On 27 August, a report by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) concludes for the first time that, overall,
boys will be healthier if circumcised1. The report says that although
the choice is ultimately up to parents, medical insurance should pay for the procedure. The recommendation, coming from such an influential body, could boost
US circumcision rates, which, at
55%, are already higher than much of the developed world (see
‘Cuts by country’). “This time around, we could say that the
medical benefits outweigh the risks of the procedure,” says Douglas Diekema, a paediatrician and ethicist at the University of Washington, Seattle, who served on the circumcision task force for the AAP, headquartered in Elk Grove Village, Illinois.