The Ban on Circumcision

I ran across an interesting site today advocating banning male circumcision prior to the age of consent:

http://www.mgmbill.org/faq.htm

What’s interesting to me is that it’s already illegal to do this to girls in the US under the age of 18. What would be the political, social, and psychological ramifications of illegalizing infant male circumcision?

I ran across an interesting site today advocating banning male circumcision prior to the age of consent:

http://www.mgmbill.org/faq.htm

What’s interesting to me is that it’s already illegal to do this to girls in the US under the age of 18. What would be the political, social, and psychological ramifications of illegalizing infant male circumcision?

19 thoughts on “The Ban on Circumcision”

  1. Ludicrous.

    Sorry, again, I have no religious reason making me like or dislike circumcision.

    However, when its lucky time, you don’t want the lady in question to go, “Dear lord, what is that?” – and believe me, a lot of ladies would do so.

    In the gym, as a kid, you don’t want your penis t be the object of conversation.. and it would be.

    And, most importantly, without being too gross about it.. every male with a foreskin I have taken care of in the hospital setting.. EVERY ONE, has had an infection or gunk, or something gross built up inside there.

    It is an unnecessary organ, if you want to to really call it that. I had my tonsils removed back before I could give consent, and it was because they had a tendency to get infected.

    The process healed mostly in 3 – 5 days.. Liam was in a good mood by the end of the day. He got a shot of novocaine, snip, snip, a little gauze.. and it was being immobilized that bothered him most. He did not cry because of the surgery itself..and really, it wasn’t the most traumatic thing to happen that week.

    Finally, if I am going to have something like that done.. I want it done when the foreskin is centimeters long, not inches.. and I want it done in a time where i can form no real memories. I don’t want to wait until I’m 18.. I’m glad to not have to choose between a potentially painful surgery of a larger organ or feeling like I have a strange penis.

    All that being said, if you’ve chosen for your children what they should have, good for you.. and your reasons are, I’m sure, as sound as mine – but there is no compelling reason to think it is cruel (note: the baby didn’t care once he was no longer immobilized), and no real reason to try to have the process stopped.

    Visit the Official Justin Timpane Website Music, Acting, and More! http://www.timpane.com

    1. Uhm

      Uhm, if we made circumcisions illegal, then your uncircumcised penis wouldn’t be wierd, right? It would be the same as everyone else…

      And I think knowledge on cleaning it would be more prevalent, if everyone was not circumcised. Hell, I AM circumcised, and I clean my penis two, three, fours time daily 😉

      My $.02 Weed

    2. The post…

      The post wasn’t about whether circumcision is good or not — we’ve had that discussion before — but a movement to make infant male circumcision illegal, like infant female circumcision currently is. Sorry if I wasn’t clear on that point 🙂

      And if your foreskin would be several inches long… then I feel even more insignificant now!

      As a last note, couldn’t it be that the uncircumcised who end up in the hospital are sick and unable to take care of themselves anyway? At least with my uncircumcised boys, we teach them to take proper care during their daily baths…

      —
      Matthew P. Barnson

      1. The point..

        The reason I think it comes down to making an argument for good vs. bad is that there needs to be a compelling argument that the bad outweighs the good for there to be a law passed to make infant circumcision illegal.

        You were clear on your point, but I think the entire concept of illegalizing infant circumcision must be dismissed if, again, there is not a clear moral or societal imperative to do so. Thus, I am making the case that there are benefits to infant circumcision, and drawbacks to being uncircumcised – and that is the case I would make to a hypothetical judge or legislative body.

        (I could much more easily make the argument that it is a violation of a person’s religious rights, then present a number of circumcised men to the circumcised judge – and not a single person there would feel as if they had been abused – case dismissed)

        As for the sick.. yes, some are too sick to take care of themselves.. and the overwhelmingly female hospital staff are sometimes uncomfortable in the cleaning of said area.. but sometimes, there are just hygeine issues, lack of education, mental issues, the spectrum is broad.. and that area is “out of sight, out of mind” – things get caught up in there.

        My point remains – there are a number of procedures done under what is called conscious sedation – where you are aware during the procedure, but have no memory of it. I consider the relatively painless procedure of unremembered infant circumcision to be the same thing.. and I see no reason to subject someone older to the process when it becomes an issue of post-pubertal penile surgery vs. embarrassment and infection.

        A final note.. when I had to first introduce .. ahem.. to someone of the opposite sex, I was thankful it was circumcised.

        Visit the Official Justin Timpane Website Music, Acting, and More! http://www.timpane.com

        1. Simply put, after 27 years

          Simply put, after 27 years in a busy career as a highly trained family physician and medical researcher taking care of thousands of boys and men, I can no longer support any medical reason to perform newborn male genital mutilation or circumcision as it is commonly known.

          It is a surgical procedure which has been seeking medical justification for well over 100 years, having evolved from tribal ritualistic mutilations (much like FGM) with religious justifications in Semitic populations and primitive societies in the middle east, Africa, Australasia, and a few other isolated regions.

          As the only medically unnecessary surgery done on unwilling victims with “proxy consent”, with the parents of the boys essentially ordering physicians to perform this permanent and harmful body alteration, circumcision occupies a wierd spot far from legitimate medical care and closer to the many pseudo-medical barbaric interventions from times past.

          In a study I did several years ago half of all American physicians who perform circumcision admitted that they did it strictly for the money and did not believe it had any medical value.

          In the US it has been medicalized for half a century and its few but increasingly vocal proponents, some quite outspoken and some becoming almost household names, have pushed their agenda to circumcise the world’s boys for what ultimately appears to be perverse and personal reasons. Many of these circumfetishists, as they have been labeled, are seemingly linked through websites which themselves link to internet perversion and sex sites, and these circumcision “freaks” will stop at nothing to attempt to justify this brutal ritual, through medical myth and outright exaggeration, shoddy statistics, flimsy studies, manipulated numbers, bold-faced lies, and attempts to scare unwitting parents with stories about HIV/AIDS, urinary tract infections, and any numbers of other medical conditions which have nothing to do with the male foreskin.

          Far too many American physicians, almost uniquely, prefer to remain woefully ignorant of medical facts regarding the male foreskin,and collude with patients and hospitals to justify and continue this vestige of tribal mutilation ceremonies.

          The common (5-15% at least of all circumcisions are complicated to the point of needing a second surgery) risks of circumcision including bleeding, pain, infection, damage to the penile shaft and urethra, inadvertent amputation, and death cannot possibly compare to any potentially miniscule benefit exaggerated by the circumcision proponents.

          God or nature are much smarter than American physicians, and every male vertebrate on this planet is and always has been born with a foreskin. The foreskin has many functions (at the very least protection of the glans during infancy and childhood, and sexual functioning in adults). No other male animals seem to require circumcision or suffer from any maladies falsely linked to the lack of it.

          Physicians who stand up for the rights of the newborn male to keep his body intact, and who spend the time to properly teach their patients and parents the facts about genital anatomy and health are to be commended. Those who silently or actively participate in the continuing mutilation of baby boys, whether out of ignorance, greed, perversion, or simple delusion, need to be educated and taught how to rejoin the rest of humanity.

          1. I’d Believe You But…

            I’d believe you if your post didn’t sound so propaganda-ish. I definitely get that you’re against circumcision, but you sound like a leaflet I’d read from PETA or an anti-abortionist group. Heavy on emotionals and hype, but not much common-sense and true facts.

            This leads me to almost feel that you’re not really a “a highly trained family physician and medical researcher” with “27 years” experience. Or at least un very biased one, whom I would not want doing research and probably not treating me.

            My point being, you may be absolutely right. You may be 100% correct, but with the hyperbolic and biased way you wrote this post, it turns me off to your message. I don’t feel “educated” reading this, I feel manipulated.

            Of course, if you had to put on the happy face for 27 years and are just venting, I can understand, but I need to know that.

            From what I’ve read, yes, the USA is really the only country that circumcises regularly, but I’ve also read that it’s not nearly as risky as you say. Basically, it’s left over from when hygiene was more problematic. While most likely unnecessary, I think much less than your 5 – 15% have any problem with it. I’m circumcised, and neither me or my partner have complained.

            It’s just a hot button topic because it involves the penis, I think.

            My $.02 Weed

          4. Professional Skeptisism

            I don’t buy it. My BS detector has thrown a flag. I find it hard to believe that in his “Study” there was a 50% split. I can see / understand his biased, after all it is his opinion. But i would be weary of disputing opinion as fact.

            I was “mutilated” as a infant and I “mutilated” my son as well. I understand both sides of the argument and find that it is a matter of personal preference.

            And yes… My winky works just fine too..

          5. Working Winkies

            And yes… My winky works just fine too..

            Please, don’t leave us dangling.

            —
            Matthew P. Barnson

          7. Original thought…

            Huh, I just knew that this thought couldn’t have been original.

            Original comment by someone calling himself Christopher Fletcher. Nice try. Something tells me that within a few days, I’ll start seeing Google results for this exact post echoed on any other blog talking about circumcision.

            I hate spam — particularly when someone plagiarizes someone else’s work — even if I kinda-sorta agree with their opinion.

            —
            Matthew P. Barnson

    3. Ignorance about cicumcision

      Its amazing how ignorant people are – even good hearted people.

      Foreskin protects the head of the penis. Plain and simple. The skin is different on the head of the penis…..are you following so far? good…

      An Uncircumcised penis IS MORE SENSITIVE TO AROUSAL/STIMULATION.

      It changes when it is constantly exposed – the skin becomes thicker and ….drum roll please…..LESS SENSITIVE, which means sexual pleasure is brought down considerably. This does not mean that you won’t enjoy sex, of course circumcised men do – but, they are not feeling what the could. And this is the Point. Your child has no choice in the matter – you are taking away a form of pleasure from them. They are not mature enough to understand what your ignorance is taking away – otherwise they would say something.

      I was uncircumcised as a teenager and decided to get circumcised when I hit 20 because I was worried about what women would think about it. Biggest mistake of my life. After only 2 years of being circumcised I feel a significant difference down there. Much less sensitive, and I have to focus on the pressure placed on my penis for stimulation. The easy surface stimulation is gone.

      A NOTE ABOUT CLEANLINESS: unless you don’t shower, you should be able to clean yourself properly day to day in the shower. Thus you keep your foreskin and the area inside – Clean.

      Think of it this way. On a woman, the clitoris is the most sensitive part of the body…..on a man, the very tip of the penis is the most sensitive. When you circumcise the man, this sensitivity disappears.

      As a parent – let your child decide.

      1. Circumcision Nazis

        Dude, I like sex. Actually, like is nowhere near strong enough to describe my affection for sex. It’s probably 8 of the top 10 things I think about during the day.

        Relatedly, I like my penis. Again, like doesn’t begin to describe the love affair my penis and I have been having since I turned 12. We know each other VERY well. Trust me.

        I even wrote a song about us. Wanna hear it? Too bad: “My penis and me. Me and my penis Nothing will ever, EVER come between us.”

        If you’re a guy and that last couplet didn’t move you to tears, you have no heart. Or testicles. Or foreskin, maybe 😉

        Anyway, my point is that during my 20+ year love affair with my penis, I have NEVER EVER missed my foreskin. Never has he been in the midst of what he does best (in reproductive terms, not elimination terms) has he turned to me and said, “You know what…I’m just not feeling it. I’m not sensitive enough. It just feels blah.”

        Now your case is different. You were aware of what happened. You had a before sensation and an after sensation. So I feel for you buddy, even though you had elective surgery performed on your penis because of what you thought others would think. Huh? You needed to have a buddy or brother or someone to slap you back into sense before you did something like that.

        So I can understand your bitterness. You reduced your sexual pleasure, by your own volition, simply because you were scared of a girl laughing at you. Anytime a woman laughs at my boy and says, “Who do you expect to please with that?”, I always tell them the truth: myself. But if I were you, I’d wouldn’t crusade against circumcision, because circumcision isn’t the culprit here. You need to blog post about making dumb decisions because you’re worried about what others might think. That’s what you should be mad about. Don’t hate on circumcision when it’s your own dumb fault you need to bring third part objects into your sex life. Speaking about loving yourself, being happy in your own skin (or in your case, your own foreskin).

        It’s a piece of skin on your dick. We’re allowing politicians and ceos to steal large sums of money, we’re polluting the environment, we’re forced to choose between a war-happy aimless wanderer and his snappy far-right religious zealot or a great orator whose past shady dealings bear no resemblance to the persona he’s portraying and his higher taxes are patriotic beltway insider, and you’re crusading about 1 square-inch of skin? Mortgages are defaulting, house prices are dropping, banks are failing, so forgive me if I make fun of you and the other circumcision nazis out there who should be doing more productive things with their time than bugging us about this.

        If this is forced female mutilation, I’m with you. That’s evil. Castration is the worst crime imaginable. But cutting off the foreskin at birth? No one has ever missing something they never knew they had. And you have no one to blame but yourself for what you’re missing now. Go fight against corruption in Washington and Wall Street. Spend your time more wisely.

        My $.02 Weed

      2. Please upload pics

        Mark,

        Thanks a mil for the post and the comment. I think I get where you’re coming from, but I’m not fully understanding your Point. Are you able to post some before-after pics (or videos) to help clarify? Even if you don’t have any of those types of pics, perhaps a video on the cleaning process on which you expounded? That would be helpful as well.

        I looked up ‘clitoris’ on the internet and was blown away by the info. All this time, you know? I was digging in the wrong place.

        I can understand your bitterness, as well, and can only imagine what it’s like when your parents come to visit their grandchildren in your house. Given you want your kid to decide, you must have to issue stern warnings – ‘you are not allowed to talk to the boys about circumcision!” Do you have any tips on best practices to deal with these situations?

        1. Drive-By

          Alas, I bet our skinned friend Mark was a drive-by poster, and we’ll never get to find out just what he thinks of our responses…oh well. I enjoyed them immensely.

          My $.02 Weed

  2. im uncircumsied and have

    im uncircumsied and have also been with enough men (dont ask how many) to know foreskin is fun for me and others. its not a big deal to circumsize but knowing what i know by having foreskin i know the stereotype of it are untrue as ive never had an infection of any kind in my entire life because it 2009 a.d. not b.c. and because my [thing] looks natural which is cool. some people are just jealous. i do think given the disadvantages of sexual pleasure it would make sense to allow people to decide in their adulthood but that would piss off alot of people who have stigmas against [going] natural … so whatev. you people all take this so seriously.

    EDIT by matthew: Family and friends-oriented site, gratuitous references removed.

    1. True Irony

      The irony being that while your member was left unpruned somebody did a hatchet job to your ability to use the English language.

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