The Status of Circumcision of Newborns

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Abstract
From the early 1940s until the mid-1970s, circumcision of newborn boys was accepted in the United States as a simple procedure that promoted hygiene and prevented genital disease. Educated middle-class parents almost always had their newborn sons circumcised. The opinion that circumcision prevented cancer of the penis and was associated with a lower incidence of cervical cancer in sexual partners was generally accepted. It helped prevent phimosis and associated local infection and resulted in genital cleanliness. These middle-class parents were willing to pay for the procedure (there were few insurance programs in the 1940s and 1950s). The infant sons of . . .