Pediatrician conference provokes anti-circumcision protest

Whether or not medical advances were a topic of discussion at the 46th Annual Advances and Controversies in Clinical Pediatrics conference is uncertain but the three-day event in San Francisco certainly attracted its share of controversy. A group of protesters from the group Bay Area Intactivists assembled outside the conference venue while carrying signs calling infant circumcision "medical fraud" and doctors who perform the surgery "sex criminals." Some of the activists wore white body suits with faux-bloodstained crotches which turned many heads along the bustling city streets. Bright yellow caution signs posted outside the Westin San Francisco Market Street (the conference location) warned children to beware of "serial circumcisers at large." Many people who passed the demonstration (including some conference attendees) expressed support for the intactivists and agreed that non-medically-necessary genital cutting practices should not be forced upon children.