What are your feelings on Circumcision?

[Sandpiper]

By circumcision, I mean the infant male variety. Female circumcision is almost universally condemned in this country and rightfully so.

With this in mind, my feeling is, if we recognize female genital mutilation as the abhorrent practice that it is, why do we continue to perpetuate the barbaric practice of infant male genital mutilation?

The practice of circumcision is painful, permanent, and most of the health benefits once ascribed to it have since been debunked.

The United States is practically alone among industrialized nations in how widespread the practice still is.


How about the rest of you? Do you support/oppose infant male circumcision, and what are your reasons?

[evlbstrd]

1. I don't remember feeling it.

And it's too late to put it back.

[KlatooBNikto]

2. My opinion is that it is best to be circumspect about circumcision.

[loveable liberal]

3. its butchery.... I tried to prevent it, but my m-i-l prevailed.

[funflower]

15. Old-fashioned feelings about those things really die hard.

Please remind me when my kids are grown and have their own children that these kinds of decisions are NONE OF MY DAMN BUSINESS.

[damntexdem]

4. Should we nip it in the bud?

Actually, I think that it's more hygienic and am glad that they did it routinely when I was an infant.

[OrwellwasRight]

48. LOL.

I also think it is one thing to say, "we won't do it to our )gentile)son" and another to demand that Jews change their whole religion to abolish it. Sometimes I am afraid that is where questions like this end up.

[Alpharetta]

5. My feelings? Ouch.

[redqueen]

6. Oppose.

Because it's barbaric and unnecessary.

[trotsky]

7. We did not circumcise our son.

I was, and I didn't really know one way or the other, until I started reading and found there is no health-related reason whatsoever to do it. As long as a boy is taught to keep it clean, he'll be just fine.

Then, about a week before he was born, we happened to catch a program where they showed a circumcision. That was it. Not on my son.

[Donailin]

16. Voted no on the circumcision of both my sons.

and so they're not circumcised. It's unecessary.

[EFerrari]

8. I didn't twice for each of my sons. Not into mutilation. n/t

[Alpharetta]

9. I didn't let the doctors snip my own kids

You know on the nature shows when the narrator says "the gazelle can't feel a thing. It is in shock." And the lion rends another chunk out of its flank and the gazelle twitches a little bit. When the doctor says the baby can't feel it, I'm skeptical too.

I told my boys if they want to get it done, go ahead and I'll pay for it.

[WiltedFlowerChild]

14. No snipping here

We decided against it for our son because the only reason, medical or otherwise that we could come up with was because his wouldn't look like his father's.

It wasn't a good enough reason.

[question everything]

38. "gazelle twitches"

Did not see the program but part of the nerves system includes movements that are involuntary, that cause "twitches" even after the animal is dead.

[funflower]

10. I agree totally, Sandpiper. It is butchery, and we don't even know it.

I can live with it in special cases, such as where it is part of a strongly-held religious tradition.

Other than that, it's basically a brutal form of cosmetic surgery carried out without the consent of the victim. As the mother of two uncircumcised boys, I'm always taken aback when I change a diaper on a circumcised baby boy; it just looks so "unnatural"!

[CTyankee]

11. It really comes in handy if you convert to Judaism as an adult

Which happens. Think about it.

[funflower]

12. ROFLOL!

Guess my boys will think twice about doing that!

:rofl:

[WillyT]

30. LOL !!! - Good One !!!

:rofl:

[etherealtruth]

13. 2 sons : 0 circumcisions

[radwriter0555]

17. genital mutilation is horrific. I don't see the sense in this day and age.

If kids in locker rooms are pointing and laughing, then their parents are assholes and didn't bring them up right.

[Lisa0825]

18. Here ya go...

from a previous discussion... my thoughts are here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=105&topic_id=863590&mesg_id=866069

[Left coast liberal]

19. no way! Not for my baby boy.

I would call it genital mutilation without anisthesia. Where I had my son (Seattle) it is 50/50% who do or don't. And, on the nice little rural island I live on its 80% who dont.

By the, my insurence company called it Elective Surgery and wouldn't cover it.

It's a wierd deal, fur sure.

Cheers.

[supernova]

20. Oppose

there's no logical biolgical or health reason to.

If you want to for spiritual reasons, that's fine.

If I had a boy now, I'd opt to leave him uncut.

[Firenze777]

21. To me, it was elective cosmetic surgery

with potential disaster written all over it. I couldn't do it to my son. If we agonize over a gentle birth, why would we strap a baby down and cause such pain? I think an imprint is made. I spent years worrying that my son would endure taunts from other boys- in gym shower situations- but it never happened. Hopefully, any woman in his life will also understand.

[BattyDem]

22. It's barbaric

All the "health benefit" myths have been debunked and we now know that masturbation is a normal, natural part of human sexuality, so we don't need circumcision as a prevention or a "cure". :eyes:

If anyone attempted to amputate any other part of the human body for no reason other than tradition, we'd all agree that it was mutilation - so why is it acceptable to cut off a part of a baby boy's body?

Nature and/or God (depending on your beliefs) has done a damn good job at getting things to work the way they're supposed to - so when a boy is born with a foreskin, there's probably a good reason for it being there, so leave it alone.

JMHO

[musiclawyer]

23. I'm not snipped

and love the way I am. Ladies don't mind either. Glad my parents were ahead of the curve.

[HockeyMom]

24. Guy at work had it done in his 30s

for medical reasons. He told us the doctors told him, "too bad your parents didn't do this when you were a baby. It could have saved you a lot of pain and anguish later in life."

[noamnety]

25. I'm opposed to unnecessary surgery

I don't care if it's circumcision, lopping off their ears, cutting their feet and binding them, splitting their tongues, or any other body modification on someone without their consent.

[DemExpat]

26. I feel it is unnecessary and cruel,

I did not have my son circumcised, but that is normal here in Europe.

I also did not go to my girlfriend's baby son's bris (Jewish ritual circumcism) because of my aversion to the procedure. :-(

DemEx

[WillyT]

27. Never Have A Circumcision While Breast Feeding In Public !!!

Or something like that.

:evilgrin:

[geniph]

28. It's not necessary most of the time,

and anyone who claims the baby doesn't feel it never listened. My nephews howled like banshees.

I knew guys a few years back who got all self-conscious about not being snipped and got themselves snipped when they were older just so they could look like everyone else, which seems quite odd to me. I think that's happening less now, as it's no longer practiced as routinely. Most of the rest of the world has never practiced it; Europeans often think it's bizarre that so many American men are snipped.

I think it's generally best not to do it to a baby. Should be a decision made by the man himself when he's old enough to understand reasons and consequences. There's just very little reason to do it these days.

[Coexist]

29. When faced with that decision,

my brother-in-law said (who had no son as of this conversation), "My take is that I don't want him to wonder why he looks different than me, so I would circumcise my son".

So, I said, "Oh, your dad is circumcised, that's a surprise because that long ago, it wasn't really that common."

And he said, "I've never seen my dad naked, I just assume he is".

So there went the only argument I heard in its favor. So I didn't. It hasn't been a big deal yet. My oldest son is a teen.

[Sandpiper]

31. So, if your BIL was missing an arm

Would he want his son's arm amputated for the sake of uniformity?

I've heard this line of reasoning before, but if you apply this same logic to any other member of the boy's body, you see how silly it sounds.

[Coexist]

33. I know - but his argument didn't hold water for more than the

minute it took me to ask him about his dad!

FWIW - the majority of men in the world are not.

http://www.circlist.com/rites/rates.html
"Based on the above, my best estimte is not below 30% and not above 40% of all males worldwide are circumcised."

[Sparkle]

32. I like men that are cut. It looks prettier.

:-)

[Warpy]

34. If the pediatrician uses anesthesia

it's a matter of personal preference. Most male children want to look like Daddy, so if Daddy is circumcised, then consider it. Other than that it's strictly an ethnic, cultural, or religious preference issue.

The equivalent operation in girl infants would be a hymenotomy, not the grotesque mutilation that the world mistakenly calls female circumcision.

Circumcision, like all operations, carries risks. Anyone considering it needs to talk frankly with the doctor and make sure that local anesthesia is applied and that the risks are well understood. Although newborns probably don't process pain the way adults or even older children do, it's pretty obvious that the surgery done without anesthesia is barbaric to anyone who has seen it. The mohel at a bris gives the baby a corner of a napkin soaked in wine to help relieve the pain. Xylocaine spray would do the same thing in a hospital with less risk.

Circumcision has a distinct benefit at the other end of life. Too many old men with poor eyesight and diminished sense of touch have a lot of trouble cleaning under the foreskin. There's also preliminary research that suggests that HIV transmission may be reduced in circumcised males. The downside is the claim by men who were circumcised late in life for various reasons that there is a decrease in sensation during intercourse. I've never noticed a difference in horndog behavior between circumcised and uncircumcised males, so I doubt that's a serious problem for men circumcised as infants.

So know why you are contemplating it, know the risks, insist on anesthesia, and follow the dictates of your own consciences on this one.

[NMMNG]

35. I think it is a cruel and unnecessary practice

It is horribly painful not only during the procedure but for at least a week after. Even if the child does not remember the pain years later, he suffers it at the time. :cry:

Why put him through it needlessly?

[Xithras]

36. It's a personal choice

Personally, both of my sons are snipped. It's a religious thing for us, and would have caused several social problems otherwise. As for the pain, if the infant is properly anesthetized, pain should be minimal.

Oh, and there's one big difference between male circumcision and female genital mutilation. FGM is designed to destroy the sexual function in females. The clitoris is a necessary and vital part of the female anatomy, and its removal creates scar tissue that introduces unending infection dangers and interferes with childbirth.

By contrast, the male foreskin provides no biological or sexual function. It evolved simply to protect the glans from sunburns, dirt, and bug bites, so removing it presents no long term ill-effects to modern men.

[ldf]

51. you need to do a little more research

one of it's main purposes is sexual.

it allows the shaft of the penis to slide easily back and forth during intercourse.

you want to feel the difference?

hold a circumcised penis, and stroke it back and forth, just like masturbation.

then hold an uncircumcised penis and do the same.

BIG DIFFERENCE!

it is for the benefit of both parties. it is especially helpful for women who generate less lubricant.

too bad you've never had the pleasure of it. ignorance is not always bliss.

if you get a chance to see the penn and teller episode of "bullshit" on circumcision, please do so. it is quite educational.

and quite frankly, making it a part of religion to distinguish the males from other non-same-religious males, is barbaric.

but then, submitting to torture to prove your devoutness and "chosenness" is telling, too.

[question everything]

37. Big difference

The female circumcision is removing the clitoris and large parts of the labia - and sewing them together to be "opened" upon marriage. It specifically aimed to eliminate any chance of sexual enjoyment and, of course, pre-martial sex.

Male circumcision removes a small part of the foreskin and, judging by all the babies born to the million of circumcised males, their sexual enjoyment has been fine. Thank you.

A recent study looked at the spread of AIDS in different countries in Africa. It found out that it is contained in those countries - cannot recall which, by you can search - that are Muslims and that follow circumcision.

You may have your objections to male circumcision, but to compare it to female one is like comparing slavery to those who work in the service sector.

[Ilsa]

39. I was opposed, but the American Academy of Pediatrics

had one recommendation in mid 1990's, then they were more against it later, then completely against it. My husband preferred it, and I didn't fight him hard enough on this one. So once one child was done, he insisted the other son "look the same" even though they don't!

[YankeyMCC]

40. I regret having done it

to my son.

Butchery might be to strong a word for it but it's unecessary and possibly depriving him.

My regret is mainly that I didn't give the decision enough consideration at the time.

[Redstone]

41. If we all circumcise our male children,

when the right-wing Nazi bastards take over, it'll be that much harder for them to identify the Jews so they can kill them.

Redstone

[UdoKier]

42. I'm against it. People have no right to remove a normal healthy body part

from an infant who cannot consent to the procedure.

The cleanliness and disease prevention reasons have been debunked, leaving only religious tradition and societal convention.

I left my kids natural. If they decide they want it done in their teens they can do so.

[ToeBot]

43. I miss my little blankie

:cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

[Deja Q]

44. Life's too short to be cut short.

Well, not for me but, ahem, some might feel that way. :crazy:

[yardwork]

45. We didn't have our sons circumcised

They're teens now and they've never been bothered by "looking different" and they've had no health problems.

Their father was circumcised but his father (our sons' grandfather) was not, so the whole idea of "looking like dad" wasn't an issue.

I can understand doing this for religious reasons, or in the special case of a health need, but as elective surgery I think it is unnecessary. All surgeries are painful and all carry risks. Why impose something painful and risky on an infant for no reason?

That was our thinking, and we've had no cause to regret it.

[Madrone]

46. Circumcision is bad....

....Mmmkay?

[yella_dawg]

47. Genital mutilation is genital mutilation.

Even when done to males.

[Book Lover]

49. For any reason other than religion or as

a treatment for an existing (not potential) medical condition, it's unnecessary and interferes with a man's regular sexual experience.

[donheld]

50. I can't say i regret it was done to me

but it probably should not be done unless it will not retract.

[stevedeshazer]

52. It is SICK

I want my foreskin back.

[Maiden England]

53. Its a freedom of religion issue

If you don't like it, don't do it.

If you want it done to your kid for either religious or aesthetic reasons, then by all means go ahead.

I have no objections to it on either a medical, moral, ethical or religious basis.

[killbotfactory]

54. It's wrong, plain and simple

but the bible says it's okay, so we tolerate it.