John Sambrook

11227 NE 128 ST, Unit I-102

Kirkland, WA 98034

January 18, 2018

Ms. Nancee Hofmeister, MSN, RN, NE-BC

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

Dear Ms. Hofmeister:

I am writing to ask that you consider the following question: “Is it moral for
EvergreenHealth to make its facilities and staff available for the non-therapeutic
circumcision of healthy minors who cannot understand or consent to what is
being imposed on them?”
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 article’s 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
Non-therapeutic circumcision is a damaging and medically unnecessary pro-
cedure. Leaving it up to parents 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 future sexual partners and his parents, when they
learn that they actually harmed their son for life.
EvergreenHealth should not be facilitating non-therapeutic procedures performed
on individuals who cannot understand or consent to what is being done to
them. EvergreenHealth facilitates this unethical practice when it makes facil-
ities, staff and other resources available to clinicians performing these proce-
dures.
Ms. Hofmeister, I am hopeful that you will give this issue serious consider-
ation, and perhaps discuss it with your colleagues. I would like to see Ever-
greenHealth act ethically in this issue and end this practice forever.
I will be calling you during the first week of March, 2018, with the hope of
gaining the benefit of your thinking on this matter.

Namaste,

John Sambrook