NPR Admits Circumcision Interview Not Balanced

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"All truth goes through three steps:
First, it is ridiculed.
Second, it is violently opposed.
Finally, it is accepted as self-evident."

~Arthur Schopenhauer
(German philosopher, 1788-1860)

Interview about Circumcision: Not the Whole Story
NPR Ombudsman with Alicia Shepard




It didn’t take long.






When Cornish asked him why people opposed circumcision, Diekema replied:


The story prompted phone calls, emails and 253 comments on










View NPR Ombudsman original here.


  1. This is so good to hear! It's about time there's some responsibility in the media for the disturbing amount of pro-MGM propaganda.

  2. Something's seriously wrong at the American Academy of Pediatrics. First they let Schoen elbow his way onto an earlier 'cicumcision taskforce' with disasterous consequences for American boys and now Diekema is on there with a platform to promote his blatantly pro-circumcision agenda. Some bioethicist!!! What a sick joke!!!

    Hey AAP, take a look at what's happening and what's not happening across the Atlantic in Europe. Seriously, go and have a look! HIV/AIDS is lower, men aren't dropping dead from penile cancer and women aren't dropping dead from cervical cancer. Baby boys aren't suffering the horrible effects of UTIs. At the same time, baby boys aren't being sexually violated and damaged and dying from unnecessary and unethical surgery.

    Diekema MUST immediately step down from his position on the Taskforce on Circumcision and cease referring to himself as a bioethicist. He clearly has no understanding of ethical practice in medicine.

  3. I submitted the following to their suggestion box here: under Submit a story idea for "all things considered" and again for "Fresh Air".

    " I appreciate the fact that NPR has acknowledged their unfortunate one sidedness in their interview with Dr. Diekema on circumcision. HOWEVER. The damage done was done on air. If you want to gain back my listener-ship and financial support, as well as many others highly offended and disillusioned by what was done, then your admission needs to be done on air as well. You're on the right path, but what needs to happen is a story on intactivists. (a professional story - no laughing) You don't have to agree, hell, bring back that circumcised doctor who's main goal in life is to violate every man's right to his body, but TELL PEOPLE that there is a movement happening. TELL THEM WHY. ON AIR. If you think we're small potatoes, then you're just not looking. It's not just parents opting out. It sure as hell isn't just the hispanic population. It's bloggers, and protesters, and family fights, and baby fairs, and videos and advertising on grassroots donations, and lawsuits, and happy grateful sons, and men dedicating two years or more of every day effort to manually restore what was stolen from them. We are waking up to this human rights abuse as a nation and it WILL END. Your job is to talk about what's happening, yes?"

  4. How on earth can Diekema call himself a "bioethicist" and say the things he did, and act the way he has acted? It is an outrage. Imagine someone laughing off the GM of infant girls... and what is ethical about the sexist discrimination in who we cut apart?

    1. I have news for you, I believe Diekema was involved in the proposal that minor female genital cutting be allowed in the USA.

  5. I just figured out why the AAP even has a bioethicist on call. It's to keep tabs on how far past the line of common decency they can shift prevailing practices.

    An ethicist isn't defined as someone who PROMOTES ethical behavior; he just "studies" it to help the AAP keep the cash registers ringing as much as possible.

  6. How many of these nutcases are on the AAP? We have many obstetricians who rape baby boys with circumcision here in Massachusetts. What's their organization say?

  7. Interesting point, Ron. Someone who laughs at a movement against cutting children's genitals is certainly not ethical by nature. His reaction is perhaps a reflection of increased traction by the genital autonomy movement (reminded of Schopenhauer's 'first it is ridiculed...' quote).

  8. All the "circumcision task force" does is act like a pacifier. Their job is to merely utter the words "we're working on it" so that circumcision is never condemned for the genital mutilation it is. Everyone on there is "studying" circumcision alright; finding ways to keep it going...

  9. Circumcision is cruel and barbaric!

  10. I heard a story on NPR about the San Fran ban on circumcision. It was very pro-circumcision. I was very upset after listening.



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