Circumcision

Posted by Michael on March 17, 2009, 7:49pm, 605 views

Circumcision is obviously a touchy subject, if responses to an article in the local paper are anything to go by.

Quite a few men seem passionate about their foreskin.

PlastibellIt’s not a subject I’ve ever given much thought to. I was circumcised when I was a baby and both my sons were circumcised (1996 and 2003).

By 2003 medical opinion was starting to form against having it done, but we had no trouble finding a willing doctor.

I was surprised to read that South Australian public hospitals banned the procedure two years ago. We were living in Western Australia then.

I’m not going to sum up the arguments for and against. Google does that well.

The diagram shows a clinic’s explanation of the plastibell method. It claims to be “no scalpel” but a commenter on the newspaper website says it is still invasive.

Then there is the matter of choice for infants.

You could argue that babies don’t get to choose their names either, whether they’re baptised or who their parents are, but in those cases they can change things later if they want to.

You can’t get your foreskin back, I suppose.

I don’t hold it against my parents for choosing circumcision for me. I don’t recall suffering and I wouldn’t know if I’ve missed any pleasure. My sons didn’t seem to suffer either.

I’m more interested in exploring whether public hospitals should do the job. If the parents are properly informed, I can’t see why not.

These articles might be of interest:

Comments

One Response to “Circumcision”

  1. Daniel on July 15th, 2009 7:44am

    Why put your baby through so much?
    If he wants to get circumcised when he’s old enough to have sex that’s his choice.
    Until then he should keep his foreskin.
    It’s as simple as that because
    *It’s his choice rather than someone else’s
    *It’s better for him to be done as an adult rather than having to go through it as a baby
    *While he’s a kid the so called protection against sexually transmitted diseases doesn’t apply

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