Circumcision
A parental decision, with numbers on both sides.
Rates are falling. Across more than 1.5 million male newborn hospitalizations, the US rate fell from 54.1% in 2012 to 49.3% in 2022, with wide variation by group.
The American Academy of Pediatrics concluded that the health benefits outweigh the risks and justify access for families who choose it, but that the benefits are not sufficient to recommend it routinely. It is framed explicitly as a parental decision.
On the numbers: in 1,400,920 circumcised males, the overall adverse event rate was just under 0.5%. Complication rates rose about tenfold if the procedure was done between ages 1 and 9, and about twentyfold at age 10 or older. On the main benefit, across 12 studies and 402,908 boys, circumcision was associated with substantially less urinary tract infection (odds ratio 0.13). The review's own estimate is that at a baseline risk of about 1%, about 111 circumcisions would be needed to prevent one infection.