Karyn's Story

Karyn's Story
In 2001, I had been an OBGYN for 8 years. I regularly performed circumcision on male infants. As a medical professional, I know there's really no reason to circumcise (unless you have a case of severe phimosis or something similar) but circumcision was a large portion of my income and unfortunately, in a case of bad karma, my greed caught up to me in June 2001.

I had circumcised four other male children before him. Everything had gone okay. The babies cried, like all of them do, but I bandaged them up and sent them back on their way. The fifth child, whose name I won't disclose, the nurses held him down and he cried loudly when I cut his foreskin away. I sent the foreskin to the labs downstairs to be used for medical procedures and I sent the child back to NICU. 45 minutes later, his heart stopped.

As a doctor, I'd heard and read many stories about circumcision killing children but I never thought it would hit so close to me. I thought "those doctors were just being irresponsible and they did something wrong." But what I did was standard procedure. Though I didn't lose my license, I feel that I deserved to. Any doctor who performs a surgery that risks a child's life to line their pockets is not thinking about their patient's health. I quit my job as an OBGYN, unable to cope with the guilt and the stress of seeing parents demand their child be circumcised even after I told them the risks. Though the law says I'm not responsible and his parents aren't responsible, we very much are. If his parents had taken the time to research about their son's health and I had not seen dollar signs, he would be alive now.

After his death, I sunk into a deep depression and about 9 months into it, I decided that the best thing I could do for him is help prevent his story from repeating. It's the least I owe him. After searching the internet, I discovered the word "intactivism" (activism for outlawing male circumcision). I've since done some work for NOHARMM and tried to spread the word to my friends. I found work at a maternity that is "baby and mother friendly," where circumcision is not performed, breastfeeding is automatic, and the baby is not kept from the mother. It's been difficult to educate others because many men are sensitive about the fact that their parents put their life at risk and parents are sensitive about the fact that they know what they've done is wrong after they know the truth so people would rather ignore it and keep it going. They think "I had it done and I turned out fine so my son will be fine." Until 2001, I had never known the sheer truth there is to the phrase "Knowledge is power." In the case of circumcision, knowledge is the biggest power and defense their is.

Submitted by Karyn from Maryland, USA. If you wish to comment on this story or contact Karyn, please post in the comments section below.