The group NotJustForeSkin, led by a former university graduate student, pushes for foreskin preservation.

During the American Medical Student Association’s 55th annual convention, various medical students pass the booth for Doctors Opposing Circumcision and show various reactions.

A woman rushes up to tell Ryan McAllister and his colleagues that her professor at Johns Hopkins University said they were idiots and had no idea what they were talking about. A group of women gasp, huddle and walk away when they look at the chart with pictures of circumcised and uncircumcised penises. “I didn’t know there were people opposed to it,” one man says as he examines the literature.

McAllister, the executive director of anti-circumcision group NotJustSkin, spins off statistics and studies that support his position while he places his hands behind his back in a professor-like pose.

The majority of the world’s male population is uncircumcised, and the current circumcision rate in the United States for newborns hovers around 60 percent, according to data collected from the National Hospital Discharge Survey.

Circumcision has not been recommended by any health organization in the world and the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association have come forward to say there is little to no medical benefit to the procedure. According to the National Hospital Discharge Survey, the circumcision rate for newborns has decreased over the past four years, which means more Americans are opting not to have their baby boys’ foreskin removed.

McAllister became involved with the anti-circumcision movement as a graduate student at the university. He took a philosophy course that involved analyzing how society worked and his research led him to medical ethics. From there he began to study the history of circumcision and the occasionally negative consequences.

The foreskin has sexual, immunological and functional benefits. It has nerves and receptors that are stimulated during sexual activity and, like an eyelid protects an eyeball from drying out, it keeps the head of the penis moist and protected.

Rates of circumcision complications such as hemorrhages or infections are difficult to ascertain but occur during an estimated 2 to 10 percent of operations. However, the majority of circumcisions are completed with few complications.

Intactivist activity

Hyattsville resident McAllister, 28, is not an obstetrician who routinely performs circumcisions on newborn baby boys but a biophysicist at Georgetown University. He calls himself an “intactivist” — which refers to people who oppose circumcision of newborn males. McAllister doesn’t like the term “uncircumcised;” he prefers to refer to an uncircumcised penis as “intact.” He’s the executive director of the anti-circumcision group NotJustSkin. The group’s motto, “People are not just skin”, is a jab at the common retort of pro-circumcision individuals who say that the foreskin is “just skin.”

“The idea is to help get them to understand what’s good about a foreskin,” said McAllister of his organization’s goal at the convention. “Circumcision is an abusive way to treat a child.”

As a biophysics graduate student, McAllister began a small student group on the campus called Students for Genital Integrity. The group held tables at the university’s First Look Fair and McAllister said he received a variety of responses.

“Some of the people who came to the table were open and willing. Others were negative and they made fun of it,” said McAllister and added with a laugh, “maybe they’re sort of secretly unhappy. People make fun of it to discharge tension they may feel about themselves.”

His views have been called “anti-Semitic,” because of circumcision’s history as a Jewish practice, and feminists have attacked him for comparing male circumcision to female circumcision, which most of the world agrees is genital mutilation.

“We’re concerned about both [male and female circumcision] and we’ll talk about all of them,” said McAllister. “But most people already feel that female circumcision is wrong, so we’re trying to change the way people in America look at male circumcision and recognize that as genital mutilation as well.”

Making the cut

Historically, religion has played a role in boys’ circumcision. Rabbi Elli Fischer of Hillel, the university’s Jewish student center, said circumcision is an essential part of being a Jewish male. The Brit Milah, as it is referred to in Hebrew, is important to Judaism because circumcision is seen as a covenant with God. Fischer also said there’s another reason behind it.

“The reason that Jewish men are circumcised is because Jewish women want 10 percent off of everything,” said Fischer.

Although he supports circumcision, Fischer said groups like McAllister’s have merit. There are cultures that practice circumcision and don’t perform it in a very sanitary manner. What these anti-circumcision groups can do, said Fischer, is raise health concerns even if they don’t eliminate circumcision completely.

On the other end of the circumcision debate is a group called Advocating Circumcision Today, a Jewish pro-circumcision organization. They refer mohels, or ritual circumcisors, to people who request them. ACT takes the stance that circumcision is a covenant with God and cites Kabbalic teachings that say circumcision is a way of shedding “unholiness.”

“We eliminate from the body of the child forces which might try to cultivate overindulgence in physical pleasures, etc.,” reads a statement on the group’s official website. “In short, we give the child a boost and head start in fighting life’s battles; it can be compared to the concept of immunization.”

In Catholicism, there’s no clear-cut line on whether circumcision is good. Father Bill Byrne of the Catholic Student Center said the Catholic Church does not have a stance on circumcision as a medical practice.

“There was a controversy in the first century around the question of whether one had to become a Jew first before becoming a Christian,” said Byrne. “It was decided that they did not. So religiously, Christians do not feel it’s necessary to be circumcised.”

The reasons previously used to justify secular circumcision range from preventing masturbation to releasing “trapped energy.” Two of the more recent reasons for it have been that circumcision helps protect against penile cancer — but the American Cancer Society has said that circumcision is not a recommended preventative measure for penile cancer — and an increased risk of urinary tract infections for uncircumcised males.

Urinary tract infections are more common in the first year of life, and medical data has shown that circumcised males are less likely to get them than uncircumcised males. Doctors have pointed to circumcision as a preventative measure for other ailments and there has been controversial data that says circumcised men are less likely to contract HIV/AIDS than uncircumcised men. Although most people circumcise their sons for cultural and religious reasons, there are medical reasons as well: Most health insurance companies cover it.

“We’re trying to get Medicaid to drop coverage. Seven to thirteen states already have dropped coverage,” said intactivist Greg Hartley after citing that England’s National Health Service stopped covering circumcision in 1950 after it was determined it wasn’t medically necessary. “Medical societies already say it’s nonessential to well-being so there’s no reason why it should be covered.”

At the end of the conference, McAllister quietly folds up his posters and packs up his easel. He’s content with the booth and what he did at the convention.

“I’m proud to be able to talk about it [circumcision],” said McAllister. “I was kind of inhibited before.”

Leaving the hotel where the convention was held, he is already discussing plans for Genital Integrity Awareness Week and a march to be held in Washington to promote intactivisim. Changing the minds of Americans about penises will take a lot of work.