Why is circumcision such a common practice in North America? Does it really make a penis healthier and look "prettier?" You have this beautiful baby boy and after coddling him and caring for him, you subject him to torture that no man would ever allow you to do. And he's completely defenseless. Are the purported medical benefits enough to justify the violence?
FTA: "Over just the past week, two reputable medical journals published articles on male circumcision and came to totally different conclusions, leaving parents of newborn boys with a stark realization they are on their own, without a consensus from the medical profession... Circumcision has been around since before recorded history. Still, most American males were not circumcised routinely until the post-World War II era. Today about 80 percent of American males are circumcised, though rates vary by region... Anti-circumcision campaigners focus their objections on several issues. First, they accurately point out that the foreskin is rich in nerves and that cutting it away removes erogenous tissue. Second, they argue that circumcision is usually medically unnecessary surgery and that it carries risks like bleeding or infection... A more nuanced issue is whether circumcising newborns is “medically necessary” surgery. By the usual definitions it's not. Circumcision does not cure anything and a foreskin isn't a deformity. She does, however, acknowledge the validity of new data on preventing sexually transmitted diseases... These studies show that circumcision reduces the risks of HIV infection and other viral STDs like herpes and HPV, the human papilloma virus, some strains of which can cause penile and cervical cancer. There is some evidence that male circumcision reduces the risks of bacterial STDs, too. Male circumcision also has other preventive benefits, too, such as reducing the risk of urinary tract infections, especially in boys younger than a year old."
DISCUSS!
Original posting by Braincrave Second Life staff on Aug 16, 2010 at http://www.braincrave.com/viewblog.php?id=294
