The Royal Institute of Australia in Adelaide will publicly perform vasectomies on Aussie men for free on Oct 18 to mark World Vasectomy Day. The procedure will be done in front of a live audience of 150 people and via streaming through the Internet.

To ensure enough participants, the society is inviting males to sign up for the procedure. "We're encouraging men around the world to basically put their balls on the line for the planet," said Ruth Cross, producer of the event.

The society will conduct 10 such sessions as part of its effort to encourage discussion on male contraception and the role of men in population control. In other parts of the world, the event will be replicated in 25 countries with 1,000 participants willing to be snipped.

Among the surgeons are Florida urologist Dr Doug Stein, who had done 29,000 vasectomies throughout the world.

Ms Cross shared that the idea to have public vasectomies came from filmmaker Jonathan Stack who wanted to tell how he got his vasectomy, which includes meeting Dr Stein and led to the production of the film, The Vasectomist.

Mr Stack created World Vasectomy Day to create more global awareness on the impact of uncontrolled population growth rates on the earth's resources.

Ms Cross said they selected Australia as site for the surgical procedure because the country has one of the highest rates of acceptance for vasectomies. The Australian Medical Association, however, has expressed concern over the safety of making the event public.

Interested male Aussies could contract Lisa Bailey, the programme manager of the Royal Institute of Australia, at lbailey@riaus.org.au.

RELATED STORIES