Subject: We Demand Accountability and Reform in Neonatal Circumcision Practices and NICU Circumcisions: The Case of Cole Groth

We the undersigned are outraged and disturbed following the catastrophic and preventable harm inflicted upon baby Cole Groth, who underwent a non-therapeutic circumcision in the Cardiac Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital on April 19, 2025, despite having a serious congenital heart condition.

Born on March 31, 2025, Cole underwent cardiac surgery to implant a stent, and was deemed stable enough to be released although he would require additional surgery in the future. Despite the baby’s cardiac diagnosis, a physician in the NICU called Cole’s father at 10 pm on April 14 and asked for the parents’ consent to proceed with a circumcision prior to the boy’s anticipated release on April 16. The father agreed, and shortly after the telephone call, at 11 pm a Nurse Practitioner in the NICU performed a painful and medically unnecessary surgery on this fragile baby.. Shortly thereafter, Cole’s penis began to bleed. He bled through the night, suffering immense blood loss and damage to his brain, liver and intestines; his condition became critical. The surgery was performed without adequately informing Cole’s parents of known risks of the procedure, especially for a medically vulnerable infant. This lack of informed consent and clinical recklessness is not only inexcusable; it is a violation of basic medical ethics and human rights.

(Many media outlets covered the story, including, WCBS-TV, CNN-Regional, People, the New York Post, and US Mirror.)

Doctors swear an oath to do no harm. Performing irreversible, non-essential surgery on a healing infant, without full disclosure of risks, without necessity, and without any medical benefit, directly violates this fundamental principle. Equally disturbing is the ongoing pattern of blaming parents for "consenting" to these procedures when hospitals and clinicians aggressively promote circumcision as routine, benign, and even expected. Consent given under misleading information is not valid consent. Further, proxy (i.e., given by someone other than the patient) consent is only allowed for procedures necessary to save the life or health of the person who will undergo the contemplated intervention. Cole Groth had a perfectly normal penis. Surgically removing his foreskin was utterly unnecessary and it nearly killed him.  

Intact America, the nation’s largest organization opposing male child genital cutting, has found through Qualtrics survey research that new mothers are solicited an average of eight times to allow health care professionals to operate on their sons’ penises, despite the fact that no medical society in the world, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, recommends surgically removing the normal, healthy foreskins of baby boys. Parents are being sold a cosmetic surgery disguised as medicine, and when the worst happens, they and–most sickeningly–their babies are left to bear the consequences.

This is unconscionable.

Routine infant circumcision is a practice that continues in the United States despite mounting global condemnation. No other developed country routinely circumcises infants without medical indication, let alone those with serious underlying conditions. That a post-op baby with heart disease, like Cole, was subjected to such an invasive, irreversible procedure speaks to a systemic failure of medical ethics, patient advocacy, and the physicians’ mandate to do no harm...

Our Demands

We are calling on the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), American Hospital Association (AHA), American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), NYS Nurses Association (NYSNA), Greater New York Hospital Association (GNYHA), New York Medicaid, and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital to take the following immediate actions:

1. Publicly acknowledge the failure of informed consent in Cole Groth’s case.
2. Launch an independent investigation into the circumstances that allowed this procedure to be authorized and performed.
3. Implement explicit prohibitions on circumcision for any infant with known medical vulnerabilities.
4. Review and revise institutional policies that permit health care professionals to promote non-medically necessary surgeries to parents of newborns.
5. Push for national reevaluation of routine neonatal circumcision in line with international human rights standards and modern medical ethics.

Circumcision of any infant is medically indefensible—let alone the circumcision of medically vulnerable infants like Cole. The procedure is neither beneficial nor necessary, and it poses devastating harm not only to babies like Cole but to all infants, who cannot consent to the removal of their functional sexual anatomy. Hospitals and professional organizations must no longer turn a blind eye to the deeply rooted cultural inertia that perpetuates non-consensual genital cutting under the guise of medicine.

The time for institutional silence and deflection is over. We demand action, accountability, and the prioritization of infant health and human rights over outdated and unethical practices.

Petition Starter

Georganne Chapin, Founding Executive Director
Intact America

The Decision Makers

Susan J. Kressly, MD, FAAP, President 
American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)

Rick Pollack, President/CEO
American Hospital Association (AHA)

R. Shawn Martin, Executive Vice President/CEO
American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP)

Nancy Hagans, RN, BSN, CCRN, President
New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA)  

Kenneth E. Raske, President/CEO
Greater New York Hospital Association (GNYHA)

James McDonald, MD, MPH, Commissioner
New York State Department of Health

Amir Bassiri, MSW, Medicaid Director
New York State Department of Health

Steven J. Corwin, MD, President/CEO 
Rakesh Sahni, MD, Medical Director, NICU
NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital