#i2 1/17 It's that time of year again - the national conference of @AmerAcadPeds is this weekend in #NOLA. Once again, there's a "session" with a misleading title: "Common Problems of the Genitalia in Newborns and Infants." An ethical practitioner would read that title & think...
@AmerAcadPeds 2/17 the session will cover diseases, deformities, other adverse penile conditions & their diagnosis or treatment. After all, that's what the ethical practice of medicine in general, & #neonatal #pediatrics in particular, is all about: patient presents w/problem, pediatrician...
@AmerAcadPeds 3/17 diagnoses and appropriately treats problem. But this is @AmerAcadPeds, where no one in charge gives a #flyingflamingo about their ethical duties to their child patients, & where a surgeon's Toyota #Camry won't pay for itself. Read the blurb & you'll see this session isn't... 
@AmerAcadPeds 4/17 about the diagnosis or treatment of "problems of the genitalia." Newborns & infants rarely have such problems, & when they do, an intervention as drastic as foreskin amputation is never a medically sound or ethical 1st option. No, this session has nothing to do with the...
@AmerAcadPeds 5/17 ethical practice of medicine, and will not be taken seriously by anyone who aspires to such a practice, as #circumcision continues to be a "solution" in a seemingly never-ending search for a "problem." No, this session is for those "interested in performing neonatal...
@AmerAcadPeds 6/17 circumcision," i.e., learning how to disregard the cardinal principles of medical ethics, & to force elective, amputative surgery on a child who vehemently refuses to #consent the only way he can: by screaming his lungs out. The reference to "common problems" is to...
@AmerAcadPeds 7/17 conditions that traditionally preclude circumcision, like prematurity, buried penis, or an underlying cardiac condition. The point of the session is to explain which of these conditions aren't actually "Get Out of Circumstraint Free" cards after all. So when a boy manages...
@AmerAcadPeds 8/17 to escape the dragnet of unethical doctors & nurses that has made #circumcision the most common surgery in the US, a pediatrician nevertheless still interested in exploiting him for his own financial interest can go ahead & perform surgery in circumstances where it was...
@AmerAcadPeds 9/17 heretofore considered too risky & aggressive. Why should just the healthy boys have their fundamental right to bodily integrity violated? At least, that's what we can expect if this session is anything like 2017's "Penile Anomalies."
@AmerAcadPeds 10/17 Based on Dr Palmer's blatant plagiarism of Dr Gong's blurb (wonder what Dr Gong or whoever certified the CME for both sessions thinks about that), there seems to be little reason to expect a substantially different presentation. Indeed, the only significant blurb change...
@AmerAcadPeds #i2 11/17 is a deletion. Clearly, Dr Palmer would rather not defend the proposition that "[r]ecent studies suggest there may be a medical benefit to neonatal circumcision." This 2019 revision reflects the prevailing international medical consensus that the risks & harms of...
@AmerAcadPeds 12/17 neonatal #circumcision outweigh the supposed benefits, & that @AmerAcadPeds isolated contrary view, expressed in a 2012 "Circumcision Policy Statement" (that expired in 2017) has "been graded by almost all other pediatric societies and associations worldwide as being...
@AmerAcadPeds 13/17 scientifically untenable." researchgate.net/publication/31… Of course, complications of this elective procedure - i.e., iatrogenic harm - will also be discussed, although oddly the focus is on their management, not their prevention. If it's anything like "Penile Anomalies," the...
@AmerAcadPeds 14/17 discussion of "complications" will come in 3 parts:
1) Ridicule anyone who wants ethical rules applied to the foreskin in exactly the same way they are universally applied to all other anatomy (complete with puerile laughter from so-called "professionals" in the audience)
1) Ridicule anyone who wants ethical rules applied to the foreskin in exactly the same way they are universally applied to all other anatomy (complete with puerile laughter from so-called "professionals" in the audience)
@AmerAcadPeds 15/17 After all, it's crazy for anyone to get so worked up about #circumcision because the procedure is so minor & safe. 2) Unironically show several recent examples of boys with injuries like degloving & partial glans amputations caused by their #circumcisions (w/more laughter)
@AmerAcadPeds 16/17 #i2 3) "Forget" to talk about death cases, or address how elective #circumcision could possibly be ethical if there is ANY risk of death. In fact, I guarantee you Dr Palmer will completely dodge any and all ethical questions & concerns, just as Dr Gong did, or else give...
@AmerAcadPeds 17/17 patently dishonest answers. That's because "cutting any person’s genitals without their informed consent ... is morally impermissible unless the person is nonautonomous ... and the cutting is medically necessary." -The Brussels Collaboration on Bodily Integrity #i2 #AAP19
