This is absolutely sickening.

[cthulhu_dream]

Botched circumcision puts four-year-old in hospitalThe thing I am reminded of when reading this is genital mutilation in Africa, where kids are held down and forced to have bits chopped off against their will

Comments

[slothphil]

Why does "older than a baby" matter at all?

[cthulhu_dream]

It's less traumatic for a baby, I think (though evidence seems to show that babies do, in fact, feel pain). Also, if they grow up circumcised, it's all they know, so they can't miss having foreskin. Kind of like you tend to spay/neuter animals when they are young, before they are hit by hormones. It's more humane.

[niennahirilfea]

I think it's not so much that a baby doesn't feel it, but that they don't *remember* it, whereas a 4-year-old could conceivably remember that for the rest of his life.

I agree with you, the whole idea seems barbaric, but when I've voiced the opinion in the past have been told "some parents do it for hygiene reasons" like I'm being close minded.

[basal_surge]

The hygiene reason is mostly a dead end - Circumcision of the foreskin is really only a hygienic thing if you live in rather dry desert cultures where you don't waste water on washing _anything_. I beleive most of the soldiers who served in North Africa during the war were circumcised for this reason. However, if you live in a modern society and wash properly, this reason evaporates.

You will hear occasionally that "no it's hygienic because smegma is carcinogenic", usually referring to its possible involvement in cervical cancer, but I understand that's based on a study where whacking great lumps of horse smegma were injected into the skin of lab animals, rather than the tiny bits that are shed naturally during intercourse. Most of the cervical cancers are these days put down to HPV and similar STI's, not foreskin smegma.

So yeah, no real reason to do it other than 'God is obsessed with Penises'

[saffrongraphics]

Religion, eh. Circumcision will never go away because it's connected to some pretty deeply entrenched beliefs.

A student in the Anthro dept wrote a thesis on the topic about 15 years ago. It was depressing as hell. She kept showing our lab group horrific photos of mutilated children from Africa and the Middle East.

[cthulhu_dream]

I don't know all that much about the subject, but I heard that there is a huge spectrum of how much is done in Africa. Many people do it, but some go to huge extremes while for others it's just a ceremonial thing where they might make a small cut on the genitals. I think it would be progress if it were at least toned down over a few generations.

There really isn't a good excuse for it in developed countries where people know better. I already thought it was something not done at all except for babies (and for dubious reasons at that), so I got a pretty big shock when I read the article.

[muddycheska2]

Agreed. There was a really horrific case here in NZ where our own Dr John Money was involved and the child "David" was brought up as a girl.

[muddycheska2]

Oh and before something is removed from a body, generally one should be coherent and have a choice in the matter. If female circumcision is considered barbaric why is male not?

[cthulhu_dream]

Yeah, my thoughts exactly.