Customer Reviews

Circumcision: An American Health Fallacy (Springer Series: Focus on Men)

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In 1980, a secular Jew and retired electronic engineer published this book, reporting on nearly a decade of work critically reviewing the medical literature research on routine infant circumcision. This was at a time when over 90% of infant boys born in USA urban hospitals were routinely circumcised, and the practice was not in the least controversial. The result was a damning indictment of the practice. Wallerstein was also the first person to diffuse the fact that the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists had ceased endorsing the practice in 1979. Reading this book extinguished my shame about being intact.

It is too bad this book is out of print, as it is a careful scientific document. While a lot has been written about male circumcision since this book appeared, I doubt we have learned much that is not already in this book. All of Wallerstein's arguments are still correct, and his statement of them unsurpassed. Because the author is dead, there will never be a 2nd edition.

Wallerstein spent ten years writing this book, which is now twenty years old. Reading it now, it is amazing how little things have changed. The near complete lack of scientific support for the practice of neonatal circumcision has not hindered zealots in medical establishment who promote the practice either then or now. Wallerstein's arguments continue to ring true. His sense of humor, in pointing out circumcision's absurdities, is sorely missed in a debate that has grown progressively uglier as the rate of newborn circumcision in the United States continues to fall and circumcision advocates feel their backs against the wall. Wallerstein also points out that female circumcision was commonly practiced in the United States through the middle of the twentieth century. If the reader is interested in topic of circumcision, find a copy of this book.