John Sambrook

11227 NE 128 ST, Unit I-102

Kirkland, WA 98034

September 29, 2017

Mr. Robert Malte

EvergreenHealth MS-28
12040 NE 128TH ST
Kirkland, WA 98034

Dear Mr. Malte:

I am writing to ask you to consider imposing a moratorium on all Non-Therapeutic
Circumcisions at EvergreenHealth, where the patient is a minor unable to give
informed consent to the procedure.
In August, 2017, the AMA Journal of Ethics published an article, Nonthera-
peutic Circumcision of Minors as an Ethically Problematic Form of Iatrogenic
Injury, authored by J. Steven Svoboda, Esq., MS, JD.1
Quoting from the articles Conclusion:

The vast majority of medical practitioners have the best interests of their
patients at heart; if they recommend or agree to circumcision, it is usually
in the belief that it does more good than harm. As more physicians are
coming to realize, however, this belief is misguided: many physicians to
whom I speak these days now say that they would prefer not to circumcise
and only do it because the parents ask for it. At the same time, it is often
the case that the only reason parents ask for it is because they believe cir-
cumcision is medically beneficial, recommended by health authorities, or
the normal thing to do. It is time for this vicious circle to be broken. Who
better to take the initiative than the community that introduced NTC in
the first place the American medical profession?

1 http://journalofethics.ama-assn.org/2017/08/pdf/msoc2-1708.pdf
NTC is a damaging and medically unnecessary procedure. Leaving it up to par-
ents to decide whether this procedure should be forced on their non-consenting
newborns is an error that harms the newborn, the man he will become, his fu-
ture sexual partners and his parents when they finally learn the truth about
NTC. With respect and in my view, NTC on individuals that cannot grant in-
formed consent is not something EvergreenHealth should be facilitating.
As an aside, it is my hope that the Washington State Legislature will one day
reconsider the issue of legal protection for genital integrity for all individuals,
both male and female. I would welcome any support you and your colleagues
might decide to offer in making this happen.
In closing, thank you for your kind attention to this matter. The courtesy of a
reply is requested.

Sincerely,

John Sambrook