title: Circumcision of male infants and children as a public health measure in developed countries: A critical assessment of recent evidence.
abstract: In December of 2014, an anonymous working group under the United States' Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a draft of the first-ever federal recommendations regarding male circumcision. In accordance with the American Academy of Pediatrics' circumcision policy from 2012 - but in contrast to the more recent 2015 policy from the Canadian Paediatric Society as well as prior policies (still in force) from medical associations in Europe and Australasia - the CDC suggested that the benefits of the surgery outweigh the risks. In this article, we provide a brief scientific and conceptual analysis of the CDC's assessment of benefit versus risk, and argue that it deserves a closer look. Although we set aside the burgeoning bioethical debate surrounding the moral permissibility of performing non-therapeutic circumcisions on healthy minors, we argue that, from a scientific and medical perspective, current evidence suggests that such circumcision is not an appropriate public health measure for developed countries such as the United States.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Epidemiology Research, Division of Epidemiology and Disease Surveillance , Statens Serum Institut , Copenhagen , Denmark.|b Department of Clinical Medicine, Center for Sexology Research , Aalborg University , Aalborg , Denmark.
authors.forename: Morten
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3864-8860
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Frisch
authors.affiliation: c The Hastings Center Bioethics Research Institute , Garrison , NY , USA.
authors.forename: Brian D
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9691-2888
authors.initials: BD
authors.lastname: Earp
mesh_terms: D002487:Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S.; D002648:Child; D002944:Circumcision, Male; D019049:Developed Countries; D006291:Health Policy; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D011634:Public Health; D018570:Risk Assessment; D014481:United States
keywords: HIV prevention; Male circumcision; health policy; international public health