Commentary: Do the Benefits of Male Circumcision Outweigh the Risks? A Critique of the Proposed CDC Guidelines

[摘要] A recent article by ethicist Brian Earp (1) criticizing draft recommendations by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on the topic of male circumcision (MC) (2) is seriously flawed. Earp seems most concerned about the preservation of the foreskin at all costs. His claims that the foreskin protects the glans and has properties important for sexual pleasure are fallacious. A recent rigorous systematic literature review of penile structures found that sexual pleasure involves neuroreceptors in the glans, not the foreskin (3). It further found that sexual pleasure is derived from exposure of the glans by circumcision or, in uncircumcised men, by foreskin retraction during erection (3). The density of Meissner’s corpuscles in the foreskin decreases at puberty and free nerve endings do not correlate with sexual response (3). Research found that the foreskin was ranked last for sexual pleasure and for the density and size of sensory nerve endings when compared with eight other hairless skin types of the body (4).

[学科分类] 儿科学

[关键词] evidence-based policy;risk-benefit;preventive medicine;anti-circumcision;ethics