The RACP has stated that routine infant circumcision is unwarranted…but who is listening?

The most recent Royal Australasian College of  Physicians (RACP) statement on male circumcision was issued in October 2010. The document states that:

‘After reviewing the currently available evidence, the RACP believes that the frequency of diseases modifiable by circumcision, the level of protection offered by circumcision and the complication rates of circumcision do not warrant routine infant circumcision in Australia and New Zealand’.

Despite this assessment by Australasia’s peak medical body, those in positions of political power have shown themselves to be reluctant to act on this important health issue. It appears that more public pressure is required to encourage our politicians to take steps to protect male minors from unnecessary genital cutting.

University of Tasmania Master’s thesis recommends ‘prohibition of circumcision performed on incapable minors’.

University of Tasmania Master’s candidate Warwick Marshall has submitted a thesis which provides a blueprint for legal reform in relation to the issue of circumcision in Australia. Click the link below to read an abstract. (More detailed documents are available via the link).

http://eprints.utas.edu.au/11729/

Routine infant circumcision in Australia ‘could increase rather than decrease risk behaviour and transmission of HIV’.

Many recent unbiased scientific studies indicate that circumcision is not warranted as a ‘front-line’ defense against HIV infection in Africa, as has been claimed by some. What is clear however, is that, as the Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations (AFAO) suggested in 2008, education about safe sex practices achieves a lot more than infant circumcision when it comes to preventing HIV infection within the Australian context.

http://napwa.org.au/pl/2008/11/ashm-2008-circumcision-not-recommended-for-australia 

One man’s story.