Circumcision, The Great Debate

When I was pregnant with my son in 2005, whether or not to circumcise was the toughest things we dealt with.  I asked everyone, and I mean EVERYONE I could think of.  I wanted to know what they decided, and why.  For the most part I came up with people who chose not to didn’t because they felt it was cruel and unnecessary.  The people who went through with it, decided that because their husband, or the father of the baby was.

There seems to be a lot of confusion around it.  I found that some people were told that there were no nerves in the foreskin, and therefore no feeling.  They were told that the reason the babies cry is because they are strapped down, not because they are in pain.  Others said that the baby feels pain, but they don’t remember it, so it doesn’t affect them for life.  The people who didn’t circumcise said that the babies are in a lot of pain, they are scared, they are exposed.  So what is true?

We never circumcised our son, and most of the males in my family are intact.  My husband’s side is the opposite.  Up until pretty recently, I was neither for or against circumcision, but things change.
Routine circumcision is not recommended by any medical association, including the American Association of Pediatrics and the World Health Organization.  It is no longer recommended as a way to decrease UTI, STD’s, HIV or cancer.  Circumcision is an unnecessay cosmetic surgery, that killed 117 baby boys last year in the US, more than SIDS.  Newborn’s are not able to receive proper pain medications, and many are circumcised without anesthesia.   

There is an argument that it is cleaner, but how can exposing an open wound to urine and feces be cleaner?  An intact foreskin should not be retracted, it should be left alone to avoid infection and unnecessary pain.  There are 20 000 nerve endings removed from the tip of the penis during circumcision that can directly affect a man’s sexual experience. 

The tip of the penis is meant to be moist, and by removing the foreskin, overtime the tip dries out, and has been linked to Erectile dysfunction as the penis loses sensitivity.  Routine circumcision does not exist in most parts of the world, in fact only the US and Canada practice routine circumcision for non-religious reasons.

Still think it’s important for your son to “look like dad”? There are groups of men that are affected by their parents choice to circumcise them...

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