Former Austinite Neal Pollack has a touching, funny and occasionally horrifying account of how he and his wife Regina decided whether or not to circumcise their son in Tuesday’s Salon. I won’t give away the ending here, but the response to Neal’s story demonstrates the degree to which circumcision is capable of working rational, sane voices into histrionic froth.
I have no religious tradition and I couldn’t care less about my hypothetical son’s hypothetical penis not looking like daddy’s. However, recent studies in Africa have demonstrated that circumcised men have a lower risk of acquiring HIV. Even though HIV incidence is much lower in the U.S., that’s enough to steer me nominally in favor of circumcision as it might apply to me as a parent for now.
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
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5 comments:
I think it’s good whenever parents make an educated decision on circumcision and I pass no judgment on either course of action because there’s not enough evidence at this point to suggest that circumcision is absolutely right or wrong.
However, I don’t think circumcision is analogous to removing a girl’s clitoris. The latter is done for the primary purpose of reducing a girl’s capacity for sexual pleasure. The male equivalent of removing the clitoris would be more akin to lopping off the entire penis head.
By contrast, the most recent and exhaustive evidence to date links circumcision to significant reduction in HIV risk, not to mention reduced risk of other STDs and urinary tract infections. Although it’s impossible for a man who was circumcised as a baby to know what unsnipped sex is like, the overwhelming majority of snipped men like their penises just fine and experience no lasting ill effects as a result of being circumcised.
Booberry,
It's fine and dandy to claim personal responsibility in one's sexual practices is likely to have more long-term benefits, but have you looked around lately?
This country has worked hard to remove any semblance of personal responsibility from people's minds. It's always someone else's responsibility to protect you, apparently. (Gotta love lawyers)Most people wouldn't even know how to use a condom.
I commend you on your intent to instill the concept of responsibility in your child, but I'm afraid you may be in the minority.
Um, I remember in biology that basically the major advantage to circumcision is cleanliness. Young people are not subject to the same type of sweat (e.g. ammonia, urine, other chemical excretions) that full grown adults get down their and under their armpits, so it may not matter as long as they bathe often. However, as an active adult (non-Jewish, circumcised) I am grateful my parents had it done. one day without a shower is already bad enough. - D. Beebe
Yeah, well my wife's Jewish so I'm going to be looking at a circumcision-as-catered-affair scenario. Sheesh.
Okay, I'm going to go now - and try to forget that I ever read the phrase "lopping off the entire penis head."
I wasn't circumcised and my dick is still attached of course it is so huge it grow out of the foreskin years ago.
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