Chapter Six - Business of the Body

CHAPTER SIX

Business of the Body

BY THE 20TH century, circumcision was routine in American hospitals.
It wasn’t just moral panic anymore — it was policy.
The procedure had shifted from ritual to medicine… to industry.

Behind every hospital cut, a supply chain formed.
And behind that?
Money. Lots of it.

As hospital births became the norm in the U.S., newborn circumcision was bundled into delivery fees — often done without full parental knowledge or informed consent.

Doctors weren’t required to explain the risks.
They often presented it as cleaner, safer, healthier, and standard.

And for hospitals?
It was a billable procedure.

Quick to perform.
Low risk of lawsuit.
Reimbursed by insurance.
No follow-up care needed.

Cha-ching.

For decades, circumcision was performed on infants without any anesthesia.

Why?
Because babies were believed to not feel pain the same way — a claim now thoroughly debunked.

The real reasons were likely convenience and speed.
Anesthetizing an infant takes time, resources, and monitoring.

Performing it raw was faster — and cheaper.

The result?
Millions of babies endured excruciating pain, often resulting in shock, long-term trauma, and in rare cases, death.

Here’s what nobody tells you:

The removed foreskin doesn’t go in the trash.
It’s harvested, preserved, and sold — often without the parents’ knowledge.

Foreskin tissue contains highly valuable cells — fibroblasts, which are rich in regenerative properties.

These cells are used in:
– Skin grafts for burn victims
– Stem cell research
– Cosmetic products (yes, beauty creams)
– Pharmaceutical testing
– Biotech innovations

One infant foreskin can be cultured into millions of cells, used for years in medical and commercial applications.

Profit?
Massive.

Major beauty companies have been linked to products containing foreskin-derived fibroblasts, especially in anti-aging creams.

These aren’t made from hundreds of foreskins — just a few, cultured indefinitely in labs.

The ethics? Murky.
The profits? Obscene.

People pay hundreds of dollars for creams derived from tissue taken from unconsenting infants.

And most consumers have no idea.

Despite the money trail, no major medical body openly discusses the foreskin trade.

Hospitals often have agreements with biotech companies, where tissue from surgeries (including circumcisions) is recycled into medical products.

Parents are rarely informed, and no compensation is given for this harvested tissue.

Why?
Because it’s legal — if the tissue is considered “medical waste.”

And foreskin?
Conveniently labeled waste — even though it’s worth thousands.

Let’s break it down:
– Circumcision = a billable procedure
– Foreskin = valuable tissue
– Cosmetic and biotech = big money
– Silence = continued profits

There’s no conspiracy here — just incentives.
No hospital wants to rock the boat on a practice that generates revenue with minimal cost.

And doctors?
Most just follow routine.
Few question it. Fewer stop doing it.

So why does the U.S. still cut, while most of the world doesn’t?
One reason is money.

Circumcision in America is profitable.
Stopping it would mean lost revenue, lost tissue, and questions the industry doesn’t want to answer.

Meanwhile, the parents never know, and the infant never consents.