Circumcision - Yes or No?

[VAMatt]

Cobretti2 said:

VAMatt said:

Yes.  But, the people in his age group are being born now.  So, those circumcision decisions are (mostly) being made now.

Just to let everyone in on something - while only 60%  of kids born in the US are being circumsized now, the rate among Americans born to American parents is very high.  I don't have an  official number, but I'm thinking 95% or so.  When talking to friends and family about this matter, nearly everyone was clearly defaulting to "yes, circumsize".  In fact, many of our friends looked at us like we're crazy for even considering leaving him uncircumcised.  It's basically only my libertarian activist friends that seem to even have considered not circumsizing.  

Wifey and I have pretty much decided not to have him circumsized.  As I said before, it mostly comes down to consent, at least in my mind.  But, it is a fact that this decision will leave our son with an abnormal penis, relative to people around him.  We don't have to like or approve of the tradition of circumcision here.  But, that doesn't change the fact that it is the standard.   Then again, somebody has to stop accepting stupid traditions, if they're ever going to change......

Yer what I meant was basically what you said ask around see what people are doing now because by the time he and adult it may be a norm for adults his ages not to be circumsised. 

Also  are your friends just doing it because that's all they know. Or have they asked questions like you have? Have you asked them other than tradition why they doing it?

I think you asking questions around to see who is getting it done and who isn't is a great idea.  If it was 95% getting it done then yer i'd be strongly thinking it should be done. 

The 95% you mentioned, is that 95% circumcised by American born parents still and the 60% is all kids from different nationalities within the US?

What I find strange is how did these women come to a conclusion that uncricumsised is bad? How many dicks do they look at to determine that lol. No one is born like that is there some sort of queen bee telling people you much only like cut lol.

I don't think many people have come to the conclusion that uncircumcised is bad.  It's just that it is abnormal for Americans.  Many people, especially when they are young and dumb, see abnormal in a negative light.

Also, I should note that the 60% of kids being circumcised comes from hospital circumcisions of children born in the USA.  There are other people that get it done at the pediatrician, or as part of a religious ceremony.  So, the actual number is higher than 60% (some sources seemed to think it is actually a lot higher).   I'll also note that while the trend is moving away from circumcision, it is moving very slowly.  I don't have the stats in from of my now.  But, I recall reading that it has declined from something like 68% 40 years ago, to 60% now.  

To answer your question about why people do it, it seems to me that not doing never even crosses most people's mind.  Circumcision is just the norm for Americans.  It's as simple as that, apparently.  

Among my libertarian activist friends, the issue tends to be consent (as you would expect from libertarians).  So, since the kid can't consent, libertarians almost universally oppose circumcising a child, absent medical need.  But, among my non-libertarian associates, I can think of only one person that didn't default to "yes, of course you should circumcise him."  After talking about it, a good number of those people seemed to understand the arguments against it, and some changed to a more neutral position.  But, even then, at least half seemed to think that not circumcising him would have a negative impact on his life in one way or another (usually they either assumed that he'll be ashamed, or that it will turn off possible sex partners).  

Anyway, I'm a hardcore libertarian myself, so I see the lack of consent as a problem.  That's probably the only reason that this debate even occurred to me.  Everyone I know (that I've talked to about this) is circumcised.  My brothers were, my father was.  So, I think I would have probably gone along with the tradition too.