Circumcision

[jedusor]

I can't believe this is even debatable. I can't believe that in a society we consider civilized, I have to actually present a structured argument against cutting off pieces of babies when they're born.

Comments

[all-ephemera.livejournal.com]

I would say that my thoughts for not circumcising would be along these lines - and these are just my thoughts:

The penis works just fine without being altered, excepting certain rare cases which are the exception to the rule.

The argument of "It's more hygenic." seems to me to just be symptomatic of laziness. I've known men who were uncut who never had any issues with cleanliness once they were taught how. (In much the same way that a girl can be taught how to properly and carefully wash her vagina, for example.)

There is no conclusive evidence that an uncut penis leads to diseases more often than a cut penis.

The child is already distraught after being born, and a surgical procedure makes that worse. If it's not necessary to a healthy and happy life, I see no reason to do it.

I don't feel that it's necessary to remove the foreskin, and therefore will not do it when the time comes for me to have a son. Just about all of the previously accepted medical reasons to remove the foreskin have since been debunked, and from my own observations an uncircumcised man has every chance of being as happy and healthy as a circumcised man.

[gerald_duck]

I think the hygiene issue is even simpler than that, these days: it's pretty hard to do anything that causes ejaculation without creating a need to wash up afterwards, whether cut or uncut. At that point uncut people wash under the foreskin anyway.

The hygiene issue is only relevant if someone is neither having sex nor masturbating regularly. Telling people they mustn't masturbate is a whole other can of worms…