Poll: What do you think about circumcision?

[Rodrigo Girao]

Nope, no enlightenment here. You're just spreading misinformation.

Claims that circumcision somehow prevents AIDS always come from flawed, biased studies. Real life numbers somehow show no such protection. Also, usually there is no mention of the negative side effects, or the ethics of performing an irreversible body modification on non-consenting infants. And even in the most wildly optimistic scenarios, it is very far from the protection you'd get with condoms. How about the price? A single circumcision costs about as much as a lifetime supply of condoms.

Circumcision does NO good, that's a fact.

 

[Sewora]

*sigh* prepare to be enlightened.
http://aids.about.com/od/hivprevention/a/circumcision.htm
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=circumcision-and-aids
http://www.medicinenet.com/circumcision_the_medical_pros_and_cons/page3.htm

now apologize for making me look that stuff up

Sure if you are planning on having unprotected analsex with monkeys and people, it might be useful.

But we have condoms today, so having a few percent less chance of contracting a disease won't make any difference.
In scandinavia a large portion of the population are in fact immune to HIV. We cannot by any means be infected by HIV. But that doesn't mean we all have unprotected sex because statistics mean nothing to an individual. You can still be part of that percentage that isn't immune to HIV.

It all boils down to how intelligent you are.

Beside, studies show that being circumsized and uncircumsized both are protective against STD's.
It's called pseudosience. When science is manufactured or misinterpreted to force the results that you personally want to protect a particular subject.

HIV is significantly more common in the US than it is in say... Sweden. And we're all uncircumsized. Please explain.

 

[Sewora]

[To point something out for you since you felt it appropriate to mention Buddhists. A child marked by irreversible surgery without consent is deprived of religious freedom. Since you are in fact not allowed to be Buddhist if you are circumsized.

I've never heard that before. What's the logic of that? If you lost a fingertip to an accident would you also be prohibitted?

The Buddhists believe in the sanctity of the body. Being intact is an important aspect of being enlightened.
The foreskin is even mentioned repeatedly in their scriptures.

 

[Sellfish]

Uh... why does everyone assume that every circumcision is performed without anesthetics? Every surgery should be performed while you are asleep and drugged as much as possible, and every surgery looks f*cking gross to a person not into medical science.
If performed right it's no different than getting your tonsils removed.

Again, leave religion the hell out of this o0 Who cares what some Christians, Jews or Buddhists think of the human body? Science is what counts, SCIENCE! Not superstitious belief.
Why do people try to bring some kind of religion into discussions, meh >.>

Oh, and let me give you another reason for circumcision: Visual appeal!
Not any different than an inside or outside navel/bellybutton.

 

[CODE-D]

Ive never really thought about it, Ive always been circumcised.
You guys are hurting my dicks feelings......my dick feels cold.....and naked.....
Apologize by giving it a hug.

 

[Kelthurin]

Hell. They do it for religious reasons. That's enough for me to grab the torch and pitchfork.

 

[Rodrigo Girao]

Uh... why does everyone assume that every circumcision is performed without anesthetics?

Infant circumcision usually is.

Oh, and let me give you another reason for circumcision: Visual appeal!

Mind you, in the classical standards of beauty, circumcision is one of the most abominable things you can do to the human body.

You guys are hurting my dicks feelings......my dick feels cold.....and naked.....

Look into 'foreskin restoration', it's not as good as the real thing but it will fix that problem.

 

[Kahunaburger]

Then repeating the question, what happens if you are missing a fingertip? Can you then not join?

What happens if a body part is lost after you become a buddhist, are you effectively kicked out?

Most sects of Buddhism (maybe there are like 1-2 exceptions, but I doubt even that) wouldn't turn someone away if they were missing part of their body. It's more a "don't go cutting stuff off" thing for them.

 

[Orekoya]

Alittle arrogant aren't you?

Yes, I am. It comes from being a Scientist

Poor child, you must really believe in whatever you spout too. I will tell you a secret of the English language. Scientist isn't some magical job title you can assign to yourself and be some superior being, it's a common noun. It isn't capitalized in the middle of the sentence.

The other reason I know you are not an actual scientist is because you responded to each post directed at you within minutes and at most a few hours, 9 posts within the same day in this thread, starting at 11 am to 8 pm. I'm an accountant, and this is the soonest I had to check Escapist again after I last logged out. I'm sure the world of science is poorer for your continued absence so that you may argue with the Escapist forum members. Go forth, go for the good of the world.

 

[Sewora]

Uh... why does everyone assume that every circumcision is performed without anesthetics? Every surgery should be performed while you are asleep and drugged as much as possible, and every surgery looks f*cking gross to a person not into medical science.
If performed right it's no different than getting your tonsils removed.

Again, leave religion the hell out of this o0 Who cares what some Christians, Jews or Buddhists think of the human body? Science is what counts, SCIENCE! Not superstitious belief.
Why do people try to bring some kind of religion into discussions, meh >.>

Oh, and let me give you another reason for circumcision: Visual appeal!
Not any different than an inside or outside navel/bellybutton.

First off, they are performed without anasthetics. Second, anasthetics doesn't work on infants because they are in fact hypersensitive.

And second and most important, the MAJORITY of the entire world thinks an uncircumsized penis is more beautiful. It's just in the US that it's considered appealing to be circumsized, and even then it's only because you're taught that a penis is supposed to look like that from birth.
In other cultures it's more beautiful for women not to have breasts, and for men to wear wooden tubes on their penises.
I can name one culture which thought it was appealing to be blond and blueeyed.. Were they right? Nope, or at least the Allieds thought not.

 

[SciMal]

Poor child, you must really believe in whatever you spout too. I will tell you a secret of the English language. Scientist isn't some magical job title you can assign to yourself and be some superior being, it's a common noun. It isn't capitalized in the middle of the sentence.

You're correct. My mistake.

The other reason I know you are not an actual scientist is because you responded to each post directed at you within minutes and at most a few hours, 9 posts within the same day in this thread, starting at 11 am to 8 pm. I'm an accountant, and this is the soonest I had to check Escapist again after I last logged out. I'm sure the world of science is poorer for your continued absence so that you may argue with the Escapist forum members. Go forth, go for the good of the world.

There you go, making yourself look like an ill-informed ass who uses ad-hominems in a vain attempt to achieve ideological victory.

Microbiology labs have a lot of downtime if you're not one of the lab heads and do grunt work all day. PCR alone can take several hours. Cultivating passages another several hours. Running gels takes several hours - depending on your preferred gel-type, of course. Waiting for other labs to finish their work can be agonizingly slow (particularly since this is almost always the case if you want to genotype your varying samples). Depending on the computer setup and the work being done, computer-generated models can take a while. Preparing and utilizing viral vectors don't take as long as the other activities I've listed, but usually involve a warm bath for 45 minutes. Large chunks of my work involve time spent waiting for something to finish; and if all the ancillary work is done, there's literally nothing to do but wait. You can't go home because you have to make sure it was successful, and the activities aren't generally something you interact with. You can't prevent something from going wrong while you're waiting most of the time. You just have to do it again.

Or, for all you know, I could have had a day off.

Sorry bub, but next time I suggest you simply take issue with the materials I present - and not me.

Congratulations on having a jam-packed workday. You obviously feel very proud.

 

[Orekoya]

There you go, making yourself look like an ill-informed ass who uses ad-hominems in a vain attempt to achieve ideological victory.

Oh you mean like when you tell somebody that they are so full of bullshit that they should never comment on a topic ever again?

Or, for all you know, I could have had a day off.

And ... and you choose to spend that day off ... arguing with people on the Escapist forum ... all day long, on the same day you made your account.

Yea. That's logical and rational behavior.

 

[Rodrigo Girao]

Woahhh I just skipped to the last page ... I don't think there's anything particularly wrong with either option (letting kids decide or parents doing it.)

Indeed... you did skip all the reasons why it IS particularly wrong to let parents choose.

 

[newwiseman]

My grandfather had to be circumcised when he was in his 50's due to a phimosis (a swelling of the foreskin that can prevent urination or be painful) it's largely linked to genetics and as a result he decided to pay for all of his male descendants to be circumcised when they where born so they wouldn't have to do it when they became older, and when it would hurt like all hell; especially if you pop a stitch (one of my uncles got a phimosis and after it went away got circumcised in his late 20's).

If phimosis runs in your family definitely circumcise your kids, if it doesn't whatever.

 

[ultrabiome]

ok, i've read a few pages, but don't want to read 22 so here goes.

one of my frat brothers had a circumcision in his 20s and from what i've heard from him, he wish he hadn't. frankly, it hurts as there is no longer skin keeping the head of the penis from rubbing inside his pants and the desensitization that needs to happen takes time.

and as someone who is uncircumcised, you can cut off my skin only if i'm dead or i can't pee through the hole anymore. yes it needs to be cleaned, but no more often than other more disgusting parts of the human body and just as often as someone who is circumcised. i've never had problems cleaning it in the shower, just pull it back, wash, rinse and done.

i guess some women have a problem with the extra skin, but that's because of culture, not an inherent problem because i'm sure oral sex has existed long before circumcision. and from my experience in the end women don't really mind and ones that are hung up on it aren't worth the time anyway. i mean, do you have a problem with labias? not to mention that evolution gave us foreskin for a reason - for protection of the most sensitive area of skin on the body.

i'd never do it to my children. it is totally unnecessary.