Circumcision Facts; Would a helpful soul please provide solid documentation for/against circumcision?

hardwarequestions · 2012-07-05T20:38:43+00:00

i'm sure you'll find some good resources here, but /r/Intactivists is literally THE sub meant for people opposed to circumcision. they're likely to have some of the best links and such.

bowman088 · 2012-07-05T23:50:56+00:00

At San Francisco gay pride last year there was a group from Canada that had a tent set up to explain the benefits of foreskin in order to convince people to make it illegal. The talk started with a foreskin demonstration in which the guy popped 9 grapes out of his penis. So I guess having a natural snack pouch can be considered a benefit...

wufoo2 · 2012-07-06T01:20:18+00:00

www.circumstitions.com

Falkner09 · 2012-07-06T05:44:07+00:00

The vast majority of medical organizations in the world with a policy on circumcision are outright against it. including:

Swedish Pediatric Society (they outright call for a ban)

Royal Dutch Medical Association calls it a violation of human rights, and calls for a "strong policy of deterrence." this policy itself has been endorsed by several other organizations, including:

The Netherlands Society of General Practitioners,

The Netherlands Society of Youth Healthcare Physicians,

The Netherlands Association of Paediatric Surgeons,

The Netherlands Association of Plastic Surgeons,

The Netherlands Association for Paediatric Medicine,

The Netherlands Urology Association, and

The Netherlands Surgeons’ Association.

They are currently planning a symposium for this June to evaluate whether to ban it. one of the speakers is a man who did a recent study showing a decrease in sexual sensation in circumcised men, and an increase in sexual difficulties for them as well.

British Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons

This procedure should be delayed to a later date when the child can make his own informed decision. Parental preference alone does not justify a non‐therapeutic procedure.... Advise parents that the current medical consensus is that routine infant male circumcision is not a recommended procedure; it is non‐therapeutic and has no medical prophylactic basis; it is a cosmetic surgical procedure; current evidence indicates that previously‐thought prophylactic public health benefits do not out‐weigh the potential risks..... Routine infant male circumcision does cause pain and permanent loss of healthy tissue. |

Australian Federation of Aids organizations They state that circumcision has "no role" in the HIV epidemic.

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Saskatchewan has taken a position against it, saying it is harmful and will likely be considered illegal in the future, given the number of men who are angry that it was done to them and are becoming activists against it.

The Central Union for Child Welfare “considers that circumcision of boys that violates the personal integrity of the boys is not acceptable unless it is done for medical reasons to treat an illness. The basis for the measures of a society must be an unconditional respect for the bodily integrity of an under-aged person… Circumcision can only be allowed to independent major persons, both women and men, after it has been ascertained that the person in question wants it of his or her own free will and he or she has not been subjected to pressure.”

The President of the Saskatchewan Medical Association has said the same (link above).

Swedish Association for Sexuality Education published this guide that talks about circumcision, in a pretty negative way. not an official advocacy policy but it makes it fairly clear. it also talks about how the frenulum is sexually sensitive, and helps prevent infection by blocking fluid from the urethra; the frenulum is often removed in an infant circumcision, yet easier to leave intact if an adult is circumcised.

Royal College of Surgeons of England

"The one absolute indication for circumcision is scarring of the opening of the foreskin making it non- retractable (pathological phimosis). This is unusual before five years of age."..."The parents and, when competent, the child, must be made fully aware of the implications of this operation as it is a non-reversible procedure." |

British Medical Association

it is now widely accepted, including by the BMA, that this surgical procedure has medical and psychological risks. .... very similar arguments are also used to try and justify very harmful cultural procedures, such as female genital mutilation or ritual scarification. Furthermore, the harm of denying a person the opportunity to choose not to be circumcised must also be taken into account, together with the damage that can be done to the individual’s relationship with his parents and the medical profession if he feels harmed by the procedure. .... parental preference alone is not sufficient justification for performing a surgical procedure on a child. .... The BMA considers that the evidence concerning health benefit from non-therapeutic circumcision is insufficient for this alone to be a justification for doing it. |

Australian Medical Association Has a policy of discouraging it, ad says "The Australian College of Paediatrics should continue to discourage the practice of circumcision in newborns."

Australian College of Physicians:

"The possibility that routine circumcision may contravene human rights has been raised because circumcision is performed on a minor and is without proven medical benefit. Whether these legal concerns are valid will probably only be known if the matter is determined in a court of law .....Neonatal male circumcision has no medical indication. It is a traumatic procedure performed without anaesthesia to remove a normal and healthy prepuce."|

I love that statement about human rights. it mentions that the only way to determine the validity is to ask the courts. as if it's not the job of a medical organization to take a stand as well.

Royal Australasian College of Physicians

Some men strongly resent having been circumcised as infants. There has been increasing interest in this problem, evidenced by the number of surgical and non-surgical techniques for recreation of the foreskin.|

A letter by the South African Medical Association said this:

The matter was discussed by the members of the Human Rights, Law & Ethics Committee at their previous meeting and they agreed with the content of the letter by NOCIRC SA. The Committee stated that it was unethical and illegal to perform circumcision on infant boys in this instance. In particular, the Committee expressed serious concern that not enough scientifically-based evidence was available to confirm that circumcisions prevented HIV contraction and that the public at large was influenced by incorrect and misrepresented information. The Committee reiterated its view that it did not support circumcision to prevent HIV transmission. We trust that you will find this in order. Yours faithfully Ms Ulundi Behrtel|

Royal Australasian College of Surgeons I like this one especially. It's a detailed evaluation of the arguments in favor of circumcision, they note that during one of the recent trials in Africa, the researchers claimed the re was no loss of sexual satisfaction. but the RACS called them out:

"Despite uncircumcised men reporting greater sexual satisfaction, which was statistically significant, Kigozi et al (2008) concluded that adult male circumcision does not adversely affect sexual satisfaction or clinically significant function in men." In general, they discuss how there's no evidence to support it.

this study shows significant harms to men's sexual ability and satisfaction after circumcision.

Here's a page from an activist site that has a short list of some organizations as well, with a few other details. most I already listed though.

Falkner09 · 2012-07-06T05:45:03+00:00

there's abundant evidence of the fact that loss of the foreskin reduces sexual sensation and sensitivity. If you cut it off, you can't feel it anymore. The foreskin, especially the inner foreskin, is among the most sensitive areas of the penis. even a cut man can test this by touching what little remains of the inner foreskin, which is the area of softer, usually different colored skin directly behind the head. Guys, notice how sensitive that is? if it hadn't been cut off, there would have been far more of that tissue, at least enough to stretch to the end of the glans; often 2-5 times more. Here’s an anatomical explanation.

A few others: one showing drop in pleasure in adult men getting circumcised

this study was done on adults who got circumcised. 64% were getting it for phimosis (a rare sexual dysfunction) yet only 62% were satisfied with having been circumcised. basically, only the guys who have a dysfunction are better off getting circumcised; the healthier ones are sexually harmed. i.e. healthy infant males.

[A similar one](content.karger.com/ProdukteDB/produkte.asp?Aktion=ShowAbstract&ArtikelNr=85930&Ausgabe=230970&ProduktNr=224282) was of men circumcised as adults for treatment of illnesses, yet only 61% were satisfied with being circumcised afterward. What does that say about doing it to healthy men?

one showing circumcision removes the most sensitive areas

A recent study showing a decrease in sexual sensation in circumcised men, and an increase in sexual difficulties for them and their female partners as well.

Unnecessary circumcision is virtually nonexistent in most of the world, and the rates in the U.S. have been dropping fast. The overall rate is 55% nationally among males born today (as of 2009), below 30% and even below 20% in some of the most populated areas, the latest of a continuous drop in recent decades. And opposition is increasing, with more evidence, activists and medical organizations coming out against it. So anyone having a baby today needs to really think about how their child may feel about it as a man in the future given the trend against it, not just how some adults feel today.

Stats in America

Further, there are many men who are extremely unhappy with having been circumcised, yet their choice was taken from them by someone doing it to them as an infant. there is an International support group for such men, and there is a charity formed to fund foreskin regeneration for men who are angry and upset that it was lost. however, this will never be 100%, and will cost thousands per treatment.

2012-07-06T08:13:18+00:00

Linking to a collection of links: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

rightsbot · 2012-07-05T20:16:18+00:00

Post text automatically copied here. (Why?) (Report a problem.)

GREATBIGDICK · 2012-07-05T20:19:40+00:00

While I think it's a good idea to already be armed when getting into such discussions whether than coming here and asking people to do the legwork for you, this is a good start: http://www.reddit.com/r/MensRights/faq (#3).

memymineown · 2012-07-05T20:26:07+00:00

http://9davids.blogspot.com/2010/11/50-reasons-to-leave-it-alone.html

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17378847

mikesteane · 2012-07-06T08:18:49+00:00

Refusal of the right to bodily integrity is wrong regardless of how small or big the effect is.

Title	Circumcision Facts; Would a helpful soul please provide solid documentation for/against circumcision?
Author	MrWinks
Upvotes	6
Comments	11
Date	July 5, 2012 8:14 PM UTC (14 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/w3ckf/circumcision_facts_would_a_helpful_soul_please/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/circumcision-facts-would-a-helpful-soul-please.1018529 https://theredarchive.com/post/1018529

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