BIS 1.27.08: The Future of Our Foreskins
I think it’s about time we all got on the same page about this whole circumcision thing. Not owning a penis myself, I’m turning to you guys to weigh in on this important debate: to cut or not to cut.
The debate over the preservation of one 12 year old boy’s foreskin has gone all the way to the Supreme Court in Oregon. For 3 years, the boy’s father, who converted to Judaism in 2004, has been trying to have his son circumcised as part of the faith. The mother appealed to the high court to keep her son intact, saying the operation could harm her son physically and psychologically.
On Friday, the Supreme Court ruled that the 12 year old himself should have say in the decision and that if the boy wants the operation, the mother’s motions will be denied. If the boy does not want to be circumcised, the father’s continuing custody of his son will be analyzed by the courts.
This case as covered by the Associated Press.
So this got me thinking, if the Supreme Court agrees that a 12 year old should have a say in which parts of his body he chooses to hang onto, why are newborns robbed of this decision and ritualistically altered within hours of their birth? Automatic non-medical circumcision is on the decline, but the topic remains one of the most controversial in pediatrics today.
At this point I had intended to describe the circumcision procedure, done on most male babies in the United States and without anesthesia, but I’ve decided against it because one of you might throw up. Suffice to say, the description included the following words: penis, cut, bleeding, clamp, crushing, scalpel, and blunt probe.
For Jews, circumcision is Law, and was the first commandment given Abraham by God, that his foreskin be cut and that all male children to follow should also have their foreskins cut as a sign of their covenant with God.
For everyone else, it is possibly the anachronistic result of the myth that a man would face future disease, injury, and locker room jokes if his penis were to lack customary trimming. 19th century physicians suggested that the child’s penis produced itchy substances which encouraged masturbation. As they believed masturbation caused insanity, blindness, tuberculosis, and a litany of other diseases (for which they could offer no other cure), these early physicians urged parents to employ aggressive hygiene. Boy babies began to be circumcised automatically in the U.S. as a measure against filth, but as time has gone on and circumcision clearly did not slow down the masturbatory habits of anyone, why is genital mutilation still a common practice in this country? When I ask men about the hypothetical futures of the genitals of their unborn male children, those who have been circumcised all seem to lean towards continuing non-medical cutting because of a concept that the boy should resemble the father. And maybe he should. Or maybe that’s ridiculous.
Like I said, I’d like you all to weigh in because I’m not really sure how I’m supposed to feel about foreskins. I do NOT have a penis. I’m Vanessa Cheatwood.
For more on this topic:
doctorsopposingcircumcision.org
Science Daily
The debate over the preservation of one 12 year old boy’s foreskin has gone all the way to the Supreme Court in Oregon. For 3 years, the boy’s father, who converted to Judaism in 2004, has been trying to have his son circumcised as part of the faith. The mother appealed to the high court to keep her son intact, saying the operation could harm her son physically and psychologically.
On Friday, the Supreme Court ruled that the 12 year old himself should have say in the decision and that if the boy wants the operation, the mother’s motions will be denied. If the boy does not want to be circumcised, the father’s continuing custody of his son will be analyzed by the courts.
This case as covered by the Associated Press.
So this got me thinking, if the Supreme Court agrees that a 12 year old should have a say in which parts of his body he chooses to hang onto, why are newborns robbed of this decision and ritualistically altered within hours of their birth? Automatic non-medical circumcision is on the decline, but the topic remains one of the most controversial in pediatrics today.
At this point I had intended to describe the circumcision procedure, done on most male babies in the United States and without anesthesia, but I’ve decided against it because one of you might throw up. Suffice to say, the description included the following words: penis, cut, bleeding, clamp, crushing, scalpel, and blunt probe.
For Jews, circumcision is Law, and was the first commandment given Abraham by God, that his foreskin be cut and that all male children to follow should also have their foreskins cut as a sign of their covenant with God.
For everyone else, it is possibly the anachronistic result of the myth that a man would face future disease, injury, and locker room jokes if his penis were to lack customary trimming. 19th century physicians suggested that the child’s penis produced itchy substances which encouraged masturbation. As they believed masturbation caused insanity, blindness, tuberculosis, and a litany of other diseases (for which they could offer no other cure), these early physicians urged parents to employ aggressive hygiene. Boy babies began to be circumcised automatically in the U.S. as a measure against filth, but as time has gone on and circumcision clearly did not slow down the masturbatory habits of anyone, why is genital mutilation still a common practice in this country? When I ask men about the hypothetical futures of the genitals of their unborn male children, those who have been circumcised all seem to lean towards continuing non-medical cutting because of a concept that the boy should resemble the father. And maybe he should. Or maybe that’s ridiculous.
Like I said, I’d like you all to weigh in because I’m not really sure how I’m supposed to feel about foreskins. I do NOT have a penis. I’m Vanessa Cheatwood.
For more on this topic:
doctorsopposingcircumcision.org
Science Daily
posted by Vanessa Cheatwood at 9:05 AM
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