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.
You have to first start with the fact that 50% are women...
As a male, who was once an eager teen, I can attest that the LAST thing men need to enhance sex (at least the duration of it), is increased sensations of pleasure.
Not much of a giant conservative are you?
Can you tell the difference between when he's wearing a condom and not?
My husband was the one that was really against circumcision for our son. I decided since I wasn't a male, that my husband should make the call.
I too consider it a privilege and proud that I am carrying on such an ancient tradition ordained by God...not that I had any say in it of course. :-)
I'm not strage, and my son isn't circumcised.
My husband felt more strongly than I did.
However, I didn't read anything that would intice us to do the procedure. We're not Jewish, so there wasn't a religious reason.
Makes me wonder if the uncut version is so preferred, are there mostly uncut dildos for sale?
"Why don't the Muslims circumcise babies according to the biblical directions (on the eighth day after birth)? Is it because Ishmael was circumcised when he was 13?"
Well they don't believe the Bible. And I don't know about the 13 stuff.
When I was in Turkey in the summer of 1996, I saw whole families gathered on the grounds of the mosques, the "guest of honor", dressed in an elaborate costume, was the young man about to be trimmed
No wonder the little buggerst turn into terrorists.
Trimmed at 11 or 12 would make me nasty too.
Nasty religion.
OMSK, Russia - In west Siberia, just as spring is unfolding in some parts of Russia, the Jewish community of Omsk was warmed by dual Brit Mila ceremonies held in their city. Two adult men decided to undergo this circumcision, which was performed by Rabbi Yeshaya Shafit, Russia's Chief Mohel who represents the 'Brit Yosef Yitzchak' Organization.
The Mohel traveled to Omsk especially to conduct these ceremonies for the two men. One of them, 15-year-old Vladimir, is an active member of the ‘Omets’ Youth Club run by the local community. Upon completing this ritual, the young man adopted the name of his grandfather, Benyamin. The other man, a 40-year-old named Igor, also took on the name of his grandfather, Shlomo.
Chief Rabbi of Omsk Osher Krichevsky presented Benyamin a tefillin that was donated by the World Bank of Tefillins in New York. Shlomo received a separate gift consisting of the three major Jewish books - the Chumash, Tehilim and Tanya - all of which have been translated into Russian. These gifts should allow the newly-circumcised men to fulfill the covenant they made with G-d in their everyday life.
The Jewish community of Omsk is a leader among those from Siberia that hold membership in the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia.
Argh! I've been mutilated! It's OK with me.
If an uncircumcised man only has sex with his wife who is also a virgin, then how can he get AIDS or other STDs?
I figure if my son decides to live a promicuous lifestyle then he can always get circumcised later in life.
Both men and women can feel the presence of a condom.
Now don't go gettin' logical on us. ;-)
Damn! Me too!
Whoa...I've had two hernia surgeries; the first time the surgeon didn't bother to warn me about post-procedure "bruising", and on about the third morning I popped one overnight and in the morning I noticed that my wee-wee was deep purple/black and quickly asked my wife if I'd morphed into Wilt Chamberlin.
Anyhow, I made a quick call to the surgeon who kind of chuckled and said he didn't like to scare his patients! Sheeit!
Same thing happened when I had the other side done four years later, but this time I just laughed it off and took a digital pic for the archives...
I'm sure you are not strange. I don't know you but I can only surmise that your husband wanted your son to be like he is himself.
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