Circumcision

Abstract

At the 7th International Symposium on Circumcision, Genital Integrity, and Human Rights, held at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, Van Lewis presented a paper about the amazing work of George Wald (1906–1997), who, in 1967, won the Nobel Prize for his discovery of Vitamin A in the retina of the eye and how it works with light to produce vision. Not only was he a world-class research scientist, Time magazine declared him one of America’s Ten Best Teachers. A child of immigrant New York Jewish parents, beloved Harvard biology professor, and well-known twentieth century activist for peace and justice, George Wald also worked to defend the right of all children, male and female, to genital integrity. Here, thanks to Van Lewis and George Denniston—both students of George Wald—and to his wife for giving us permission to publish this never-before-published paper. This is what Dr. Wald had to say about penile reduction surgery, euphemistically called circumcision.

G. Wald (1906–1997), Nobel Prize recipient, 1967.