The practice was banned in NSW public hospitals five years ago and doctors have seen a significant increase in demand for circumcisions to be performed in private.

The world-renowned Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the US is preparing a policy on the issue which is expected to support mandatory circumcision.

However the Royal Australasian College of Physicians recently announced it does not support routine infant circumcision, despite a growing body of evidence that it helps prevent sexually transmitted infections such as HIV.

Doctors that perform the procedure in Sydney medical clinics are seeing up to 40 newborn babies a week, with the number rising each year.

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Related Coverage

* Letters: Heroic indeed The Daily Telegraph, 6 days ago
* To cut or not to cut – that’s the question Adelaide Now, 16 Jul 2010
* Forty boys killed in botched circumcisions The Daily Telegraph, 30 Jun 2010
* Wives fight over dead bigamist husband The Daily Telegraph, 21 Jun 2010
* Another girl’s sexual mutilation The Australian, 3 Jun 2010

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“I am seeing dozens and dozens a week,” obstetrician Dr Norman Bluementhal said.

“It started to change about two years ago after there was adverse publicity but now people are going back to it.” Circumcision, which began declining in popularity after the 1970s, costs about $800.

Medicare figures show the rate of the procedures in NSW is rising, with 18 per cent of boys born in 2009 circumcised compared to just 13 per cent a decade ago.

A group of Sydney doctors is criticising the anti-circumcision stance taken by the medical colleges and hospitals, believing parents are putting their sons at risk by not having them circumcised.

Paediatric surgeon Dr Anthony Dilley conducts up to 40 circumcisions a week and said parents were now more open to the idea.

“Over the last 10 years there’s been lots of good research showing there’s good reasons to have circumcision,” he said.

A recent paper by a group of Sydney-based doctors, including Alex Wodak from St Vincent’s Hospital and Professor Brian Morris from Sydney University’s school of medicine, said circumcision was a long-term strategy to reduce HIV.

Circumcision is also widely accepted in some cultures for religious reasons and is seen as a rite of religious passage in the Jewish community.

Dani and Toni Zaidel, of Vaucluse, said their twin boys Jacob and Benjamin, born seven weeks ago, were already circumcised and they had celebrated the occasion.

“It was the proudest day of our lives,” Mr Zaidel said.

But College of Physicians paediatrician Dr David Forbes said the college would not be swayed on the issue.

“We may never change the view. It’s hard to say when or if there will be [enough] evidence [to support it],” he said.

From The Daily Tele 21 January 2011

I chose to have it done strictly for the cleanliness reasons above. The easy option would have been not to get it done and I hope I made the right choice for my son. As a mum it’s difficult not to beat yourself up about the decisions regardless which path you take so my only advise would be…. have daughters!

There are many medical benefits to circumcision. It is quite obvious if you can read past the over-emotional opinions of anti-circumcision activists.

I was circumcised as an infant. So was my boy. And so will the next.

“Human rights violation”? You have got to be kidding. I did it for the long term well-being of my child. Yes, he may never have a problem, but at least now I know that he “WON’T”. I treat it just like immunisations. Protection against disease that may or may not happen.

I don’t expect you guys to agree with me, and fortunately, you don’t have to. As a parent, I have the right to make this important decision on behalf of my child in my child’s best interest.

It would be a sad and dangerous time if the government was stupid enough to attempt to make circumcision illegal.
It would not happen in Australia – as much as you all wish that it did.

Circumcision is the worst single thing parents can “legally”do to a healthy boy.
I cannot think of anything worse. (Strictly speaking unnecessary surgery on a minor is assault)

A human rights violation? You bet.

Anyway I am very pleased the rate in Australia has dropped so much in recent decades (and boys have never been healthier). The RACP now suggests waiting till the boy is old enough to make up his own mind.