Official Medical Society Statements on Newborn Circumcision

_Toast · 2011-07-05T02:55:55+00:00

Awesome! I'm gonna put some of these quotes in my essay; thanks for the link.

BolshevikMuppet · 2011-07-05T15:18:49+00:00

The problem is that these kind of things usually cut out important bits of the actual statement. For example, the full statement by the AAP:

"Existing scientific evidence demonstrates potential medical benefits of newborn male circumcision; however, these data are not sufficient to recommend routine neonatal circumcision. In circumstances in which there are potential benefits and risks, yet the procedure is not essential to the child's current well-being, parents should determine what is in the best interest of the child. To make an informed choice, parents of all male infants should be given accurate and unbiased information and be provided the opportunity to discuss this decision"

A little more nuanced than "hurr, don't do it, it's bad", no?

2011-07-05T09:09:45+00:00

The whole circumcision thing is getting a bit old and tired to me. No one ever said it's done for health reasons and all of these quotes seem to say it DOES have health benefits but not enough to make it worth it for that alone. This is a religious/spiritual/tribal/manhood initiation. It was intended to be done at an older age but Jewish women didn't want the village men hanging around while some spiritual leader cut off a boy's penis so they forced them to do it in private and at earlier ages until it became a sterilized medical procedure that lost all of its meaning.

In spite of that I'm still happy to have been circumcised because of the symbolism between the wounding of the male child by the father and the change from the wound to the scar that signifies you have become a man. The path of a man is a path of quiet suffering, bearing wounds, and drawing strength from scars and no one is going to convince me my circumcised penis is somehow bad. Trying to convince me of that is the same as trying to convince me that men are bad because of the scars we bear for society and humanity.

Let's all keep ignoring the spiritual significance and origins of circumcision though while focusing on medical and sexual aspects of it instead. Men have no more rituals to initiate boys into manhood in western countries. Even though much of the ritual is lost by doing it on newborns the end result is the same. You scar the boy the same as his father so that he may remember his duty is not to be some prissy wealth seeking socialite who serves women but rather to bear the scars that will be born to him for fulfilling his duty as a man.

Title	Official Medical Society Statements on Newborn Circumcision
Author	kloo2yoo
Upvotes	17
Comments	3
Date	July 4, 2011 11:12 PM UTC (15 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/igqdl/official_medical_society_statements_on_newborn/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/official-medical-society-statements-on-newborn.1037768 https://theredarchive.com/post/1037768

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