A REVIEW OF THE AUSTRALIAN COLLEGE OF PAEDIATRICS
POSITION PAPER ON "NEONATAL MALE CIRCUMCISION"

Mervyn Landers

Presented at the Fourth International Symposium on Sexual Mutilations,
University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland, August 9-11, 1996.

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Council of the Australian College of Paediatrics approved, in August 1995, a new Draft Position Paper on "Neonatal Male Circumcision" after the review of recent literature.

The Draft Position Paper addresses issues such as urinary tract infections, penile cancer, sexually transmitted diseases and the complications of circumcision. In this paper, the literature reviewed is reassessed to offer alternate interpretations.

The Draft Position Paper is notable in that there is no understanding that the foreskin is a "standard fitting" nor that males have a right to the integrity of their own body. The Draft Position Paper did not mention the human rights nor legal issues involved in Neonatal Male Circumcision nor the life-long loss and grief imposed upon men who have been circumcised against their will.

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Mervyn Landers, M.B, B.S., Dip.Ter.Ed., Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, is a pediatric surgeon, clinical lecturer at the University of Queensland, an Anglican (Episcopal) Priest, and is the Director of the NOCIRC Center in Queensland. He is an active NOCIRC campaigner and facilitates a Restoration Group.

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