Quote:
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Originally Posted by Himbo
Human Rights for Everyone: the Importance of Nonconsensual Child Surgeries Here and Now Ryan McAllister, Ph.D.
In the U.S., could there be a surgery that:
1. Is performed almost exclusively on non-consenting minors,
2. Is illegal to perform on girls, but is promoted for boys,
3. Is performed with no or inadequate anesthetic,
4. Has no well-established benefits,
5. Removes a healthy, unique part of an organ,
6. Causes a lifelong loss of function,
7. And is performed over one million times a year?
Yes. That surgery is circumcision. Its significant, detrimental impact on male health and human rights is commonly minimized in our culture. I ask you to consider the following facts:
1. Circumcision of infants is never medically necessary, according to the American Medical Association, Council on Scientific Affairs.
2. Circumcision is not recommended by any national medical organization in the world.
3. Circumcision has serious risks. These include but are not limited to infection, hemorrhage, scarring, shock, penile disfigurement, penile amputation, and death.
4. Beyond 100% loss of the function of the foreskin, the rate of surgical complications for this unnecessary procedure is estimated to be 2-10%.
5. Circumcision confers no proven health benefits. Few studies indicate potential health benefits, and these studies have serious flaws in terms of population selection.
6. Several large-scale studies show that circumcision increases risks of some infections and disease transmission.
7. An intact penis is easy to clean and care for.
8. The circumcision wound requires days to heal and is painful for the child during that time.
9. Circumcision removes several square inches of functional, healthy tissue. (The equivalent area in an adult would be about 15 square inches, the size of a 3x5 index card.)
10. Circumcision removes 10,000-20,000 specialized nerve endings.
11. Removal of this many nerves and this specialized tissue damages the ability to feel sexual pleasure.
12. Circumcision is associated with increased sexual problems later in life. These can include lack of sensation, chafing, lack of arousal, frustration, and problems due to insufficient lubrication.
13. Circumcision causes excruciating pain and often sends infants into shock. It involves tearing away and amputating highly sensitive tissue that was physically attached to the head of the penis.
14. Babies who have been circumcised are significantly more likely to have problems breast-feeding, and they demonstrate heightened pain responses months later.
15. Circumcision is associated with increased risk for depression.
16. Female partners of circumcised men may experience less pleasure during intercourse and may be subject to more frequent vaginal tearing and urinary tract infections.
17. Some Jewish individuals are opting for alternative ceremonies that do not require genital alteration, called "Brit Shalom".
18. U.S. infant circumcision validates female circumcision here and abroad.
19. The belief that male circumcision is valuable for hygiene reasons mirrors statements that female circumcision is necessary to keep women "clean" and "acceptable" for their husbands.
20. There is no hygienic justification for removing healthy tissue in any gender.
21. There is already a federal law protecting female children from genital cutting, modification, or piercing of any kind. Boys have a constitutional right to the same protection.
22. Involuntary circumcision violates human rights. Every individual has the right to an intact body, and should not be subjected to body modifications without his/her consent. Infants require special protection because they cannot speak for themselves.
23. A boy who is not subjected to circumcision will fit in just fine with his peers. Circumcision rates in the U.S. are falling, down from 90% in the 1970s to about 60% today. Internationally, the male circumcision rate is about 15%
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My responses:
1. For infants, there is no reason to remove the entire foreskin. The foreskin is fused to the glans to keep it protected. No baby has a medical need for it that I can think of.
2. The Canadian Pediatric Society said “Circumcision of newborns should not be routinely performed.” And in countries with government health care, it usually isn't covered. In a few US states, Medicare stopped paying for it as well.
3. I'm just glad I wasn't one of the unlucky ones. I'm not sure you could ever get over losing a child, but circumcision is a bad way to go. How would you face your extended family and friends after that? Would you lie and say something else happened? At least you could sue the hospital, but with the forms you sign, it wouldn't be much. Not very many babies die, and the complications are 2 in 1,000. It happens to someone though...
4. I would say .2-1% is correct. At least in America. They might not have as much practice elsewhere. The foreskin provides the function of protecting the glans from abrasion and has a gliding action for when it is needed.
5. Why can't they do a large scale study on monogamous males in the US, Canada, UK, Australia? There are plenty of us here. Why do they have to go to Africa to find horny truck drivers to see 37 uncut guys get AIDS vs. 23 cut ones out of 3,000. They claim that there is a 50% less chance of getting AIDS and stopped the study a few years early. AIDS is a human disease, it doesn't care who you are or what you look like.
6. I don't know about those.
7. It isn't something that is unclean or dirty. If you wash it regularly, it shouldn't be any different. It's not hard or complicated to do. It might be a challenging thing for some people, but I am pretty sure I could pull some skin back.
8. Yes it is. But, they won't remember it, so it must be ok. Pee and cleaning it will be painful, Having the glans exposed will be painful when rubbing against the diapers for the first week at least.
9. Your penis is only ~2 inches long when you are a baby. Hopefully, it gets bigger when you grow up, and would be somewhere in that range.
10. All of our skin has nerve endings, some are wired to the pleasure receptors and feel good. What the doctors left of my inner foreskin allows me to orgasm, not all parts of your body can do that. And some people had their inner foreskin and frenulum removed during circumcision.
11. The outer shaft skin doesn't feel much, so uncut guys might have the advantage that the inner skin can stretch further down the shaft. The glans is covered and should be a little more sensitive to touch.
12. The only one I can understand is lack of lubrication. The uncircumcised guy has skin that moves, the circumcised guy doesn't. I need to use it.
13. Anesthetic wasn't used prior to the 90's and I bet they still try not to use it when ever they can. It costs them time and money. That last sentence is the definition of circumcision.
14. I went from 7lbs 9oz to 6lbs 9oz in my first 6 weeks. I'm not saying that proves anything, but it happens.
15. There are a lot of other causes for depression. If you wish you weren't cut, it might be another thing. But, that is a weak argument.
16. I would have to see a large worldwide unbiased scientific study done on that. I doubt it would prove anything one way or the other.
17. I guess they are the lucky ones. As long as they don't give herpes to the babies it's a positive change.
18. Because the Americans are so smart, and they mutilate their boys, it must be ok to do it to our kids. Female circumcision is different, but they give the same reasons why they continue. It's a societal norm, it's unclean, it smells, it looks better or normal, I had it done she needs it too...
19. People assume that all uncircumcised guys have tons of smegma and diseases under there.
20. Yes. We are smart enough to wash all of our parts.
21. We do have an anti-discrimination amendment in the bill-of-rights. If it is good enough for one gender, it applies to the other. *Except in the case of male circumcision, where grown men don't want to be reminded that they were circumcised or did something bad to their sons.
22. I think in a perfect world you wouldn't need to change, fix or modify anything. He will grow up and can decide when he is old enough to understand what it is function is. Parents that make the choice based on it's what is normal to do or because everyone else in their religion does it, are the ones that bother me.
23. If you are looking at or commenting about another guy in the showers, you risk being called gay or a pervert. I think this is a myth. Group showers aren't even that common anymore. In some parts of the US, the uncircumcised are the majority.
The only good reason that it is done to a baby, is that it would be so much worse to do it to a 4-15 year old. I could see that causing some psychological problems. But there are cures to every condition, except STDs, that can be fixed without a full circumcision. I still don't see anything good from my perspective, or any valid reason to have it done to a baby boy.