2006-07-01 Brazil/Jordan - Circumcision Revision Study

[Joseph]

Promoters of circumcision like to minimize the risks of complications. "The benefits far outweigh the risks," they so avidly purport. The assumption is that a circumcision will be completed "successfully," resulting in an aesthetically and cosmetically pleasing operation every time. (For their own self-serving purpose, they strategically ignore the issue of the ethics of performing elective cosmetic surgery on a non-concenting individual.)

If they mention the possibity of complication or a botched circumcison (nevermind a circumcised penis is ALWAYS an intentionally botched penis), it is always "rare," and these risks are worth taking. Are they?

Because circumcision in newborns is always an unnecessary procedure, one must wonder what benefits are to be weighed against serious risks, even though rare, other than cultural conformity.

Sometimes a circumcision job can be so botched as to require corrective surgery. This study (http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?pid=S1677-55382006000400013&script=sci_arttext) looks at "circumcision revision" in Jordan.

The irony of the whole thing is that circumcision is said to prevent problems. Now these children have to live with the results of a needless circumcision mishap. So much for "neater, and pretty-looking..."

[cloud7]

I always wonder what the parents will say when the kid gets old enough to ask why, in the past they could say whatever reasons and it would be beleived, but with the internet, these kids are gonna find out how the procedure was of no necessity at all. How are these kids ever going to forgive their parents?

We're sorry you have a severely damaged penis, but we thought it looked better with the end cut off. Doctors should be required to list those possible outcomes from circumcision to parents.

With the knowledge of the internet I would expect the general publics view of circumcision to change dramatically, and in 100 years or so there will be whatever the equivalent to tv shows will be about how barbaric we were, just as we might look back on the victorian era today