Circumcision Opponents Being Undercut By Science

Saturday’s Washington Post carries an article about groups that are attempting to make male circumcision, along with female circumcision, illegal. Arguments by the groups are being undercut by the finding that circumcised men were less than half as likely as uncircumcised men to get HIV, and that female to male transmission is cut by 60% by male circumcision. Nevertheless, the group MGMBill.org is attempting to find members of Congress who will introduce the proposed legislation that they have drafted. Their proposal explicitly provides that in applying its prohibitions, "no account shall be taken of the effect on the person on whom the operation is to be performed of any belief on the part of that or any other person that the operation is required as a matter of custom or ritual."