Georganne ChapinGeorganne Chapin's memoir of becoming an intactivist-one who actively opposes male child genital cutting-delivers a powerful indictment of the American circumcision industry. This is a punch-in-the-gut wake-up call to protect our children from "the mst common and utterly unnecessary pediatric surgery" carried out in the United States. Growing up with socially aware, college professor parents, exposed to people from many backgrounds, and motivated by an innate sense of justice, Chapin earned degrees in anthropology and sociomedical sciences from Barnard College and Columbia University. She worked for decades as a health care executive dedicated to achieving equitable, high quality health care for all. But it was her common sense that informed her decision not to circumcise her own son. Remembering her baby brother's pain and trauma following the procedure and knowing that most of the world's men are intact, she rejected the practice of amputating a normal, functional part of the male genitalia. Years later, when her son thanked her, she realized that not only had she spared him from momentary pain and risk, but that for his lifetime, he would be able to enjoy the body and sexual pleasure that nature intended. Mid-career, Chapin enrolled in an evening law school program, and set about to better understand the American circumcision problem. For a class in bioethics and medical malpractice, she wrote a critical legal analysis of infant male circumcision, noting "The fact that U.S. doctors were not being prosecuted for surgically mutilating little boys' genitals, while they could be prosecuted for doing the same to little girls, implicated the elements of criminal law, if not its application in modern-day America." Mentored by early activists in the movement to end circumcision, in 2008, Chapin co-founded Intact America, a nonprofit organization dedicated to ending the routine amputation of male children's foreskins. Read More Read Less