Amazon has apparently been selling DIY circumcision training kits that attempt to teach how to remove foreskin from synthetic infants. After backlash from secular groups, however, the product was removed from the company's United Kingdom–based online store.
The product is still available in the United States.
While the kit is ostensibly marketed to the medical education sector and states in its product copy, "this Infant Circumcision Trainer, White is an excellent addition to your classroom," many fear the unregulated sale of the kit.
Chairman of the U.K. National Secular Society's medical forum, Dr. Antony Lempert, wrote to Amazon in a concise, surprisingly necessary letter: "Male circumcision in the UK is … unregulated and we fear that the sale of this product may encourage unqualified practitioners to carry out unnecessary surgery on infants in non-clinical conditions, resulting in serious harm."
The American Academy of Pediatrics' Task Force on Circumcision notes in its most recent report on male circumcision that "preventive health benefits of elective circumcision of male newborns outweigh the risks of the procedure." The reports lists reduced risk of urinary tract infection and reduced risk of heterosexual acquisition of HIV and the transmission of other STIs as benefits.
"The procedure is well tolerated when performed by trained professionals under sterile conditions with appropriate pain management," the report continues, basically stating that you shouldn't try your hand at DIY circumcision. "Although health benefits are not great enough to recommend routine circumcision for all male newborns, the benefits of circumcision are sufficient to justify access to this procedure for families choosing it and to warrant third-party payment for circumcision of male newborns."
What do you think? Should Amazon ban the sale of infant circumcision trainer kits in the U.S.?
