The circumcision debate

#1 Dinosaur stirs things up about the controversy surrounding circumcision:

I don’t have a problem with anyone disagreeing with me. I would just like to see some intellectual honesty brought to the discussion, with a response like, “I understand my little boy (and his sex partners) will be at higher risk for some health problems later in life as a result of this decision we’re making for him, but it’s a risk we choose to accept for him.”

Comments

KipEsquire
Huh? That’s about the most intellectually dishonest thing one could say on the issue.
News flash: An adult male can get circumcised too (i.e, when he and not his parents decide that it’s in his best interests).
It’s simply not “neonatal or nothing.”
Anonymous
Kip – good point about the adult male being able to choose circumsism.
However I’d say that most males these days begin sexual activity well before adulthood…and would really not consider a circumcism as an option prior to having sex.
This AFAIK only applies to HIV transmission.
DancingSamurai
“and would really not consider a circumcism as an option prior to having sex.“
To me this drives home the point that circumcision is unethical. If a teenager or adult would refuse this surgical procedure, what right do we have to force it on the same individual before they have the capacity to refuse it?
Anonymous
An adult male can get circumcised too
Isn’t this surgery much more serious in adults?
Mike
dacing samurai… its the same right as for all the other things parents foist on children (vaccines, foods, etc). Please, no adult is going “gee, I wish I had my foreskin back”. Anyway, to get it as an adult is more painful and carries more risk of a neuropathic pain afterwards, so there is a definite reason to get it as a youngster.
BellaLinda
Actually, Mike, there are adult men going “Gee, I wish I had my foreskin back.” Google “foreskin renewal” if you don’t believe me.
Although this can legitimately be listed as one of the things we parents do to our children without their consent, IMO it is not on the same level as vaccination. The benefits of vaccines are well-established. The benefits of circumcision are minute and only possibility (penile cancer is not very common, and conscientious sex will go much farther in preventing HIV). Vaccines were developed to ward off disease. Circumcision in the US is related to a desire to prohibit masturbation.
And while it is also quite true that adult circumcision is a much bigger deal, I would argue that means that RIC should be a much bigger deal than it is. If it hurts a grown man, it’s going to hurt a newborn boy; the chief difference is in the person’s ability to express the pain. After all, newborns can only cry in order to communicate, so how can you know it’s not the circumcision causing it? (And I’ve successfully nursed my babies into calm after they’ve hurt themselves, so you cannot infer it must have been hunger that caused the cry.)
Anonymous
When I was in college, my CIRcumcised boyfriend gave me the gift of chlamydia. That was fun. My UNcircumcised husband of 11 years has never once given me any infection. Even before we were together and married, he never suffered any infections – std or otherwise.
I always get so tired of hearing and reading how uncircumcised men are dirty and give their partners all sorts of diseases. This is simply UNtrue. And these myths always seem to be perpetuated by the medical community – those who stand to gain financially off of performing circumcision surgery.
While I don’t know the status of all my friends, I will say I have a good friend whose boyfriend has herpes. He is circumcised.
I can’t honestly believe if having a foreskin caused all sorts of ailments that the majority of the world would still have happy and healthy penises. And if cutting off part of a penis is the best medical intervention for preventing HIV, will someone please tell me why the USA has such a high incidence of the virus (especially since most men in the US are circumcised)?
Cut your babies or keep them natural, makes no difference to me, but stop making intact men out to be harbors of all things sexually transmitted. They are not!
Tracy B.
Anonymous
I started dating my wife when she was 19yo and after proving that I had a foreskin she said pick me up Friday at 7 pm. I found out on our first date that her first boyfriend was clipped and made her sore brused and tender. She had talked with her Mother and was told to find a male that looked like her younger brothers. That was 23 ya and 4 boys later her jewish doctor begged to clip the first 2 and let the last 2 go without a word. Never had any problems ands the baby at 6 can skin back like his older brothers.
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The circumcision debate

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