Poll: What do you think about circumcision?

[Ravenbom]

I'm circumcised and glad that I have a neat package.

In guys it can remove 10-20,000 nerve endings but really, sex feels great and I don't miss my nerve endings.


I'm not comfortable with female circumcision personally, but as an anthropologist I don't judge it as harshly as other people.

 

[Kinokohatake]

Sweet fucking jesus, this thread AGAIN?? I have two boys and they are both circumcised. They are fine.

But you'll never know if they'd be better off with foreskin. If the foreskin poses a problem later, it can be removed. But if not having it poses a problem it's difficult to magically make it reappear.

My god you're right. My oldest WAS going to be president but because of a small flap of missing skin he's going to be a homeless bum. Oh or do you mean medically. Well since I'm not living in a third world hole, or apparently the facility Padme gave birth in, I highly doubt it's going to be a problem.

 

[Nalbis]

I chose its the parents choice, I say this because at birth/a young age I feel that the parent knows what's best for the child. The procedure usually takes place at a very young age unless a problem occurs later in life so the child won't have any memory of it.

When it comes to circumcisions I'm impartial, I've not had the procedure myself but I know of people who have and I don't see a problem with it either way.

Just to clarify I don't believe this is the way it should be for all choices in a young child's life, I have this view on circumcision because my older brother had to under-go the procedure in his 20's due to some reasons that I don't know until this day, I was quite young at the time but I just remember the incredible pain he was in for a fair while. Where as if my parents had done it at birth for him it wouldn't have been a problem. I know they couldn't have foreseen it but its always a thought.

 

[Char12]

Im circumcised, and to be honest Im glad there are plenty of medical benefits of it and no negetive effects

 

[Sewora]

Sweet fucking jesus, this thread AGAIN?? I have two boys and they are both circumcised. They are fine.

But you'll never know if they'd be better off with foreskin. If the foreskin poses a problem later, it can be removed. But if not having it poses a problem it's difficult to magically make it reappear.

My god you're right. My oldest WAS going to be president but because of a small flap of missing skin he's going to be a homeless bum. Oh or do you mean medically. Well since I'm not living in a third world hole, or apparently the facility Padme gave birth in, I highly doubt it's going to be a problem.

You've effectively made masturbation slightly harder than it'd normally be. You've removed their means of producing and maintaining lubrication during sex. And you've made their penises look odd rather than normal. Oh and not to mention that the foreskin is a part of their body that you freely thought you could just cut off because hey, you are god, right? Hallelujah for parents who believe themselves to have the right to carve into their children.

Your child isn't more likely to be president because he's circumsized. But you have made sex less enjoyable for both your children. Well done, good parenting.

 

[Timmons]

if the body has it, its there for a reason. no point cutting it off, in developed countries and in this age there is no health risk in keeping your foreskin, its just a tradition.

but if the parents want to do it, fine, it won't harm the children so i don't see much problem with it.

i am totally against any form of female circumcision, though.

 

[DEAD34345]

So do vaccinations. Babies are pretty much completely unaware of the fact that it even occurred within two minutes. Their somatic sensory pathways aren't very well developed at that point. Not a good reason to do it, mind you. Just not a very good reason NOT to do it, either.

Well, I had always heard that it discomforted them for a quite a while afterwards, but OK, you're more likely to be correct on that than me. It's still wrong, however, whether it hurts them for 2 minutes or 2 years. Hurting your child without reason is wrong. Oh, and a vaccination is different because although it does hurt the baby, it also stops them from getting dangerous diseases. You'd possibly be hurting them much more by not getting them vaccinated.

Just one point here the rest is addressed in my other post. What you don't know does not hurt you. We do a lot of painful things to babies. I reckon that overall the trauma from immunizing babies by injecting them with vaccines is pretty good example of a failure in your logic. What is one of the reasons why we do it to babies? Because they wont remember it. Is your argument a good one in this case. Think about it...probably not.

My argument still works fine. Just because they won't remember it doesn't mean it's OK to hurt babies. If there was a way we could immunise babies without sticking a painful needle in them I'm sure we would do it, so the vaccination comparison just doesn't work. With vaccination there is a choice between causing your baby to be hurt or leaving him vulnerable to dangerous diseases. With circumcision it's a choice between causing your baby to be hurt or not causing your baby to be hurt.

Well sure circumcision is different and more about preference. But it is also quite significant, in Judaism it has quite a bit of meaning, it can be interpreted as a sign of faith. And what if the kid does not want to be faithful? Well because it is also quite common practice in non-religious people it could just not be interpreted that way. Yay for open interpretation, you are branding the kid with the mark of meh and they can choose it to be whatever they want. As a matter of fact from now on I am interpreting it as a sign from the upper beings of the universe that live in the 11th dimension that my penis is superior that sounds like a good meaning to pin to it and guess what...I can.

What if the kid just doesn't want his foreskin removed? If he wants it done, fair enough, he can make that choice when he is old enough and then he can imagine it means whatever he wants it to mean. If he doesn't want it done, but is circumcised when he was born anyway, he's screwed. His parents have chopped off a bit of him when he was born, and there is no way he can get it back. That is wrong.

Also, religion is not an excuse, and should never be an excuse for doing something wrong. I'm perfectly tolerant of religions of any kind. If you believe the world was created the day before yesterday by a giant moose, well that's good for you. I'm even OK with people who try to convert others, so long as they do it through debate and the like. What I'm not OK with is people who do things that are wrong, whether their religion tells them to or not shouldn't even come into it.

 

[Scrythe]

I'm not really going to get into this one, because this debate would probably go on until the end of time.

I will, however, point out that contrary to popular belief, circumcision is not irreversable.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreskin_restoration

Do what you will with this knowledge.

 

[skullbone]

well it can be done for medical reasons due to infection of the foreskin constantly happening. if that was the case then what choice do you have but personally i don't really care either way since it doesn't really change anything about the person from my experience.

 

[Goremocker]

Had to vote that I didn't care. I had this debate with a friend recently, and really, if it weren't for religious reasons, nobody would be circumcised. Nobody would know the difference so nobody would care. The same would go for if everyone were circumcised. Both sides have perks, and negatives, so you can't honestly say one is so much better than the other.

The way I see it, I like my junk. If it wasn't cut, I'd still like it. You don't know the difference, so who cares. Play with the hand you've been given. The game is less boring with more cards anyways.

 

[R3dF41c0n]

*snip* lol

I agree with your take. If there isn't a cultural reason to do the circumcision, at this point in the scientific evidence (mixed) its probably best not to do a circumcision.

As a point of interest, to clarify who does the circumcision under Jewish tradition, the law puts the responsibilty on the father. However, for the protection of the child, in 99.999999% of cases the Father retains a mohel to do the act for him, technically under the Father's direction.

A mohel is someone who has received extensive medical training on the medical side of the procedure, and religious training on the ceremonial part of the procedure. Some are Rabbis or Ravs or medical doctors, but all that is required is the specialized training. When I looked at mohels in my city three years ago when my wife was pregnant, of the 5 recommended by my Rabbi, 3 were also medical doctors. They come with sterile tool packs and sterile packed towels and bandaging, sterilized using autoclaves (similar to how a tattoo artist works). You are given precare and aftercare instructons in advance and if they aren't an MD, they tend to refer you to your pediatrician before you have the procedure done.

I did not know that. Thanks for the insight.

 

[plugav]

I voted for "personal decision." Seems like a sensible compromise. Especially if you take female circumcision into account...

 

[The-Epicly-Named-Man]

Well it's obviously the individual's choice. I don't really think there's way to explain that in a way someone on this thread already has, so I'll leave this here instead:

 

[Kinokohatake]

Sweet fucking jesus, this thread AGAIN?? I have two boys and they are both circumcised. They are fine.

But you'll never know if they'd be better off with foreskin. If the foreskin poses a problem later, it can be removed. But if not having it poses a problem it's difficult to magically make it reappear.

My god you're right. My oldest WAS going to be president but because of a small flap of missing skin he's going to be a homeless bum. Oh or do you mean medically. Well since I'm not living in a third world hole, or apparently the facility Padme gave birth in, I highly doubt it's going to be a problem.

You've effectively made masturbation slightly harder than it'd normally be. You've removed their means of producing and maintaining lubrication during sex. And you've made their penises look odd rather than normal. Oh and not to mention that the foreskin is a part of their body that you freely thought you could just cut off because hey, you are god, right? Hallelujah for parents who believe themselves to have the right to carve into their children.

Your child isn't more likely to be president because he's circumsized. But you have made sex less enjoyable for both your children. Well done, good parenting.

How have I made masturbation more difficult? It's not like there's a Zelda quest to touch himself now. And pre cum works fine without a foreskin. And uncircumcised penis' look rather odd to me. And I wasn't playing god, I was being a parent possibly avoiding medical issues later on without having my son go through a traumatic procedure later in life.

Oh and are you a parent?

 

[Sewora]

I'm not really going to get into this one, because this debate would probably go on until the end of time.

I will, however, point out that contrary to popular belief, circumcision is not irreversable.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreskin_restoration

Do what you will with this knowledge.

Unfortunately that does not grow back a lost limb. And by that I mean you won't get the same sexual sensation back as you would have with real foreskin.

 

[Sewora]

Sweet fucking jesus, this thread AGAIN?? I have two boys and they are both circumcised. They are fine.

But you'll never know if they'd be better off with foreskin. If the foreskin poses a problem later, it can be removed. But if not having it poses a problem it's difficult to magically make it reappear.

My god you're right. My oldest WAS going to be president but because of a small flap of missing skin he's going to be a homeless bum. Oh or do you mean medically. Well since I'm not living in a third world hole, or apparently the facility Padme gave birth in, I highly doubt it's going to be a problem.

You've effectively made masturbation slightly harder than it'd normally be. You've removed their means of producing and maintaining lubrication during sex. And you've made their penises look odd rather than normal. Oh and not to mention that the foreskin is a part of their body that you freely thought you could just cut off because hey, you are god, right? Hallelujah for parents who believe themselves to have the right to carve into their children.

Your child isn't more likely to be president because he's circumsized. But you have made sex less enjoyable for both your children. Well done, good parenting.

How have I made masturbation more difficult? It's not like there's a Zelda quest to touch himself now. And pre cum works fine without a foreskin. And uncircumcised penis' look rather odd to me. And I wasn't playing god, I was being a parent possibly avoiding medical issues later on without having my son go through a traumatic procedure later in life.

Oh and are you a parent?

The foreskin is a natural construction of the penis that can easily be moved back and forth over the glans to aid in masturbation and sexual intercourse in which it prevents shafing. The precum is used in conjunction with the foreskin to create lubrication. Without the foreskin to maintain it, it won't last very long. Contrary to what you seem to believe, precum does not come in litres, so it's not an effective lubrication on it's own.

A very statistically low number of children experience issues with their penises later in life, and most of them are minor issues that are easily resolved. It's not like they're going to develop cancer because of their foreskin.
The foreskin does however keep the pH scale appropriate in and around the glans and functions to prevent infections.

And an erect uncircumsized penis looks almost identical to a circumsized penis.

Also yes, I am a parent, and so are my two brothers. But we don't live in a third world country so we are educated on the subject and won't put our children through such horrible acts of inhumanity because of some misguided idea what's right for our children.
They can choose on their own when they are old enough, and we are not going to take that freedom away from them.

But I understand why many parents in modern countries like the US choose to do it, jump on the bandwagon so to speak. Everyone wants their children to fit in, regardless of whether it's good for them or not.

So you circumsizing your children tells me more about you than it does about them I'm afraid.


Conclusively: to put things in perspective.. There has been many, many many men with ranging from mild to severe psychological issues because of their circumsizion and their inability to change it. But there has NEVER been a recorded case of a man having psychological issues about having his foreskin, since he can in fact remove it if he pleases.

 

[R3dF41c0n]

*snip*

omitted due to length

I think you have some solid points. If I am correct you and I see eye to eye on this issue except I reserve the right for the procedure to be done for religious reasons (except for the female variety).

Now lets take a step back and look at this. Honestly, why do we care what the Jews do? They have a reason for doing it (I don't agree but I respect their views) and it doesn't have that huge of an impact on the child's life later on (yes the baby feels it, but most people don't remember). Plus there are religious groups that do a lot worse to more people.

Let's take that African tribe you mentioned earlier. I've read some about the things they do to woman. If I remember correctly they oppress woman because they believe a woman should be submissive to her husband and by circumcising her it guarantees she won't leave for another man (due to intercourse being painful). For me a make a huge distinction between that and circumcising a baby boy to carry on the tradition of a religion's forefathers. You may not draw a distinction and that's fine.

So I guess I should revise my earlier statement: I don't believe a child should be circumcised unless there is a medical or religion reason and it does not hinder the child's quality of life.

For what it's worth I do agree with your last statement. With each generation people become more educated which makes archaic practices and out dated traditions fade away. In my opinion that's the only way our world will truly change.

Oh, and one more thing: just because you and I don't believe as the Jews do does not give you permission to belittle their faith (if that was not your intention I apologize). Try to be more understanding. If more people did that we would be living in a better world.

 

[mrblakemiller]

I'm glad I don't have my foreskin. I'm probably at a high enough risk for premature ejaculation as it is.