Man Sues Hospital for Circumcising Him as Baby

A South Dakota prison inmate is suing the hospital where he was circumcised as a newborn, saying he only recently became aware that he'd undergone the procedure and that it robbed him of his sexual prowess. Dean Cochrun, 28, is asking for $1,000 in compensatory and punitive damages. He also asks in the lawsuit that his foreskin be restored "in the hopes I could feel whole again," though he acknowledged that he didn't expect such a restoration to be anything more than aesthetic.

Cochrun, who is imprisoned on a kidnapping conviction, filed the federal lawsuit Friday against Sanford Hospital. In it, he argued that neither he nor his partners would "have that sensitivity during sexual intercourse and have a normal sex life." Cochrun claims that an "unknown doctor" misled his mother to believe that the procedure was medically necessary. Cochrun argues that the procedure was unnecessary, unethical, and without medical benefit. (More circumcision stories.)