male neonatal circumcision

[asterroc]

In response to a locked post by l0stmyrel1g10n, I wrote the following long rant against infant circumcision of boys. I'm mostly against, though not yet entirely convinced. Enough that I will not blindly accept what doctors or a partner tell me, but enough unconvinced that I'm willing to discuss it.

There are a few reasons to potentially be against infant male circumcision. (1) It is an elective surgery, not a theraputic one; (2) there are health risks; (3) informed consent of the patient is not possible.

(3) Starting with the last, in the US all medical practices except those that would save a life require informed consent of the patient or legal guardian. As infant circumcision does not affect the child mortality rates, permission is required, and is usually taken in the form of the legal guardian's consent. (I wonder what happens if the parents disagree in front of the doctor.)

Another example is how a baby was born in China this summer with two left arms. Neither one was significantly more developed than the other, both caused the boy to cry when touched, and both had deformations. The doctors decided for the sake of "fitting in" that they would remove one of the two arms.[ref] I disapprove of that choice, as the articles I've read on it indicate that the doctors (and presumably parents) never once considered the possibility of retaining both arms, and leaving the child with two semi-functioning arms that might serve as well as one of yours or mine, instead of leaving the single semi-functioning arm. Freak or cripple, those were the choices. Of course, ideally the patient should make the choice, but the baby is unable to give informed consent, and yet the operation was, of course, performed.

(1) It is true that male circumcision makes good hygiene easier, just as it would be easier for females to clean themselves if the clitoral hood were removed. (Female circumcision varies in severity, with options including removal of the entire clitoris, removal of the labia minora, or sewing together of the labia majora. Removing the clitoral hood, clitorodotomy, is in the minority of female circumcision cases. [ref]) However, good hygiene for males is not impossible without a circumcision, nor is it any more of a burden than brushing one's teeth daily.

(2) The most common health risk to circumcision is in traditional Jewish ceremonies, in which the mohel actually sucks blood from the incision using his mouth. In a string of cases in NYC, the mohel performing the ritual had hepatitis I think, and transferred it to the infants, resulting in a string of deaths.[ref]

Less common are botched circumcisions. There's one famous case that started in the 1970's where one of two twin boys had a botched job and the doctor persuaded the parents to sexually reassign the child as a female and raise her as a girl. The girl "Joan" recieved numerous continued medical treatments to maintain the secrecy from the girl herself, including counselling, until at age 14 she finally got her parents to confess, and then desided to self-identify as "John" instead. The article about the case linked here does not complete the story, but later in life John made a number of suicide attempts, and eventually completed.

This one case was the most famous because of all the drama, but it was not the only one. While the risk of a botch job may be low, the consequences are VERY high. I am leaning towards thinking it is NOT worth it for a procedure that is not medically necessary, and will discuss this with my future partner, preferably before pregnancy.

More Reading:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circumcision
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioethics_of_neonatal_circumcision
http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/SavageLove?oid=19705

Comments

circumcision of boys

[(Anonymous)]

I for one am glad that it was don't to me. That is just nasty,head-chees or furmunda cheese, smeg, or whatever you call it. Mine is easy to clean and nice looking, and i am 35. i remember a a boy when you saw a non-cut person and you were like EHWWWWW!! Very strange. I, to my knowledge, lost no feeling in my unit. I thank my parents for having this done to me and no, i am not jewish, Methodist.

[keithlard.livejournal.com]

Yes it is intresting to read the arguments against it, and I dare say I agree with you. The question in my mind is, are there any arguments for it?

(I am sorry but I'm not particularly convinced by the hygiene argument, any more than I would be by the suggestion that we should remove children's lips in order to make it easier for them to clean their teeth.)

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

Hah, I thought about that comparison as well.

Hygeine is the primary semi-scientific reason for it, however it would also be easier for females to keep their genital regions cleaner if we had hysterectomies at birth. We've got a lot more to worry about with cleanliness "down there" than men, and you don't see us up in arms about a "humane" version of female circumcision.

Reducing the chance of HIV transmission is the new up-and-coming motivation for circumcisions, however I'm leaning towards thinking that (a) circumcision is too drastic a procedure, and besides (b) we don't know for sure yet how well it reduces HIV transmission, or even why, not to mention that (c) using a condom is so much easier and healthier an alternative than circumcision. Perhaps if a grown man had a reason he was unwilling or unable to use condoms (and his partner couldn't/wouldn't use a female condom), but still engaged in sex with untested people, then a circumcision would make sense as a possible form of HIV prevention, but not in the general population, as it does not affect the transmission of other diseases nor prevent pregnancy.

When they survey people, most parents say something wishy washy like "I want him to look like his father." So shall we dye his hair white, rip out half of it and transplant it to his chin, and get him a prosthetic beer gut too? Or else a wishy washy "everyone else's doing it" which isn't entirely true, Dan Savage says that only 65% of boys are routinely circumcised and the numbers are falling. I haven't bothered to look up more legitimate sources on that. :-P

The one argument I can't fully counter is religion. Judaism believes in infant circumcision. If the child is not circumcised on the 8th day after birth (regardless of whether it's a Sabbath day), then God cuts the child off from the community. [Wikipedia] While I personally think the lack of consent makes this a bad thing, according to the religion the consequences of the lack of circumcision would be worse. Another thing worth pointing out though is that in cases where a convert is already circumcised, or if the individual has medical reasons to not have a circumcision (such as hemophilia), an acceptable alternative is to draw a single drop of blood, and perhaps this should be substituted universally w/in the religion.

So yeah, there are arguments for circumcision, but I think they're weak (except perhaps for the religious argument, but I'm not religious).

[marquiswildbill.livejournal.com]

Personally, I consider it an unnecessary medical procedure at best. The slight advantage in cleaning is really minimal. I can't imagine that it takes me more than an additional 15 seconds to clean myself, and I have never had a partner comment on my hygeine in a negative way. The fact is that keeping my hair clean takes me far longer (it is reasonably long).
My initial peditrician was Jewish and strongly opposed to circumcision as unnecessary at best, and probably a painful experience for a newborn.
Finally, if a man wants to get it done later, he can. It's easily performed as an outpatient procedure, the reverse is untrue.