Trying To See Live Vasectomies? Head To Australia
In hopes of removing the stigma that surrounds male contraception, Australian health experts are hoping to perform vasectomies in front of a live audience in South Australia's capital city of Adelaide.
"How vasectomy fits into cultural practices both in Australia and around the world and, to go along with all of this, we will actually be having live vasectomies performed on stage," explained Lisa Bailey from The Royal Institution of Australia (RiAus).
Dr. Bailey and her colleagues from RiAus are hoping to find 10 qualified male participants to go under the knife for the proverbial "snip." A reputable team of surgeons will be headed up by Florida urologist Dr. Doug Stein who has over 29,000 vasectomies under his belt, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
"We're certainly not saying that this is the answer to global population or anything like that, but I think it's a good way to get people starting to discuss how we do think about population, how we do think about managing birth rates and things like that?" Bailey added.
According to the World Health Organization's (WHO) data, around 31 million couples worldwide rely on a vasectomy for contraception. A recent WHO report stated that a "vasectomy is highly effective when the procedure is properly performed and when the man waits for 3 months after the vasectomy before having unprotected intercourse".
To ensure every participant understands what exactly the surgery entails and what can go wrong, applicants will be examined before they are accepted.
"Those safeguards would be for the patient, making sure they had full understanding of the procedure and also the possible psychological unexpected consequences of being in front of a live audience, but finally also for the public who might be viewing," said Patricia Montanaro from the Australian Medical Association.
"They need to have full disclosure to ensure they are aware of what they might be confronted by."
If given full approval, the event will take place later this year in front of an audience of 150 and will be streamed live for the world to see.