Hi all. I'm intact from birth and am a wholehearted supporter of the drive to end not just RIC / MGM but also inappropriate medical MGM that is carried out without meaningful consent.
In my view, politically, both need to go hand-in-hand anyway because tackling infant circumcision without addressing unnecessary circumcision on spurious medical grounds will just result in a dramatic rise of circumcision performed supposedly on medical grounds.
In other words, 'except on medical grounds' is a giant loophole that might even need to be closed off first.. There are a lot of people who end up circumcised inappropriately through bad medical advice as well as infant MGM, so I recommend amending the group definition to include stopping this abuse as well.
In my view, politically, both need to go hand-in-hand anyway because tackling infant circumcision without addressing unnecessary circumcision on spurious medical grounds will just result in a dramatic rise of circumcision performed supposedly on medical grounds.
In other words, 'except on medical grounds' is a giant loophole that might even need to be closed off first.. There are a lot of people who end up circumcised inappropriately through bad medical advice as well as infant MGM, so I recommend amending the group definition to include stopping this abuse as well.
This post was last modified: 05-23-2026, 07:40 AM by MikeHersee.
Edit Reason: Add final word
I agree, and this is not just an American problem either. I know of a few cases in Europe, from generally non-cutting countries, where patients presenting with something like moderate phimosis were rushed into needless circumcisions as a "quick fix"... and for whatever reason, European physicians seem to be trained to favor the particularly damaging "low and tight" style, removing maximum inner skin with no consideration of its purpose and value (apparently it makes for a faster recovery, but at such a cost...)
Saying only if medical reasons just means do doctors write a reason, whether it even exists is another story. Circumcision in Australia was stopped in all public hospitals in the mis 1980s, but if parents wanted it and they had a pro-circ doctor they would still get it done, saying phimosis or one of my favourites… redundant foreskin.
(05-24-2026, 01:00 AM)Aussie_33 Wrote: Saying only if medical reasons just means do doctors write a reason, whether it even exists is another story. Circumcision in Australia was stopped in all public hospitals in the mis 1980s, but if parents wanted it and they had a pro-circ doctor they would still get it done, saying phimosis or one of my favourites… redundant foreskin.
Pretty much, it was "medical" justification that got my mum to consent. False diagnosis had been already labled as an issue by the Canadian Paediatric Society long before OHIP delisted coverage for RIC.