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Fact Sheet
Bioethics
www.IntactGlobal.org
Fact Sheet: Bioethical Arguments Against Forced, Non-religious Genital Cutting
1
Proxy consent wasn't intended to extend to non-therapeutic surgeries.
Svoboda J.S., Van Howe R.S., Dwyer, J.G., ca. 2001, Informed Consent for Neonatal Circumcision: An Ethical and Legal Conundrum, J. Contemp. Health L. & Pol'y, vol. 17, iss. 1, art. 8, pp. 61-133.2
There is no need to surgically modify a healthy newborn baby or child.
Svoboda J.S., 2013, Circumcision of male infants as a human rights violation, Journal of Medical Ethics, vol. 39, no. 7, pp. 469–474.3
Female children are protected from genital modification but males are not.
J Steven Svoboda, 2013, Circumcision of male infants as a human rights violation, Journal of Medical Ethics, vol. 39, no. 7, pp. 469–474.4
It is in direct contravention with the Hippocratic Oath: To do no harm.
J Steven Svoboda, Peter W Adler, Robert S Van Howe, 2016, Circumcision Is Unethical and Unlawful, The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, vol. 44, no. 2, pp. 263–282.5
Genital cutting causes permanent, irreversible damage to reproductive organs.
J. Steven Svoboda, 2017, Nontherapeutic Circumcision of Minors as an Ethically Problematic Form of Iatrogenic Injury, AMA Journal of Ethics, vol. 19, no. 8, pp. 731-742.6
Amputating healthy body parts and/or tissue is fundamentally wrong.
J. Steven Svoboda, 2017, Nontherapeutic Circumcision of Minors as an Ethically Problematic Form of Iatrogenic Injury, AMA Journal of Ethics, vol. 19, no. 8, pp. 731-742.7
It's illogical to remove infection-preventing tissue to reduce infection risk.
Rebecca Dekker, 2019, Evidence and Ethics on: Circumcision, Evidence Based Birth, EBB 88, available online.8
There is no consensus that genital cutting provides health benefits.
Rebecca Dekker, 2019, Evidence and Ethics on: Circumcision, Evidence Based Birth, EBB 88, available online.9
Deprives children of the right to have their bodies remain whole and intact.
Joseph Mazor, 2021, On the Child’s Right to Bodily Integrity: When Is the Right Infringed?, The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, vol. 46, no. 4, pp. 451-465.10