You say that circumcision is a personal choice, but seem to suggest that parents should be able to take that choice away from the person most directly affected. Whose body is it?

It’s illegal to cut off a girl’s prepuce, or to make any incision on a girl’s genitals, even if no tissue is removed. Why don’t boys get the same protection? Everyone should be able to decide for themselves whether they want parts of their genitals cut off.

You might also want to check out the following:

Canadian Paediatric Society
http://www.cps.ca/english/statements/fn/fn96-01.htm
“Recommendation: Circumcision of newborns should not be routinely performed.”

http://www.caringforkids.cps.ca/pregnancy&babies/circumcision.htm
“Circumcision is a ‘non-therapeutic’ procedure, which means it is not medically necessary.”
“After reviewing the scientific evidence for and against circumcision, the CPS does not recommend routine circumcision for newborn boys. Many paediatricians no longer perform circumcisions.”

Royal Australasian College of Physicians
http://www.racp.edu.au/index.cfm?objectid=B5610716-9E3E-6C97-A8D87880FD002E3B
“After extensive review of the literature, the Paediatrics & Child Health Division of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians has concluded that there is no medical reason for routine newborn male circumcision.”
(almost all the men responsible for this statement will be circumcised themselves, as the male circumcision rate in Australia in 1950 was about 90%. “Routine” circumcision is now *banned* in public hospitals in Australia in all states except one.)

British Medical Association
http://www.bma.org.uk/ethics/consent_and_capacity/malecircumcision2006.jsp#Circumcisionformedicalpurposes
“to circumcise for therapeutic reasons where medical research has shown other techniques to be at least as effective and less invasive would be unethical and inappropriate.”

The Royal Dutch Medical Association
http://knmg.artsennet.nl/Diensten/knmgpublicaties/KNMGpublicatie/Nontherapeutic-circumcision-of-male-minors-2010.htm
“The official viewpoint of KNMG and other related medical/scientific organisations is that non-therapeutic circumcision of male minors is a violation of children’s rights to autonomy and physical integrity. Contrary to popular belief, circumcision can cause complications – bleeding, infection, urethral stricture and panic attacks are particularly common. KNMG is therefore urging a strong policy of deterrence. KNMG is calling upon doctors to actively and insistently inform parents who are considering the procedure of the absence of medical benefits and the danger of complications.”

You are half right: “circumcision is a personal choice.” As a son who was circumcised at birth, I feel that my body was violated. A part of my body, a part that I really would like to have kept, was removed without my consent. And, it was removed for no real medical reason. It is my penis, not my parents. I am the one who will use my sex organ, not my parents.

My body, my choice.

When did you get to make the “personal” choice about your own circumcision? If not… Why do you think you get to make the personal choice about anyone else’s?

“The official viewpoint of KNMG and other related medical/scientific organisations is that non-therapeutic circumcision of male minors is a violation of children’s rights”

Parents, you need to deal with the above. You need to see how the rest of the civilized world looks at it and you need to deal with it. You can’t laugh it away or try to minimize it. You need to get educated. Infant circumcision is a harmful scam and a violation of children’s rights.

First of all, I want to thank you for writing this article. As a first time expectant mom this issue has been a very tough one to deal with. I understand both sides of the argument however, as you say above, none of the evidence is really overwhelming. So either way I am faced with guilt. It’s something that my family never gave any thought to whatsoever so it isn’t a topic that I can discuss with many people. It IS a personal choice, and like it or not as a parent you are asked to make personal choices on behalf of your children constantly, most of which your children have no say so about. I am just constantly shocked to see how downright mean people can get on these type of things. It’s a scary world we live in when there is so much guilt surrounding a pregnancy, which used to be viewed as such a beautiful, magical time.

I personally don’t care if someone circumcises their child or not. I do see it as a personal decision. However, I’ll tell you why I did not circumcise my two sons. I’ve been a nurse for over 25 years. I’ve worked all over the country with both old and young (newborn) and I’ve worked with various cultures. Most circumcisions go off without a hitch. Boys and men can have minor issues with both circumcised and uncircumcised penises. That said, I’ve never seen a person die from having a foreskin, nor have I ever seen *major* complications resulting in keeping the foreskin. I’ve seen one child die from a circumcision and several have severe disfigurement and hemorrhaging due to the surgery (heck, there is a link at the bottom of this page for a Babble article on “botched circumcision”). So given that the worst case scenario leaving my boys intact involved maybe an antibiotic but the worst case for a circumcision involved a funeral, I opted to leave the boys alone. Everything in life is a gamble and risk always surrounds us. I just opted on trusting in the way our bodies were designed and then seeking medical intervention if something *did* happen.
If anyone cares, both my boys, now 20 and 14 have never had any medical or hygiene issues.
But all this fighting and name calling over issues like circumcision will never change anyone’s mind or bring us closer together. The best medical advice I could offer is for all parents to fully research pros and cons, talk to a doctor or two (not one who would profit from the surgery), and then follow your heart. The circumcision decision is the first of many parents will have to face and none of them are easy!

I am an uncircumcised American guy who was born in the early 1970s. I have never had any problems with my equipment, nor have I faced any ridicule despite the fact that I was the only uncirc’d kid amongst my friends and, aside from my brother, probably in the entire town. None of the women who have seen it have complained about it either or refused to pleasure me in certain ways – most didn’t even seem to notice and a few even said they liked me better that way. Presumably none of them, including my wife, had ever been with an intact guy before.
OK, enough bragging -When our son was born this past February, we had already decided long before that he would not be circumcised. However, we were probably asked at least a dozen times if we wanted to have it done, to the point that I worried it might happen by accident, if they mixed him up with another baby. Fortunately, it didn’t ! I think that hospitals should not circumcise newborns unless both parents request the procedure in writing and it should not be covered by insurance. I do not begrudge parents who choose to do it though and think that foreskin fanatics/intactivists are doing themselves a disservice by turning their cause into a religious crusade.

I don’t understand how anybody can think that it’s perfectly okay, much less *necessary,* to cut off a perfectly healthy body part for any reason. We don’t cut off girls’ clitoral hoods — we consider it a barbaric practice done by people who don’t know better. But it’s perfectly normal to cut off the foreskin of a boy?

As for smegma and other issues with cleanliness, as long as it’s cleaned regularly, there’s no problem — and how hard can it be to get a boy to rub his penis in the bath?

You’d think that our species couldn’t survive without circumcision, the way people talk about this in the US. But in most other countries, the statistics are the other way around: most males are not circumcised. How do these societies manage to survive, when the majority of their men are subject to such awful complications of not circumcising? It’s truly a miracle. Or maybe circumcision isn’t as good as its advocates would have you believe.

If nothing else, let your son decide for himself. It’s not you who has to live with your decision to circumcise him. It can always be cut off later, but it’s a lot more difficult to grow it back, and he’ll never get back the sensation that he would have had.

“Circumcision is one of humanit[y']s greatest crimes,” certainly sounds like a wild exaggeration at first, but consider that it is done about every 26 seconds in the US, 1.2 million times every year, about 14 million worldwide. Multiply each individual small human rights abuse by that figure and it mounts up.

@Nick: “I am an uncircumcised American … I have never had any problems … nor have I faced any ridicule … None of the women who have seen it have complained about it either or refused to pleasure me in certain ways … When our son was born … we were probably asked at least a dozen times if we wanted to have it done … I … think that foreskin fanatics/intactivists are doing themselves a disservice by turning their cause into a religious crusade.” Look at what you wrote and ask, “Just WHO has turned it into a religious crusade?” Not the people who just want babies’ genitals to be left alone. How about, the people who falsely say it will give problems, that he will be ridiculed, that women won’t like it, and who ask you at least a dozen times if you want it done? How about the people who can’t give a sensible reason but are still determined to do it? They are the ones who have turned it into a (quasi-)religious crusade.

We did not cut our son, we do not have the right to make that sort of decision for his body. My husband is cir’d and assumed that his son would be as well. I had him watch a video of the procedure, and my son remained whole, just as he was meant to be.

I chose circumcision,(the exposed glans being more interesting) before puberty and dealt with during puberty very noticeable sensation loss over a long time. All due to keratinization. I was happy at first, then questioning loss of sensitivity, not knowing why, then became self doubt and a mind F–k! Had my doctor told me I would lose pleasure, many types of foreplay I can never do, I would not have done it. Loss of pleasure as been known for 800 years (Moses Maimonides). Yet the US medical profession hasn’t addressed this. Most medical books don’t even show the foreskin. The CDC says 34% and 35% of US teens are mistaken about being intact and circumcised. Education is not had from the CDC, AAP, nor from school.

Many Doctors erroneously state foreskin retraction by age 6, but it natures protection until it is ready for action, at puberty. And some can take up to 19 years. Doctors see phimosis as a problem. Many men are fine with it. No problems. Further, doctors say the inner foreskin and glans if mucosa like the inside of the mouth and vagina. Then stupidly say use soap under the foreskin. This doesn’t make sense. You wouldn’t use soap in your mouth or vagina. The foreskin has an internal structure that keeps a balanced pH. Soap can unbalance the pH and so many infections typically repeating infections can result. “Had my boy circumcised. He kept getting infections.” Yea, from over cleaning to prevent further infections. Thanks doc! And doc, stop saying uncircimcised. If boys are born uncircumcised are girls born unmastectomied?

Oh, Yeah, I hate being circumcised. The more I found out, the more I got angry. I couldn’t even read through a single page without stopping because each loss put me in a tail spin. CIRCUMCISION BIGGEST MISTAKE OF MY LIFE!

Sorry about the reposting. Frank

It is very important not to let procirs near your intact children because they know subversive ways to cause the curse of circumcision to be necessary, to justify their superstitious convictions.

I have read and read about Mrs Milos for about 25 years now, and can confirm that JM’s remarks above about her life story are gratuitous and false.

“Freeman’s opinion– which I share– is that circumcision is a personal choice one should make having looked at the research and considered the options thoughtfully.”
ME. Which person? The doctor, the parents, or the person whose nervous system is connected to the parts to be amputated?

“And since current research has led the American Academy of Pediatricians to conclude that circumcision should neither be routinely performed nor banned, that pretty much leaves us with “it’s personal.”
ME. Medical societies in other countries, especially a recent statement by the one in the Netherlands, have taken a far more anti-circ stance. The AAP Task Forces are sharply divided between pro-circers (led by Edgar Schoen, born 1925) and those who say the evidence is not compelling. The AAP’s statements are ugly compromises that do not do justice to the truth.

“When you look very closely at the statistics, the increases of risks on either side are so minor they are not considered significant. The data is not coming down hard on for anyone. I guess that’s why these circ/anti-circ battles can be such crazed, mud-flinging fests!”
ME. American medicine has not done an honest job of counting and reporting the complications and tragedies that result from RIC, especially the complications that gradually manifest themselves after years or decades. The gradual loss of sexual sensation that many men complain of has not been properly investigated. The same is true of possible correlations between RIC and PE, ED, and jackhammer sex. I know of no reliable scientific work on the effect of circumcision on women’s sexual pleasure. A growing number of women under 40 have had intercourse with both kinds of men. A careful random sample of such women should be interviewed at length.

“The extreme points of view, while cementing an opinion for some, can be absolutely devastating to most. To be told you are mutilating your child, or, if you go the other way, exposing him to ridicule or disease? No one wants any of the bad things listed on either the pro or anti-circ websites to happen to their baby boys.”
ME. I never use the word “mutilate” and invite other intactivists to follow my example. If circumcision does not have compelling benefits, why do it? If circumcision can have sexual drawbacks in some cases, why do it?

“And, according to the AAP and many other medical authorities, they won’t happen!”
ME. The AAP doesn’t know what it is talking about, because USA medicine has yet to do an honest job of counting the damage resulting from RIC.

The rule of thumb in Australian medicine is that 1% of RICs result in a damaged adult penis. That is reason enough to stop RIC forthwith.