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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm a guy. I'm circ'd. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Also, if you choose not to have the procedure done on your son, [b]prepare for the day the other kids make fun of him in the locker room at school[/b]. I remember telling this to a mom, and she was stunned that adolescent boys would compare their genitals and make fun of each other. I told her she clearly had never spent much time around adolescent boys.

I take the view that it's up to the parent. Yes, there are health benefits. And yes, there are cultural biases. But the absolute vitriol with which people talk on here -- YOUR KID IS A SERIAL RAPIST! YOU SHOULD GO TO PRISON! -- is just, well, disappointing. [/quote]

Sadly, it is probably true that many parents think like that. However, since fewer and fewer parents are circumcising, this problem, if it exists, is going to go away.

FWIW, my husband, who is American but intact, was never made fun of in the locker room.
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DH is intact and he says about half of the guys he went to high school with were. No one made fun of anyone for it.

Then again, we're educated and from the northeast, and circumcision is on the decline amongst people like us. Probably circumcised boys will be the ones getting pointed out as unusual in 15 years.[/quote]

I'm educated and also from the northeast and my sons are circumcised. I think a fair assessment of the situation would conclude that there are valid reasons/arguments on both sides and medical reports which can be used to validate each point of view.[/quote]

Also well-educated and also from the northeast and plus one for circumcision. I'm still laughing at the sweeping notion that "educated and from the northeast" means that you don't circumcise. Someone earlier quoted a stat that suggests that the majority of male babies born in U.S. hospitals TODAY (not 20 years ago, TODAY) are still circumcised. Where is this disappearing phenomenon of which you speak? I suppose vaccinations are also on the decline because there are some crazy, uneducated parents out there who believe that vaccines are the equivalent of giving your kid Hostess twinkies (I believe this is an actual quote from that thread), but that doesn't speak to the intelligence or "rightness" of it. I'm not suggesting that people who don't circumcise are idiots; I'm simply saying that you all are WAY overstating your case and the support which your "army" has in the U.S. By the way, since all of us live here, I don't really care what they do in Australia.[/quote]

Educated or not, I would bet that you are not educated about circumcision.  Can you name (without googling) the various parts of the foreskin, as well as five functions of it?  Can you name five complications of circumcision, along with about how often those things happen?  People who have spent time researching elective, amputative, surgery on their newborn child's genitals should at least have a proper understanding of what it is they are planning to remove and what the real risks of doing so are.  And yes, I would label those who don't ask these types of questions as "idiots" regardless of what type o fancy education they've gotten.[/quote]

who are you people? I have friends both here and in the "northeast" who have chosen not to circumcise their sons but I've never been condemned by anyone for having made the opposite choice for my own children. The vitriol expressed in these posts is really odd and I can only imagine that it is because these are anonymous posts. While there are certainly individual Jewish/Muslim families who have chosen not to circumcise, the majority of those communities still believe it to be religiously sanctioned. Others circumcise for health reasons. We are loving parents who have made a different choice than you, get over it. You will never be able to outlaw the practice in the US-the religious component of it, plus the acceptance of the medical profession guarantees that. And no, I don't know the various parts of the foreskin as well as the five functions of it. But thanks for the morning laugh. [/quote]

The irony is that you didn't make any choice at all.  You blindly followed a cultural tradition, supported by extreme bias and lots of myth.  This is why we who are against routine infant circumcision, would call you uneducated about this topic.  (for what it's worth, I'm not the one who started the whole north-east part of the debate).

There are many functions of the foreskin, but for discussion sake, I always ask those who claim to have researched the issue to name just five.  You say you cannot name five; can you name even one?  Do you know anything at all about the intact anatomy of a boy?  Are you aware of ANY of the risks associated with circumcision, and about how often they occur?  Are you aware of any of the treatments for some typical problems that might occur with the intact penis?  People who actually research the issue learn that there are valuable functions, that there is a complex anatomy (ie, it's not "just a flap of skin"), and that the risks can and do include death of the baby.  And, the more common risks (ashesions, skin bridges, scarring, buried penis, revisions, etc.) will occur at a GREATER rate than all problems combined of intact penises.  They also learn that the rare problems associated with the foreskin can almost always be avoided by proper care (no one should ever retract the foreskin) and simple medicines (ie, antibiotics if a bacterial infection occurs -- just like you would give a girl antibiotics for a genital infection).

Again, I ask you, why the foreskin?  Can you answer why?  Do you believe it is that much more likely to cause the boy trouble than any other body part?  Do you believe it is just expendable?   I would guess that your honest answer is more along the lines of "well, it's just what we do."  Which, as time goes on and information is more readily available, is a completely unacceptable answer for amputating part of a newborn baby's healthy, functioning, genitalia.  [/quote]

We chose to circumcise our sons for religious reasons. Now if modern medicine demonstrated that this was a harmful practice we would not have done it. However, the AAP and the WHO both highlight the health benefits or circumcision as does other "peer-reviewed" research. The health benefits were not our primary motivation in having our sons circumcised, but they did provide additional support for our religious-based decision. Despite what you may think, I did make a conscious choice ( and since my husband and I both have advanced degrees we are quite capable of reading the peer-reviewed research that keeps getting mentioned). Yes, there are studies which support your point of view, but I don't find them particularly compelling enough to override my religious beliefs. You don't believe in circumcision and think that it is practiced out of ignorance/outdated tradition. Therefore, no reason I could provide would justify the practice to you. I'm fine with that. But don't think that because someone disagrees with you that they are not aware of the facts. [/quote]

You do yourself a disservice by boasting about your advanced degrees, insisting that you've done plenty of research, and still being unable to explain the anatomy of the intact penis, explain the many functions of the foreskin, or give any kind of plausible explanation for why the foreskin - of all the potential body parts that can cause illness and disease - is the one and only which should be surgically amputated (for better health!) at birth.

As a side note, although I find circumcision in any form to be absolutely barbaric, I am in complete support of protecting religious circumcison for Orthodox Jews.  If you live a devoutely religious life, then I can see the need for it, as well as any discussion about ending the practice needing to take place within religious circles.  In those cases, routine medical circumcision doesn't even enter into the conversation, because those circumcisions (for better or for worse...) are not happening in hospitals or with medical care providers at all.  I wonder if your religious circumcision occurred in a hospital?  Interesting point though -- in ancient history, Jewish circumcision was much less invasive then it is today.  If I were an Orthodox Jew, I would be debating this point and seeing what we could do to bring circumcision back into line with the original practice, instead of co-mingling it with the nonsense that happens in popular/medical culture.[/quote]

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