Barbarous procedure?

[Hatsumi]

If I were born with flaps of skin covering my armpits that posed no health risk but were unsightly and provided a sancuary for bacteria to grow and for oder to form, I would want them removed, preferably as an infant.

::shrug::

To each their own. My children's penises don't belong to me; they belong to them. The owner of the organ should be the one to decide whether to alter it.

I think you should read up on the foreskin and it's function. It's hardly a "flap of skin." The average adult foreskin covers about as much area as a 3X5 index card, and can contain up to 20,000 nerve endings.

http://www.noharmm.org/advantage.htm (there are no pictures on this page)

Bacteria and odor on the body are easily controlled with soap and water. Should we remove the inner labia of little girls in order to control bacteria, or just teach them to wash?

As for being unsightly, that is a matter of opinion. It seems that primarily Christian Americans hold this opinion, as the rest of the world has no problem with a natural penis the way God made it. Are you insinuating that God screwed up when He created Man?

Ditto the foreskin, I certainly don't miss mine.

You can't miss what you never had. If you'd been allowed to keep it and someone wanted to take it from you now, I bet you'd be singing another tune. Someone born blind can't miss sight, either.

When my boys learned what circumcision is, they were both horrified. My older son was 7 when he saw his best friend naked at the pool, and he asked me why his friend's penis looked different than his. I told him that the boy was circumcised and gave a brief definition of circumcision. His eyes got as big as saucers and he grimaced, and all he had to say was, "too bad the baby doesn't get a say in it!"