Your Responses to "Is Circumcision Wrong?"

Talk about a hot topic! With over 200 comment and growing (literally) every day, our discussion about circumcision, Is Circumcision Wrong?, really hit a nerve with our viewers. The video has generated passionate feedback, some pro and some con. It also generated impassioned responses from our panelists. In this video, Daphne Brogdon of Cool Mom shows us bonus footage from the original video as well as responses from our Momversation members.

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Showing the Latest of 20 Comments

dev
2 yearss ago

I'm another male waiting for the day in our country when All parents of newborn boys will respect his right to keeping HIS normal, whole, intact penis, just like parents respect their daughters rights to keep their normal, intact genitalia. More and more little boys with scarred, denuded penises are growing up and speaking out as men about the anger and betrayal they feel about having been circumcised as infants and young children, something they never would have chose for themselves. The medical establishment's justifications for minimal "potential" benefits and parents' numerous social / cultural reasons will never satisfy the increasing number of men who wish that their parents and doctor just left their penis alone, and not cut off the sensitive, nerve enriched prepuce (foreskin). I am optimistic that in my lifetime the 1996 Federal Female Genital Mutilation Act will be modified to include the protection of little boys' prepuces too. It sickens me that in 2009 about half of all newborn boys in our country are subjected to an elective surgery that amputates a normal, healthy part of their penis that if left intact, would provide protective, sensual, and sexual functions. I am grateful to all the child rights advocates who speak out and criticize those parents and doctors who continue to justify the circumcision of boys mostly for cultural and social reasons. TLCTUGGER is right.... Foreskins (I prefer the term "prepuce"since a foreskin is made up of much more than just "skin") do feel REALLY good. HIS body, HIS Choice. It really is that simple folks! www.doctorsopposingcircumcision.org - For all those who want to learn more about the Male Prepuce go to this website. There's an excellent 19 minute free educational video that you can view or download. It's located under medical school curriculum, and the clip is entitled "The Prepuce."It discusses and demonstrates the anatomy and physiology of the male prepuce and unequivocally supports evidence regarding the contraindications of circumcision.

Loqi
3 yearss ago

Here's the May 28, 2007 blog page from a fifteen-year-old Arizona boy talking about how he worked up the courage to tell his mom that he wished she hadn't had anything cut off his penis. He writes... I started talking to her about how it should have been my choice and I was really unhappy with it and that I felt taken advantage of. it was really easy to talk about once I got started and she was actually kind of supportive. I even told her about how I was almost done restoring !!!! :o :o she was shocked that I was different but actually impressed that I was working on it. I even told her I was wearing one of the restoring things right then and she was so amazed. she tried to talk me out of it though with how intact people give girls cancer or something and I was like "I'll take my chances thanks" and kept repeating all of the statistics from online that I know now :D He seems like a sweet kid. I wouldn't want to be in her shoes though.

Loqi
3 yearss ago

GrowingUpArtist, why is it surprising that some of the people who received non-consensual elective amputations would be upset about the non-consensual part? I see several comments on this page from men who know what has been taken from them and are upset. I see no comments from men who wish their parents had cut their penises, and just can't seem to figure out what to do about it. I wish my parents had left all my parts where they found them. It's not a difficult formulation. If you don't want your son to grow up to resent what you did to him, well... don't do that then.

Loqi
3 yearss ago

This five minute video contains penises. If it's inappropriate, please remove it, or let me know, so I can remove it myself. I think it's instructive to see what some men are willing to do, in order to recover some measure of the lost function. Anyone considering cutting a body part off of someone else should at least know what's being destroyed. Your son might grow up to do this:

dev
1 years ago

Here is an American Male's response.... WHAT IS LOST TO CIRCUMCISION: About 50% of the penile skin: The double layered foreskin (prepuce), along with the rest of the shaft skin, is a mobile skin system and can freely move up and down the penile shaft, even during an erection. The Pleasurable Sensations of the “Ridged Bands”: The 1/2 inch wide bands of tissue near the tip of the foreskin is the most highly innervated and erogenous part of the penis containing thousands of nerve endings called Meissner’s Corpuscles. The loss of this tissue along with the adjacent sensitive frenulum, reduces a man’s pleasure and full range of sexual response. The foreskin’s Gliding action: This is the hallmark mechanical feature of the natural human penis. The non-abrasive gliding of the penis in and out of its own sheath of skin facilitates smooth, comfortable, pleasurable intercourse for both partners. The Comfort of a covered glans: The foreskin’s inner mucosal tissue provides a warm, moist, protective covering for the sensitive glans. The glans of the circumcised penis becomes dry and calloused from exposure to air and rubbing against clothing. Choice: A man who was circumcised as an infant has lost his right to an intact, normal, and whole penis and the right to control what happens to his own body. BOTTOM LINE: HIS PENIS, ONLY HIS CHOICE. Men (and women) who are allowed as children to keep their whole, intact, normal genitalia, DON’T choose to amputate parts as adults! Please Protect ALL children’s genitals from unnecessary amputations.

mommyof5
3 yearss ago

My husband and his 3 boys are all circumcised. When we found out we were pregnant with a little boy, circumcision was not an option for me. He was concerned that they would look different and didn't know much about it. I did my research and I read the arguments and risks. Nothing I read could have compelled me to put my little one through that. I think that far too many people don't give it a thought, my husband would have never questioned it if I had not. It is just what you do when you have a boy. I couldn't be happier with my decision to keep him intact. I do feel it is mutilating and if it wasn't meant to be there, then by golly it wouldn't be on the body in the first place.

Suze
3 yearss ago

The Thursday, March 26, 2009 Wall Street Journal has a just published an article on circumcision from a study led by scientists from Johns Hopkins University and Makerere University in Uganda. The study was published in this week's New England Journal of Medicine. , The WSJ article is titled, "Circumcision Decreases Risk of Contracting STDs, Study Says". Here's a link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123802256715541879.html The study reveals that circumcized men are 35% less likely to contract human papillomavirus (HPV) and 25% less likely to catch herpes than their uncircumsized counterparts. Previous studies have already shown that circumcision cuts in half the risk of contracting human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which can cause AIDS. I encourage people on both sides of the debate to read this article. Because in light of the new data coming out of this study, the American Academy of Pediatrics is now taking the remainder of 2009 to review its circumcision guidelines.

Joe1
3 yearss ago

I am not quite sure what this really adds because it doesn't really address the core problem with infant circumcision, it's just not ethical. If a man feels he would want this protection then he should be able to get circumcised. I don't think anyone would deny a grown man that. One thing I found personally interesting about all these stories was how the stories were spun in the US. While the BBC did print the glowing press release they also have half the article give the opinion some UK health officials: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7960798.stm "Dr Colm O'Mahony, a sexual health expert from the Countess of Chester Foundation Trust Hospital in Chester, said the US had an "obsession" with circumcision being the answer to controlling sexually transmitted infections." And from the Guardian, they are also very 'guarded': http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/besttreatments/2009/mar/26/circum... "But the benefit of being circumcised was small. After two years, 114 circumcised men and teenagers tested positive for herpes simplex virus type 2, which means they had about an 8 percent chance of becoming infected over the course of the study. Of the uncircumcised group, 153 tested positive for this virus, which gave them around a 10 percent chance of becoming infected over two years. " And " ... if you want to avoid sexually transmitted diseases, circumcision almost certainly won't be your first or best option." Now compare that to the popular US press and the experts that were quoted and you'd think we'd cured cancer. I just find those two perspectives really courious. I mean, not in one US publication did the word Gardisal come up, but it did in the BBC/UK article. Not once in the US publications did the HIV prevalence come up but it did in the BBC/UK version. And on and on like this. If it wasn't such a serious problem it would actually be quite funny. The question then is why are we discussing circumcision with respect to HPV when we've had a vaccine for nearly four years now which is about to get approved for boys? When even given a 50% decrease in suseptability to HIV most men in the US would only see an improvement on their odds on the order of hundredths of a percent, probably thousandths (do I need to put the number back up?) Though I haven't thought about the numbers fully for HPV the difference was only 2% (about 8% vs 10%) which is 25% relative plus the fact that other publications on first world populations haven't shown such a dramatic effect. Such a conclusion doesn't require any special insightfulness. Therefore, it is hard to avoid the obvious fact that Americans, as the BBC article notes, are obsessed with circumcision as the cure-all. Oh, and just an aside, they've been reviewing since 2007 it isn't something that has just started happening. I very much doubt they will recommend in favor of the procedure. I suspect they will produce a more nuanced document that includes some of these figures. Hopefully, they'll examine them with the same balance as other first world countries where this news is taken much like the BBC article I quoted. That is to say, in the case of HIV for example, they'll say sure but it would have little practical impact. I would also hope that the AAP includes a reasonable discussion on ethics, which they've ignored. Though if they did they would have to recommend against the procedure, but then again I am an optimist.

Joe1
3 yearss ago

It's more than just coming down to that. There is no immediate need to perform a circumcision in virtually all cases; it's not correcting a deformity and it is of no practical benefit. What then is the objective reason to circumcise a boy? Why should my parents have made that call for me? It is my body isn't it? Most other 'decisions' I can think of are ones that necessarily have to be made at the given moment whether or not that is in fact the case, circumcision is not one of them except in cases of specific medical need. Failing that the decision should be mine.

Jo Anna
3 yearss ago

Hmm...would prefer not to be judged by anyone any more than I would dare to fling judgment upon others. Do not need, but will happily accept, validation. Got any you can spare? ;) Can and have and will likely "deal with judgment" forever. But this is my idealistic bubble we're talking about here, right? And in my world, judgment is reserved for American Idol.

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