Posted on 04/05/2006 5:19:29 PM PDT by Giant Conservative
The debate about neonatal circumcision is over. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), neonatal circumcision is the result of ignorance, bad medical practice and American social and cultural pressure. Regarding the three most commonly cited justifications for neonatal circumcision (penile cancer, venereal disease and penile hygiene), the AAP now states that the benefits are negligible, which means that the majority of American men are walking around without foreskins for no good reason. Yet, the barbaric practice shows no sign of abating, and for this reason I plan to shed some light on the cultural dark spot of circumcision.
The U.S. stands alone as the only country in the world (including developed, developing and undeveloped countries) where neonatal nonreligious circumcision is routine for physicians and their unwitting patients.
In contrast, 80 percent of the planet does not practice circumcision, and since 1870 no other country has adopted it. China, Japan, Belgium, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Scandinavia, Holland and Russia have never condoned the practice (except for religious purposes), and of the other countries that do practice neonatal nonreligious circumcision (Canada, Australia and Great Britain), there has been a regimented decline in circumcisions by about 10 percent per decade in accordance with the advice of each country’s own respective medical institutions.
If we take a look at the latter group of English-speaking countries, the statistics show just how wildly disproportionate the U.S. endemic is when compared with its English speaking cousins. In the second-highest-instance countries, Australia and Canada, the amount of neonatal nonreligious circumcisions is estimated to be about 30 percent, compared to Great Britain where only 1 percent of males can expect to have their foreskins cut off before they have even acquired one-word language acquisition to be able to say “No!”. In the U.S., however, the number of circumcised males is estimated to be approximately 80 percent. Only in America has medical science taken a back seat in the fight for the foreskin.
As Edward Wallerstein aptly points out in Circumcision: The Uniquely American Medical Enigma, “[i]n 1971 and 1975, the American Academy of Pediatrics Task Force on Circumcision declared: ‘…there are no valid medical indications for circumcision in the neonatal period.’” Subsequently, this decision has been endorsed by The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists in 1978 and by the AAP in 1999.
And yet, Wallerstein highlights that “[t]he ‘firm’ declarations should have caused a marked drop in the United States circumcision rate. They did not.” The truth is that neonatal circumcision is deeply rooted in American culture: so much so, in fact, that many American parents actually believe they are doing their sons a service, when, in only one foul slice, the dangers of penile cancer, venereal disease and bad hygiene are purportedly quashed (along with premature ejaculation, masturbation, and general ugliness). But American parents have been grossly misguided.
The AAP affirms that the majority of reported benefits by which parents justify circumcision are groundless hearsay. Notably, penile cancer might be preventable through circumcision of the foreskin, just as the potential for most diseases is eliminable by the complete removal of the vulnerable body part — I bet I could guarantee you would never contract Hotchkiss brain disease if you let me cut your head off too — but the fact is that the foreskin is an important, healthy and irreplaceable part of a child’s body, and in the absence of overwhelming medical evidence proving the link between retention of the foreskin and penile cancer, the AAP has had no choice but to disregard this cultural claim.
Furthermore, as far as the argument that circumcision reduces the risk of contracting venereal diseases goes, Wallerstein crucially highlights that “health” circumcision originated in 19th century England, where the theory emerged that masturbation was responsible for such things as asthma, hernia, gout, kidney disease, rheumatism and even alcoholism.
The Victorian aversion to all acts sexual was fertile ground for genital mutilation to take root and, since the English cultural practice stormed the U.S., beliefs about the purported benefits of the practice have barely changed, while Great Britain has become a born-again circumcision virgin. Consequently, the link proposed between any disease and the foreskin is outdated fallacy — including venereal diseases.
As if that was not enough, the AAP also states that “there is little evidence to affirm the association between circumcision status and optimal penile hygiene.” Consequently, parental supervision of the foreskin is a far more appropriate measure for reducing the chances of infection in a boy’s penis than a radical surgical procedure, especially when the short-term effects of circumcision can include anything from changed sleeping patterns to psychological disruptions in feeding and bonding between mother and infant, profuse bleeding, subsequent infection from surgery, and even death.
Moreover, the AAP recognizes that circumcision causes extreme pain and trauma for infants, since circumcised infants exhibit deterioration in pain threshold as much as six months later when receiving mandatory vaccinations, while the long-term physical and psychological damage is undocumented.
In short, the idea that neonatal circumcision is the answer to all of men’s ills is erroneous. Like the Jewish religious practice of circumcision, American nonreligious circumcision is dependent on the acceptance of cultural beliefs, and the sad truth is that Americans hold to the norm as tenaciously as they hold to the scalpel, although they do not entirely know why because they are not being told.
Religious circumcision is one thing, but circumcision for no good reason ... well, what is the sense of that? There is none! Removal of the foreskin is a cultural mistake, and I hope that on reading these facts you will break the ghastly cycle if the choice ever becomes your own. It’s about time the foreskin became sacred too.
>The anti-male feminists of the United Nations unsurprisingly push circumcision as a panacea.<
Well, I guess my husband is an anti-male feminist, then. Before our daughter was born, we almost came to blows more than once over the fact that I did NOT want any baby of mine to endure such a "procedure", especially with no anesthesia.
He was h-- bent that any son of HIS would get the knife.
So when a male baby is aborted, should an effort be made to save the foreskin?
More around 40-60%, maybe less.
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I personally never said anything about what percentage has it done, I don't consider the right or wrong of it to be something that can be decided by concensus. If I were the only person left on the planet speaking against circumcision I would still say that it is indeed a barbaric practice based in WILLFUL ignorance and makes as much sense as draining blood to cure illness, not so long ago the concensus would have supported that.
I'm circumsized, as was my father, and as is my son. I was a little conflicted as to whether to go along with plans to circumsize my son... finally went along with the "look like Dad" argument.
Since then, I have met only one man who was circumsized as an adult. He says that sex is definitely NOT as good as it was before. A surprising loss of sensation.
I don't dwell on this, by any means... what's done is done... but I've heard the loss of sensation story a couple of times, including this thread, so I wonder if I've robbed my son of some of the sexual pleasure he would experience as an adult.
At any rate, I wish I had done some research before I just nodded my head and said "OK."
PS. I also wish our Biblical scholars who quote Old Testament scriptures would also look into the New Testament, where Paul makes it clear that "...circumsized and un-circumsized, we are all one in Christ Jesus..."
My knowledge and personal experience convinces me that male circumscision is on the whole beneficial to health. Among other things, it has recently been learned that it cuts HIV infection rates substantially.
I have also learned that those opposed to male circumcision are on the whole impervious to facts conflicting with their strongly held opinion.
Question: Do you wear glasses? :P
No wonder they're always in a bad mood!
So when a male baby is aborted, should an effort be made to save the foreskin?
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I don't know just what you are aiming at with that but the answer is that an effort should be made to stop the abortion. Any more off the wall, space cadet questions?
Both Muslims and Jews circumcise, so there goes your argument.
Since then, I have met only one man who was circumsized as an adult. He says that sex is definitely NOT as good as it was before. A surprising loss of sensation.
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This is why those circumcised as an infant sound so ridiculous to me when they comment on the supposed uselessness of the foreskin, they have no basis of comparison. It is the same as someone born blind commenting on color matching.
On the other hand, those of us who are uncircumcised know very well that anyone who can stand walking around with the exposed tip rubbing against clothing absolutely must have lost a great deal of sensitivity.
LOL!!!
No arguement, just a question. I did not know.
Thanks for info.
beneficial to health. Among other things, it has recently been learned that it cuts HIV infection rates substantially.
The baby never remembers it.
ROTGLMAO!!
(rim shot)
Muslims do NOT circumcise, neither do Arabs.
To: edcoil
Does anyone know if Muslims circumcise? I am begining to think this is a Christian vs Muslim issue.
Muslims do NOT circumcise, neither do Arabs.
398 posted on 04/06/2006 2:47:16 PM PDT by starfish923
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Did you see this last post? Who is correct?
Yes, they do, typically in late childhood.
http://islam.tc/ask-imam/view.php?q=5595
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