This Penis Business

“I dare you to read this book.”

The United States is the only country in the western world where medical professionals aggressively promote the removal of the most sensitive part of the penis. Be prepared to be shocked by Georganne Chapin’s memoir as she unveils the irrational beliefs and corrupt motives underlying the national tragedy of “routine” circumcision. If you are a circumcised male, you are going to be upset. If you are the partner of a circumcised male, you will realize that the sexual problems between you may not be his fault. And if it's not too late, you will protect your son.

Circumcision is an issue whose time has come. What are you going to do about it? Who will you tell? Whose side are you on?

I dare you to read this book.”

—Dean Edell, MD
American physician and broadcaster

a memoir

By Georganne Chapin with Echo Montgomery Garrett

Publication Date: February 20, 2024

CIRCUMCISION CUTS THROUGH US ALL. In her eye-opening memoir, Georganne Chapin exposes the business of medical circumcision. This unnecessary and most common pediatric surgery in the United States permanently reduces the size and alters the function of a boy's penis for the rest of his life. Every year, nearly 1.5 million baby boys are assaulted in American hospitals and doctors' offices, when their foreskins are amputated, subjecting them to pain, functional and psychological damage, and a forever-altered sexual experience. (Less than 2 percent of all circumcisions in the U.S. are done for religious reasons.) A long-time healthcare executive, Chapin serves as the founding executive director of Intact America, a nonprofit dedicated to ending the unethical genital cutting of all children. She weaves in her unusual upbringing and background as she chronicles how she got into “this penis business.” The intactivist traces circumcision’s U.S. roots from 19th Century fears of masturbation to stereotypes about race, class, religion, and male sexuality. What started as a way during the Victorian era in the U.S. to keep men and women from enjoying sex morphed into a for-profit medical practice that is rare or unknown in Europe, non-Muslim Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean. She shows how physician organizations, especially the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), have worked for decades to fraudulently promote the supposed benefits of circumcision—which is classified as cosmetic surgery—while suppressing facts about circumcision harm and deaths, and refusing to acknowledge the procedure as a gross violation of basic medical ethics. Indeed, the AAP now characterizes male genital mutilation as a matter of “culture” and “parental preference”—a position that, conveniently, shields trade associations and their physician members from legal and financial liability. This book is a punch-in-the-gut wake-up call that will enrage and empower anyone impacted by the multi-billion-dollar penis business.

Genre/category: Activist Memoir/Bioethics/Medical Ethics

This Penis Business: A Memoir
Paperback ISBN 978-1950495450
$21.99

Meet The Authors

Georganne Chapin

Echo Montgomery Garrett

Review Quotes:

“Alternately touching, frightening, informative and fierce, This Penis Business is a powerful narrative of personal drive and a global call for awareness and justice. With the precision of a surgeon, the author has laid open the pages of her life and the steps in her journey toward exposing the dangers of circumcision. I was brought to my senses, and to my knees, more than once in the reading of this brilliant memoir.” —Julie Evans, author of Joy Road: My Journey from Addiction to Recovery

“When I was a new journalist, Georganne Chapin opened my eyes to a shocking truth: Many medical procedures have no clinical evidence to support them, especially infant male circumcision. This Penis Business charts her path to becoming the nation’s leading voice in ending this unnecessary and often harmful practice.”—Joy Victory, writer and health journalist

“I have known Georganne Chapin for over 50 years as a friend, occasional colleague, and always a fierce advocate for health care justice. This engaging, witty memoir has shown me how much I had missed. Thanks for bringing me up to speed.” —Henry Ehrlich, author of A Time to Search: The Moving and Dramatic Stories of Adoptees in Search of Their Natural Parents

“With this book, Georganne Chapin is doing the heavy lifting of helping parents make informed decisions around an almost exclusively cosmetic, yet shockingly normalized surgery.” —Nathan Riley, MD, The Holistic OB/GYN

“Like the cries of the circumcised boys she’s dedicated much of her life to advocating for, Chapin’s story cries out to be heard. Inspiring, and at times confronting, this book is a must-read for anyone working to advance children’s rights.” —Jonathan Meddings, author of The Final Cut: The Truth about Circumcision and Chair, Darbon institute, Berwick , Victoria, Australia

“This Penis Business recounts the making of a heroic children’s rights activist while exposing the elephant in the room: the ongoing, prevalent, and profound abuse of infant boys for profit. Georganne Chapin is not afraid to call out the medical industrial complex for its harmful and fraudulent practices that sacrifice the health and wholeness of our sons. This book will lift us out of collective blindness and denial—and into advocacy and protection for the most vulnerable among us: children. If you care about the psychological, physical, and sexual health of our boys and men, you must not look away.” — Ruthie Fraser, author of Stack Your Bones: 100 Simple Lessons for Realigning Your Body and Moving with Ease and somatic trauma practitioner and movement educator

“I have been a longtime supporter of Georganne’s mission and organization, Intact America. I both commend and am so grateful to Georganne for having taken up the mantle of wise woman and used her power and wisdom to protect, defend and advocate for boys in our society to remain fully intact from birth, so they can enjoy physical wholeness and full sensitivity. Our children will go through enough trauma in their lives without unnecessary physical mutilation from birth. There should no place for circumcision and the life-long irreversible damage, pain and recognized, or unrecognized latent physical, sexual or emotional trauma it can bring. Read this book and join the movement to stop genital mutilation of our men and enable the re-sensitization and blossoming of society.”— Elizabeth J. Kucinich, professor, Coventry University, UK, and documentary film producer

“This Penis Business is a compellingly honest, kind, sometimes raw account of Georganne Chapin’s journey from a dislocated childhood to her current leading role challenging the widespread, damaging US practice of ‘routine’ infant penile circumcision. Georganne’s integrity and compassion for everyone affected is a beacon of light in the dark underbelly of a ubiquitous money-making practice performed despite the medical evidence, and not because of it.” — Antony Lempert, MD, lead medical advisor to the (UK) National Secular Society

“Cocksure, fiercely intelligent, and driven by her ideals, Chapin makes clear why she was given the reins to lead Intact America.” Lisa Braver Moss and Rebecca Wald, co-authors of Celebrating Brit Shalom