Circumcision
In this video, Paul Fleiss spends about 26 minutes speaking on "Circumcision" at the 31st Annual Cancer Convention held on Labor Day weekend by the Cancer Control Society.
About Paul Fleiss
PAUL FLEISS, M.D. received his B.S. Degree in Pharmacy from Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan in 1956, his M.D. Degree from The University of California, Irvine College of Medicine in 1962 and his M.P.H. Degree from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1976.
Dr. Fleiss did his Residences in Pediatrics at the California Hospital Medical Center, Los Angeles, California and Los Angeles County – University of Southern California Medical Center. Later, he became an Assistant Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Southern California School of Medicine, Lecturer at the University of California at Los Angeles, School of Public Health and Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific.
He is on the Advisory Boards of the National Organization of Circumcision Information Resource Centers, the Institute of Nutrition Education and Research and the La Leche League, International. La Leche League, the world’s foremost authority on breastfeeding, created a revolution on nursing in the United States – and much of the world. Started in 1956 by 7 women who were dedicated to providing information and encouragement to breastfeeding mothers, it has now grown into a worldwide organization. Mothers who wish to find a League near them may phone 800-LA LECHE.
For over 30 years Dr. Fleiss has had a Private Practice in Pediatrics in Los Angeles, California. He may be contacted by calling 323-664-1977.
Transcription
Dr. Paul Flies.
Well, thank you very, very much, it's a pleasure to come to speak to you, and I might start off to say that I have no product to sell. I would like everybody to hear my message, though, and basically, I want people to stop hurting their babies.
Our babies are very precious and unique, and we need to treat them like the miracle that they are. If we do that, we can change the world, I feel.
And I think that our world needs changing the I can tell you that very early in my career, I didn't feel this way.
I was educated.
I was I was a pharmacist first. And then I went and I was graduated RC Paddock's medical school and then medical school. And I have a masters in public health. And nowhere along this slot along this career did I learn really about babies. It was later that I did learn most of what I believe in now.
Well, one of the things that I was taught was that babies didn't see, they didn't hear and they didn't feel how outrageous that is, that when one observes a newborn and sees what a really miracle it is to be born and to be alive.
Well, when I was an intern there, chief resident says, well, I have three circumcisions to do. I'll do the first one. You watch me and then you do the next you do the next ones.
Well, I watched very carefully and I was very nervous and I focused on the procedure and I didn't pay any attention to the baby.
I only had to do the procedure and I did them and I learned how to do it.
And I proceeded in my career. I did hundreds of circumcisions, much in the same manner.
I didn't pay any attention to the baby. I only want to do the procedure correctly.
And then after doing over a hundred, I began to hear the agonizing outcry that was coming from the baby as he as he was beings first strapped down, and that what would happen in the hospital or wherever I was doing the circumcision, the nurse would say circumcision to be done. So I would say prepare the baby and she would tie him down and put an anesthetic set back on it now. And then I would go and do the procedure. And like I said, not paying. Not one bit of attention to the agonizing cry when I began to hear that cry is when I reconsidered what I was doing. At first, I just would refuse to do circumcisions. And then, of course,