Circumcision Without Analgesia? Adults Wouldn't, Why Should Babies?

Posting Date: 04/16/1999

It?s hard for me to believe the medical profession is still debating whether analgesia should be used in neonatal circumcision.

I?ve led the crusade against circumcision for 20 years, but when the traumatic procedure is performed, shouldn?t the baby be given relief from pain? Of course.

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The American Academy of Pediatrics last month said it will no longer routinely recommend the circumcision of newborn male babies. The AAP also recommended that if parents do decide on circumcision, that evidence supports the routine use of analgesia. That statement is part of a growing consensus that infants shouldn?t be circumcised without analgesia.

I don?t see why some physicians oppose this view. One doctor in Virginia says he?s performed close to a thousand circumcisions, mostly without anesthesia, without seeing any negative long-term health effects.

So what? The way he practices isn?t evidence that it?s right. He admits the babies cry, but says this is natural due to being handled.

I may be dating myself here, but any parent who ever put a pin in a diaper and slipped knows that babies feel pain. And circumcision is a procedure where a baby's entire foreskin is sliced off.

Would an adult undergo such a thing without a painkiller? Of course not. It?s surgery without analgesia and it isn?t right.

Source: Family Physician, March 15, 1999