to figure out how to do a circumcision. That resident should be barred from practicing medicine.

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  4. "Swept into the cultural madness" indeed.

    This post made me think of a friend of mine who talked about her son's neo-natal circumcision with tears in her eyes. She said "They didn't even do a good job. They butchered him."

    I think a lot of parents don't realize that the most junior residents (and apparently medical students) are often the ones doing the circumcisions. Infant circumcision is their on-the-job training.

    I guess everybody has to learn someplace, but how did we ever get to the point where a baby's penis is the place? How did things ever get that crazy?

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  5. After reading this I am so glad we left my son intact. It wasn't even up for consideration- he was being left alone. He ended up being born at 29 weeks, and once he was stable and moved to a hospital closer to home, his nurses asked EVERY day when he was getting his circ, and every day they were told he wasn't getting one. One day we even walked in and saw that he had been scheduled for one! We ended that pretty quick. One day that will always stick out in my mind and heart is the day the special care nursery was closed, and all the babies were in the level 1 nursery. I was there, visiting my son, and was present for 3 circumcisions. I will never forget the cries of those poor boys!

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