Well.. I did it again and got myself into a debate.. This time it was about circ and on Mothering. Isn’t that an oxymoron.. A NFL (Natural Family Living) site and people are actually advocating circ on the birth board. Luckily, it is MDC (Mothering dot commune) and I got help…
This is the first time I have ever really spoke out against Circ… It is not an issue I have brought up before because it saddens me and scares me that people would actually do that to their child and I just never really wanted to bring it up.. However, I truly believe in the position that the “Canadian Children’s Rights Council”has and that is that Circ is the genital Mutilation of children.
It is unnecessary, there are no medical reasons for it , it is painful and it should be criminalized the same way that female circumcision has been.
I hate the “Parents Choice” argument… Parents are parents and their role should be to protect their children from unnecessary harm. Sitting around the table and making a decision to cut a piece of your child’s genital organ off is not a decision that should be up to the parents to make… It is a purely cosmetic surgery and the only person ultimately involved in the outcome of that decision is the child. He and he alone should be the one to make decisions about his body… Children are not out property, it is not a decision for a parent to make.
The “look like others” argument” in Canada the numbers of circ are getting to be quite minimal so the circed boy is most likely to be the odd one out, the US is down to almost 50/50… I doubt the topic will really come up…
The Medical Argument: Has NO foundation.. pretty much it is like saying “hmmm… lets cut of his foot so that he never gets an ingrown toenail”or “lets cut of her mammary glands so she doesn’t get breast cancer”
The Cleaner Argument: Again NOT true… the intact boy is easy to clean… splash a bit of water and that’s it.. they should never be retracted and don’t retract naturally until about the age of 4-5 and even up to puberty… there is no special care and and pretty much no care needed for an intact boy… and beside, the foreskin has a purpose, it has good bacteria that keep it clean just like us women are not completely dry… that’s how it is made and how it works!!
The “look like dad argument”… OK how much time do dads and boys compare their penises… really? If dad had a finger amputated would you do he same to the child to look like dad? No? No they may not look alike… so what!!! You can just explain that dad had a surgery that removed part of his penis and that parents are now more informed and know better…
Circumcision isn’t just a little snip. It is a risky surgery and the it is not just a little piece of skin that is removed it is a organ in itself that has multiple functions.
Circumcision is Genital Mutilation. There is not way around that Fact. It should be criminalized as it has been in other parts of the world. It is not just another parental decision.
Here is a great article on Mothering.
The Case Against Circumcision.
exactly. and if folks did the research, i doubt theyd go thru with it. *sigh* such is our culture. glad i had a girl.
It’s funny how anxious people are to defend what is essentially a barbaric practice.
Well, it WOULD be funny, if little boys didn’t suffer because of it. Sigh.
I just don’t see the point of circ’ing. My mom chose not to circ any of my brothers since she didn’t feel it was necessary and my dad apparently isn’t circumcised. I am lucky since my partner isn’t circ’ed either so there is no arguement about if I do have a boy.
The one arguement that just sends me shaking my head is the “locker room” arguement… I asked my DF if guys stare at each others packages in the locker room and he said not usually and I told him about the locker room arguement for circumcision and he just thought that it was the stupidest arguement around (note- my Df was a high performance athlete in High School so was in locker rooms lots and he also spent tons of time at nudest camps during his childhood and teens).
Ali
Right there with you on this one. Not sure what the rate is in Canada but the US needs to take a lesson from much of the rest of the world that does not circ and sees no need to.
The rate in Canada is quite low compared to the US… but still high concidering it is such an unneccesary and barbaric practice. In 2003 it seems that just a bit more then 11% of baby boys had been circed. The prvince with the highest rate is PEI at just about 30% of boys circed and the lowest was Nova Scotia at 1.1% followed by Quebec at 3.2%… hopefully one day it will be criminalised…