Shouldn't we rethink circumcision? Is it unnecessary?

Question

No health agency recommends it and hasn't for years. What are the real health benefits, if any? Is an uncircumcised penis dirty? Is this an accepted form of genital mutilation? What do you think about it?

Answer 1

i dont see any drawbacks....then again i wouldnt! hee hee

Answer 2

I agree that non-religious infant circumcision should be reconsidered. There is nothing wrong with having a foreskin and verily about 80% of the world's male population is uncircumcised and the vast majority don't suffer any serious problems.

It should go without saying that medically necessary circumcision does have benefits, for example when the foreskin is so tight that it causes pain and can't be retracted or if someone gets frequent infections/irritations no matter what they do. These problems are rare, only occurring in about 5% of all uncircumcised guys and only a fraction of that truly requires circumcision.

There are studies that indicate that circumcision may help lower the rate of STD and/or HIV contraction, but there are also studies that refute this. Most however state that there's no statistical difference, so circumcision for this reason is invalid. There is also recent research that refutes the circumcision and HIV connection (see links). There were also once studies saying that circumcision decreases chances of HPV and thus cervical cancer for circumcised partners, but there's a vaccine now.

The normal uncircumcised penis is very easy to clean and keep clean. Simply retract the foreskin during a shower and wash the area underneath with water and mild soap like any other part of the body. It's a little different in small boys because the foreskin may still be adhered to the head of the penis and shouldn't be forced back if it doesn't go back.

The reason why it's accepted is one of two things, religion and/or culture. Once something is ingrained into either it's very very difficult to root out. But the trends are changing in the US and hopefully it'll continue in that direction. It doesn't seem fair that many infants have to go through something so painful within days of birth when there's not guarantee that it's better, and as with all operations, circumcision does carry its own risks, especially in infancy.

Answer 3

It is totally unnecessary and barbaric. People in Europe, Asia, and South America are almost never circumcised, and they are just fine. It was a fad in the U.S. for a while, but like all really dumb fads, it's falling out of fashion now. Very 20th century.

What really irritates me are the people that say they mutilate their infant sons so they will look like Daddy. Well, folks, there is going to be a lot more difference in a little boy's wiener and his father's than just foreskin - little kids won't even notice the skin part. And Daddy should keep it in his pants when he's around his adolescent sons! How sick can you get?

It's only dirty if you never wash, like any other part of your body. And the tired old std argument has been proven a myth many times over. The only medical advantage is the doctor's bank account.

And how can anyone want a healthy and useful body part chopped off because "it looks better"? Only a really shallow twit would think that way! Males are born with foreskin - foreskin is normal, natural, and should be left whole.

Answer 4

The Hygiene Issue is the only "supposedly" valid reason people use for advocating circumcision. For me....I was taught to clean thoroughly daily, and every time I use the toilet....so the hygiene issue doesn't work here. Personally, I don't judge people one way or the other, because in the end it's about preference. Those who won't be convinced because of the Aesthetics side of the issue, will always use that as the main reason for preaching circumcision. The "Eeewww, it looks ugly like that" factor, or the "It looks so much better clean cut" factor is the main reason most americans do not even hesitate having their boys snipped before even taking him out of the hospital. All I can say to the guys....be true to yourself. If your gf can't get used to idea of you being uncircumcised.....just move on. There are plenty of women who don't care either way, and even more who actually prefer an uncircumcised man. The best thing that god made was to make us all different and unique........so take your pick!
Best of Luck!

Answer 5

There does not appear to be any benefit to be found from routine circumcision of young boys, on the contrary it can lead to a feeling of loss in later life. The penis, as it was designed by nature can do its job perfectly well without any intervention and the loss of the foreskin causes a reduction in sensation at the glans. Circumcision, for religious, cultural and other reasons really does not have a place in modern society no more than female circumcision has but has become a 'norm' in some societies and this has led to its acceptance.

Answer 6

Yes, we can always rethink a custom or a medical procedure. But it really turns me off when the anticirc people come out in droves with hysteria every time the word circumcision appears on the Internet and try to make everyone think, uncut. It seems to me that we ought to consider that circumcision might be a good idea since the rate in the USA has remained steady at 85% and is now growing for male babies and many adolescents and men who are being circumcised, not so many as inpatients in hospitals as 20 years ago but as outpatients in doctors offices, in clinics, and in hospitals. (Anticircs, you are wrong in your statistics, at least 10 years wrong!) I come from a Protestant family in which every male has been circumcised for the last 100 years. No, being cut does not prevent masturbation. Why would anyone want that to happen? Nor does it prevent every disease known to man. But a lot of recent medical studies have concluded that there is no loss in the sensitivity of the penis, no lessening of sexual drive, in fact it enhances sexuality because the minor loss of nerve endings in the foreskin are now amplified in the whole shaft. It does prevent some conditions such as phimosis (tight foreskin), balantitis (infection of the glans) and infrequent cancer of the penis. It is a first line of defense against STDs and female to male transmission of HIV and hence of AIDS. To me it is aesthetically pleasing to the eye and hygiene is much easier. Just stand in the shower and wash like you wash the rest of you. Those who have a normal foreskin still need to wash 2 times a day. Circumcision of the male is not mutilation. Female clitorectomy is mutilation, and its practice should be wiped off of the face of this earth. So make up your own mind. Unlike the authoritarian demands against circumcision by the anticirc people, we quietly keep circumcising our sons now with advantage of local pain killers. They sleep. They don't cry. They heal quickly. So what's really wrong with that. Try to take away our rights, but we are in the majority. And many of us are not ignorant. We are well educated. Go into the showers at an Ivy league university and you will find a 99% rate of circumcised guys vs. the uncut. Circumcision goes back 5000 years at least. We must be doing something right. Ask any serviceman in the dust storms of Iraq what they prefer or those who fought in the jungles of Vietnam and of the South Pacific in World War II. Anyway, cut or uncut, when hygienic, are OK in my book. Anticircs please shutup, and let us make our own decisions as good not perfect parents and as mature adolescents and adult men. Let's have some peace about this issue.

Answer 7

Yes it is unnecessary. Yes it is barbaric and genital mutilation.

No, there are no real health benefits. No, an uncircumcised penis is not dirty, unless its owner is determined to keep it that way.

YES we should rethink it!

Answer 8

The only info I read on it years ago was that fewer Jewish women had cervical cancer and it was attributed to circumcised men. When a baby is born into bright lights and voices, then spanked on butt or bottom of foot, and taken over to a table and circumcised, how does he ever trust the world again?

Answer 9

They don't do it in Europe, God made boys this way! Yes, it's unnecessary!

Answer 10

The “medical” reasons for circumcision are for Doctors to make MONEY!!!
Circumcision is “nothing” compared to other much more terrible things that people do for MONEY, when MONEY is involved EVERYRHING is possible, MONEY is the priority not moral values, not ethics, not health, not wrong or right, not even human life, etc. People are selfish by nature. And that is soooo sad. $$$CASH$$$

MOTHERS, the feelings of mothers who observed the circumcision of their babies. Go here if you have the courage:
http://www.circumcision.org/mothers.htm
They do not remember the pain when they grow up, but I wonder what kind of neurological/emotional damage it does to inflict such severe pain to such a young one!

In the US circumcision started to stop boys from masturbating; they will take much longer to reach the orgasm, and the orgasm will not be as intense, but that will not stop them.
Nowadays the “medical” reasons to circumcision are for Doctors to make MONEY!!!

RELIGION--If God intended boys to not have "skin" He would have made them so.
Also, if you examine the bible, lest just say that is full of terrible things that are considered very illegal nowadays, and many of those terrible things are AGAINST WOMEN. Women, how would you like it if those things get legalized?
http://www.nocirc.org/religion/

HYGIENE--Use a new invention, soap and water!!! Women produce much more “smegma”, all kinds of discharges, wetness, and smells; because of physiologic and anatomical reasons, and how would you feel if they cut your vulva lips??? Women, why don’t you answer my question, are you afraid? Women are more likely to get urinary tract infections and no one suggests we surgically alter them at birth to reduce the risks! Just one of many double standards and laws that always treat men worse.

MEDICAL REASONS--No medical reasons. It is not a birth defect! A extremely small chance of a complication do not justify the removal of the foreskin, if so, why don't we remove the tonsils and the appendix when a child is born, and the chance of complications of the tonsils and the appendix is much greater. And what is even greater is the chance of breast cancer so the best thing to do is to remove the breast glands of young girls or at least remove them at the first sign of trouble without trying any alternative treatments first in order to preserve the breast(women, how do you like it now?). And for infections of all the organs, including female organs, use a new invention called antibiotics. Talking about complications, in fact many baby boys die each year from circumcision and related complications.
EVEN if “TRUE phimosis” occurs, instead of chopping it off like barbarians!, use Conservative Treatments like:
-Topical Medication(non-traumatic and non-destructive)
-Dilation and Stretching(non-traumatic and non-destructive)
-Combination treatment(non-traumatic and non-destructive)
-Preputioplasty is the medical term for plastic surgery of the prepuce or foreskin(many methods).
If you want more detail on Conservative Treatments, go here:
http://www.cirp.org/library/treatment/phimosis/
http://www.circinfo.org/alternatives.html
The foreskin can still be tight even after puberty, and it is natural, not TRUE phimosis.
And now they invented a new reason to make money, the risk of STD in uncircumcised men. Well actually uncircumcised men have more protection, but in practical terms that protection means nothing, because circumcised or not, if you have sex without protection and your partner have an STD you will be infected FOR SURE! That means, it is just one more stupid and desperate reason in order to make money with circumcisions.

SEX--Foreskin actually enhances the sexual experience for men because it constantly moves over the head of the penis causing more friction and pleasure. Men will also lose much sensitivity to the glans if circumcised.
Circumcised men will have to deal with discomfort and dry glans. Uncircumcised men, pull the foreskin back for a day, and see how it feels against your underwear all day, and see what happens. The frenulum is the G SPOT in men.
The foreskin have those functions: protective, erogenous, sensory, and sexual physiologic. After all, why would you want to lose all of those “Meissner corpuscles”, the same nerve complexes which provide fine touch to the fingertips?
It is there for many reasons, that is how a man should be(it is natural).
If women like it better circumcised because it looks better(strange, not natural) or gives them more sexual pleasure(strange, not natural), then too bad, they do not have the right! All men do not like mutilated vulvas, and all men like breasts with nipples, they do not like mutilated breasts, etc, etc, etc, because that is the way those organs are supposed to be, it is natural. Interesting, isn’t?!!!

If that was a common practice to do that to baby girls, all the women would be in a BIG UPROAR about it(and men too!, men are not like women), but it’s ok to mutilate little boys. The great majority of the ones that agree with circumcision are women for their stupid selfish reasons. Even court cases reported in which mother and father fight because the mother wants to mutilate the son, it is always the mother!. You women should be ashamed to that to your son. Men that are not circumcised, will not get circumcised when adults, they would scream, kick, fight and run, if someone tries to mutilate their privates area, just like you women would run too if someone tried to do that to your labia. Men that where circumcised do not realize what they lost because never had one, and most of them that do realize try to justify it so they do not feel bad about it. Many circumcised men feel very bad emotionally because of what was done to them to such a private area.
It is mutilation of defenceless children in the most private spot, genital mutilation.
It is cruel and barbaric.
It is a human rights violation.
It is not the parent’s decision; it is the parent’s decision if they want to abuse him, rape him, or to kill him? It is the parent’s decision to choose the son religion? How can he chose a religion or his believes, if he is just a baby?
I do not even agree that it is ok if an adult man wants to get circumcised. I think it is wrong, because if a man wants to lose a finger, the Doctor can not do that to him. Think about it, think, think. And by the way, adult men that decide to get circumcised, do it because they know most women like it, they just do it to be more accepted by women.
I think it is just like slavery and all other barbaric acts of the past, it was accepted because it was common practice or tradition, everyone accepted slavery without questioning the facts, but it is not accepted anymore in a modern and fair and civilized society. Circumcision must not be allowed, BY LAW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Many other reasons not to do it, check it out:
http://www.mothersagainstcirc.org/
http://www.cirp.org/library/treatment/phimosis/
http://www.noharmm.org/
http://www.doctorsopposingcircumcision.org/
http://www.circumcisionquotes.com/boydies.html

Answer 11

plenty of health agencies and doctors reccomend it, an uncircumsized penis is more succeptible to stds.