The surgical removal of the foreskin that covers the end, or glans, of the penis.

Until the early 1970s, male infants born in the United States were routinely circumcised. In fact, the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) reports that about 90% of boys born in the 1960s and 70s were circumcised. This procedure was done for what were then believed to be hygienic reasons. An estimated 10% of uncircumcised males contract bacterial infections when smegma, a cheese-like secretion of a sebaceous gland, accumulates under the foreskin. Since the mid 1970s, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the United States Public Health Service have advised that circumcision is not medically necessary. By 1995, the NCHS reported that the rate of circumcision had fallen to about 62%.

Despite the AAP's recommendation that "there are no medical indications for routine circumcision of the newborn," there is no consensus among doctors regarding the procedure...