To the Editor.—
In 1975, an Ad Hoc Task Force on Circumcision of the American Academy of Pediatrics reported that "there is no absolute medical indication for routine circumcision of the newborn."1 In 1983, both the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology jointly published Guidelines to Perinatal Care in which routine neonatal circumcision was discouraged.2
Since 1983, many public tax-supported hospitals simply stopped performing neonatal circumcision. Circumcision is no longer an option at many major public hospitals.