The Royal Society of Medicine has today published a new study from Professor Morten Frisch, a long term opponent of religious circumcision, linking circumcision in children to autism. The study was widely discredited by many scientists including Dr Rosa Hoekstra, lecturer in psychology at the Open University and Professor Jeremy Turk, Consultant Child & Adolescent Psychiatrist at Southwark Child & Adolescent Mental Health Neurodevelopmental Service.

Milah UK Co-Chairman Professor David Katz released the following statement:

“This report is far from convincing: correlation does not equal causation. There is a long history of attempts to link Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD) to unrelated practices, such as the Measles/ Mumps / Rubella association, which proved to be fraudulent. There is general agreement that in people suffering from an ASD there are abnormalities that can be identified in brain structure and / or function. There is a strong genetic component, which may be a factor within the faith communities studied here, and which does not appear to have been explored amongst them. Some contemporary research does indicate that factors besides the genetic component are contributing to the increasing occurrence of ASD – for example, a variety of environmental toxins have been invoked to explain why these conditions are more prevalent today than they may have been in the past – but again proof of causation is lacking, and these factors are only likely to be relevant in those who are already vulnerable to them.”   

The statement was published in the Daily Telegraph, Mail Online and together with many other outlets.