IV. Circumcision & Bodily Autonomy
Non-Therapeutic Circumcision of Male Minors: KNMG (2010), Royal Dutch Medical Association
Outside the US, national medical bodies range from neutral to openly opposed.
The Royal Dutch Medical Association, backed by Dutch pediatric, surgical, and urological societies, called non-therapeutic circumcision of boys a violation of bodily integrity. Canada and the Nordic countries hold similar positions. The US stands largely alone.
In 2010 the Royal Dutch Medical Association, known as the KNMG, issued a detailed position calling non-therapeutic circumcision of male minors a medically unnecessary procedure that conflicts with a child's right to bodily integrity and self-determination. It was co-signed by the Dutch associations for pediatrics, surgery, urology, and family medicine. The KNMG stopped short of asking for a ban, mostly out of fear that prohibition would push the practice underground, but its medical verdict was clear.
It is not an isolated voice. The Canadian Paediatric Society reaffirmed in 2015 that it does not recommend routine circumcision of newborn boys. In 2013 the children's ombudsmen of Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, and Iceland, together with several medical associations, signed a joint resolution urging that the procedure wait until a boy is old enough to consent.
The KNMG estimates 13 million boys are circumcised worldwide each year, the great majority for no medical reason.
2010
KNMG calls it a breach of bodily integrity
4+
Dutch medical societies co-signing
5
Nordic nations in the 2013 joint statement
13M
Boys cut worldwide each year (KNMG)
Why it matters
The country that circumcises the most healthy infants is also the only wealthy nation that calls it normal medicine. The rest of the developed world looked at the same evidence and said no.
This is one finding from the research library behind How to Birth a Mother. Everything here traces back to a study, a dataset, or a systematic review.