From: mcochran@nyx.cs.du.edu (Mark A. Cochran)
Subject: Re: A few facts about circumcision
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Date: Tue, 5 Jan 93 04:33:03 GMT

In article <C0Cs3n.FnH.2@cs.cmu.edu> murthy+@EDRC.CMU.EDU (Sesh Murthy) writes:
>In article <1993Jan4.201242.10422@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu>, mcochran@nyx.cs.du.edu (Mark A. Cochran) writes:
>|> Actually, I think they were claiming that some % will end up as
>|> emasculations. Personally, I wouldn't give any real credance to this
>|> claim until I see a citation to back it up. There's plenty of circs
>|> done in the NICU I work in, and I've never seen or heard of anything
>|> of the sort. The techniques used in the procedure make it physically
>|> imposible to emasculate the infant. There is a metal or hard plastic
>|> bell clamped between the foreskin and the penis, and all cutting is
>|> done against this.
>
>I quote from td Frank's article.  I cannot vouch for the accuracy.  However
>you should be able to verify this easily.
>--------------
>From: thf2@ellis.uchicago.edu (Ted Frank)
>..........
>
>I hate to insert some *facts* into this newsgroup, but...
>
>The Washington Post , October 23, 1985
>
>   Two infants in Georgia lost their penises in August when  circumcision
>operations went awry.
>
>   In  Atlanta,  two families have filed malpractice suits against the
>physicians, the hospital and Valley Labs of Boulder, Colo., maker of an
>electrical cauterizing device used to perform the operations.
>
>   In one case, the parents claim that the "severe and progressive nature" of
>the baby's burn -- including the entire scrotum -- resulted in the need for a
>sex-change operation.
>
>   "Baby Doe is now a female person who has been rendered sterile and
>completely incapable of reproduction, and who will require medical 
>monitoring and hormonal therapy for the remainder of her life," the 
>suit says.
>
>   The second malpractice suit claims that 90 percent of the boy's penis was
>severely burned, causing the entire external shaft to fall off.
>
>   In a third case in Sylvester, Ga., an out-of-court settlement recently
>awarded $5 million to the parents of an infant burn victim after a plastic
>surgeon testified that he reconstructed a miniature penis for an infant who
>was
>severely deformed by  circumcision  several years ago.
>
>   Subsequent to those suits,  Atlanta's  Northside Hospital has banned the
>electric cautery instrument that was used.
>
>    Most  circumcisions  are still done with surgical knives, experts say.
>
>   "Electric cautery devices were used in a few cases with bad results.
>They're not a medically acceptable way to do  circumcisions, " says 
>Dr. Joseph Greensher, a pediatrician and chairman of the the American 
>Academy of Pediatrics accident and poison prevention committee.
>
>--------
>Sesh Murthy

Interesting article. I checked it out, and it is essentially correct,
except for leaving out a minor detail or two.
The main detail omitted is that the procedure was experimental.
Obviously, it was not a success, and are not used anymore. While this
article is not exactly ancient history, 8 years *is* a significant
amount of time in the medical field.
The only moral I can draw from this is don't let experimental
procedures be performed on your kids organs.

Thanks for the article though, it was very interesting.

--
                  Mark Cochran          merlin@eddie.ee.vt.edu
These are the views of my employer, your employer, your government, the
Church of your choice, and the Ghost of Elvis. So there.
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