Circumcision

[Cool CD]

This is a thread to discuss whether parents should circumcise their new baby boy.

I would request that posting to this thread be limited to personal feelings of parents or expectant parents who have or will have to make this decision. If you are not a parent or only have girl (s) then you may read the posts but please do not post in this thread.


If you have never faced this decision and just want to discuss this topic I would encourage you to participate in the following lively forum at Discussion and Debate: Philosophy & Morality: Should Circumcising Your Child be Legal? http://www.christianforums.com/t740354&page=4

Some people believe it is medically or religiously important. Others believe that it is mutilation and cruel. This seems to be one of the most difficult decisions facing some parents in the United States.

I don't know if I'm having a boy or a girl, but I am an expectant father. To me the most reasonable thing is not to have circumcision done and when the boy is old enough to understand the permant nature of the procedure talk to them about circumcision and give them the option to choose to have it done. Others say this is cruel for a parent to not do this at birth and consequently make a child have this done when they are older and will remember it. As long as a parent was willing to help them get this done later as painless as possible, I would hope the young man would at least respect that the decision was made to delay it so that they would have options about this issue in their life.

My perspective is that you can have it done later but you can't reverse it later. If there's a chance that the child might decide that they would like to remain intake then waiting seems like the wisest course of action form a logical stand point. Here's the possibilities and consequences.

1. Circumcision Done. Child Happy with Decision. All is well and the child will be grateful for having it done at birth.

2. Circumcision Done. Child Unhappy with Decision. The decision is unreversable and nothing can be done to change it.

3. Circumcision Not Done. Child Happy With Decision. All is well and the child will be grateful for not having it done at birth.

4. Circumcision Not Done. Child Unhappy With Decision. There remains an option for circumcision to be done at anytime later on in life. While this option did not turn out perfect, it prevented #2 from happening.

In following these logical options #2 and #4 are bad outcomes. However, since #2 is permanent and can not be changed it is more severe than #4. From a logical standpoint when the result (in this case a boy's later feelings on having this done) is unknown the least permanent option should be chosen.

I am looking at these 4 logical outcomes specifically from what would the child feel about it later. I invite other comments and considerations from people facing this or having faced this decision.

 

[herev]

we are expecting a boy in February--He will be circumcized. Technically, plastic surgeons can undo a circumcision, but that's not the reason. We believe it is healthier, and for our families, it is simply the norm

 

[Stringaling]

i am a mother who cleaned the dirty diapers of a circumsized boy. From my standpoint it is hard enough to clean him and his creases as it is without the foreskin--that would have been a terrible mess if it were still there. that poop can get into the stranges places. My opinion is that it should be done for cleanliness reasons, while he is a child and further down the road as an adult. My husband -who is circumsized- has since changed his mind. That is for religious reasons though, so we disagree. He doesn't think it is bad to do at all, he just thinks it is unnecessary since the apostle Paul (?i think) said that we no longer have to do it. I say "Go Cleanliness! Yeah! "

 

[alaskamolly]

We did it with our two sons...

My dad was in Vietnam and had some friends who had to go get circumsized there, due to terrible infections that had set in from the damp moist environment... Since we intend to be on the mission field throughout our lives, and hope to send our children there as well, we figured it was probably a good idea (preventative medicine, so to speak).

I went and watched our first son get circumcized, just because I didn't want them cutting anything off him without me being there. Slightly overprotective, but hey, I had a lot of postpartum hormones raging thru my system! They gave him a shot to deaden the area, which I was glad about, and it healed up fairly quickly.

All in all, I thought the foreskin was really cute (only a mother would say that...) and didn't necessarily want it gone...but at the same time, I'm glad we did it and we'll continue to do it with any boys we have in the future.

Blessings,
Molly
(12 weeks w/ #5)

 

[Vilnius]

I have to wonder if there is a link between purity and circumcision? Many people attribute the prevalence of circumcision to a time when it was advocated to reduce masturbation and the lust that necessarily accompanies it. Those who oppose circumcision use that as an argument against it. They argue that you would have to be a nut to be against masturbation, thus it is nutty to circumcise. I used to agree, because I could see no link between circumcision and masturbation. I changed my mind when I learned more about the anatomy of the uncircumcised penis. The foreskin wraps around the head of the penis, and the inside skin of the foreskin is like the skin inside one's mouth--wet and slippery. That fact, plus the fact that the foreskin easily glides over the penis when manipulated, makes it rather obvious why removing the foreskin would be done to reduce masturbation.

I am circumcised, and I did an experiment (with my wife's approval). I manipulated myself without lubrication; there were virtualy no pleasurable sensations. Next, I added lubrication, and there were great feelings of pleasure. Removing the foreskin removes the built in lubrication.

Given the tremendous struggle males have with lust and masturbation, my wife and I feel it would be worse not to circumcise our son when he is born. Plus, we find the circumcised "look" more attractive. We have read all the reasons people oppose it, but feel it could not be bad if God required it in the covenant with Abraham. I know it can be a hard decision, we did go back and forth on this issue, with the purity aspect finally making up our minds.

 

[HoshiG]

I am a Canadian and am now living in England. In Canada it is normal to have a baby boy circumsized, in England it is only done for religious or special health reasons. I just asked my husband one day what we would do if we had a boy. He was baffled that I would assume we would be circumsizing a boy.


That inspired me to do a lot of reading on the topic and we decided together that we would not circumsize a boy if we have one. I learned things like removing the foreskin causes a removal of the protection that keeps the end of the penis moist. In removing the skin it causes that portion to become more dry and become less sensitive. Also, approx. 82% of males around the world are not circumsized.

I wish I had kept the links I was reading, they were really informative. I looked up at least one link to attach to this post though... Ok... it won't allow me to post a link, so I would like to suggest using Yahoo to look up the "Cirucimcision Reference Library" CIRP for short, its an org site.

Our decision is that we don't want to deprive any sons of any enjoyment or cause undue trauma. He can make the decision for himself if he likes later in life.

 

[Zoomer]

There really is no scientific evidence that made me feel stronger one way or the other. Both sides have valid pros and cons. What it came done to was that my husband circumsized and it is the norm here in the US.

 

[Katydid]

Option 4 in my opinion is cruel and horrible. I believe this because a friend of mine whose son was not circumcised, converted to Judaism. Her son was 10 and he converted as well. He had to be circumcised. He was in bed for about a week. He was on antibiotics and could barely go to the bathroom at first. He had to be catheterized for the first day. He then had complications because he could not get an erection. Finally he started to improve. While I know that some of his problems are not the par, they were warned that there was a high chance complications. This happened before my son was born and I knew that I would have the circumcision done as an infant. It is not as painful and the recovery is basically nonexistant considering how they do it. My son is fine with it, and I have yet to meet a man who was traumatized due to having a circumcision done as an infant.

 

[Leanna]

We circumsized our son because
1. His dad was curcumsized
2. My husband's grandpas had it done as an adult for health reasons and it was very painful!
3. It is clean and I am glad I don't have to worry about cleaning his foreskin while he squirms during diaper changes!

 

[sammipher]

we are expecting a boy in February--He will be circumcized. Technically, plastic surgeons can undo a circumcision, but that's not the reason. We believe it is healthier, and for our families, it is simply the norm

I agree...if we have a little boy he will be circumcized.

 

[~Mrs. A2J~]

We circumsized our son because
1. His dad was curcumsized
2. My husband's grandpas had it done as an adult for health reasons and it was very painful!
3. It is clean and I am glad I don't have to worry about cleaning his foreskin while he squirms during diaper changes!

Sorry, not trying to be rude but I would just like to point out that your third point is irrelevent. The foreskin remains attached to the head of the penis until around age three when it then becomes retractable so for diaper changes you would clean a uncircumcised child the same way you would a circumcised child.

 

[mcb1998au]

We have a 6 year old son and he is not circumcised, i believe it is cruel and i would not put my son through that. My hubby is not circumcised either but even if he had been and had wanted my son to be i still would not have allowed it.

 

[poohmom]

We have two boys and neither of them are circumcised. My husband is circumcised and wishes that his parents had not followed the norm. That was a large part of why we opted to not have it done. Also from the research we did then, we found that there is no real medical reason to have it done as an infant.

 

[sara elizabeth]

My three sons are all circumcised. I had mixed feelings on the subject, but my husband, who is also circumcised, was very definite about it. We also had input from my grandfather who was circumcised at around age 16. He didn't go into detail, but said that he thought it was the way to go. On the other hand I have heard of lots who did not circumcise their sons and were happy with that decision.