What is the best charity for preventing male children especially babies from being circumcised? Particularly in wealthy western countries where running water and whatnot is universal and circumcision is totally unnecessary.
Approximately how much money does an individual have to donate to prevent one baby boy who would have otherwise been mutilated from being circumcised?
[I don't have knowledge of specific charities, sorry.] From a quick search, it seems most such charities focus on the US because the US is the only high income country where most boys are circumsised despite most parents not having a particular religious reason for it. In other countries where it's common, it's typically for religious or epidemiological reasons.
My guess is that change could come from medical angles (Claude thinks it's important that the American Academy of Pediatrics states the benefits outweigh the risks) and from norm-changing in hospitals. This might parallel the pro-breastfeeding initiatives in many hospitals, where they no longer offer formula unless you ask for it, etc. With breastfeeding I think it gets clumsily carried out at times, and sometimes results in excessive pressure on parents who have good reasons to prefer something different.
Obviously, people are welcome (and encouraged to!) apply EA principles to any virtually any area. If you want to prevent male circumcision, using EA ideas can help you do that more cost effectively. Thinking about precedent might be helpful— Julia has some useful suggestions there.
That said, I doubt preventing male circumcision would be cost effective as a global priority. While there are some good arguments for phasing it out in developed countries (violation of bodily autonomy, loss of sensation etc.) I'm not aware of it causing many deaths or much ongoing disability. Given that, I imagine the cost/benefit ratio would be pretty unfavourable, especially compared to e.g. preventing malaria.
This isn't a critique of your question per se— it's great to see people thinking about cost effectiveness regardless of what they're working on! But because most people in EA circles are focused on interventions that save the most lives per dollar (or similar), you likely won't find many established answers for issues like circumcision. Feel free to share what you find if you look into it further!
