From Larissa Black of Ames, Iowa –
Circumcision is a taboo topic in our society, even though 56% of infant boys are circumcised within the first few days of life in the United States according to the CDC. With circumcision being one of the most common surgeries performed (occurring roughly every thirty seconds) why aren’t more people willing to talk about it?
This week advocates from across the country are doing exactly that as they descend on our nation’s capitol for the 21st annual Genital Integrity Awareness Week. Their message is simple: routine infant circumcision is a violation of human rights, and our boys deserve the same protections from forced genital cutting that are already in place for our daughters. American girls are legally protected from even a ritual pinprick to the clitoris, and rightly so. But how is it fair that a baby boy can be strapped to a board and have his prepuce ripped, clamped, and cut away from his penis, usually without adequate (or any) pain relief? In mere moment the most sensitive part of his penis, what would equate to 15 square inches on an adult man, is cut away without his consent or any actual medical reason.
Parents circumcise their sons for various reasons but really are any of these reasons worth a painful procedure that risks the child’s life? An estimated 117 baby boys die from circumcision-related complications every year in the US, yet no child dies from being left intact. The many alleged benefits to circumcision are highly disputed and often based on flawed studies. Overwhelmingly, medical societies from around the world have determined that infant circumcision is not beneficial but is instead harmful. Recently the Council of Europe, an organization of 47 countries, passed a non-binding resolution that called circumcision a violation of the physical integrity of children, according to established human rights standards.)
Whatever your belief system is, you must acknowledge that God, nature, evolution gave men a foreskin for a reason. As a matter of fact, the male and female member of every single species of mammal on this entire earth has a prepuce (foreskin). This would not be the case if it was some vestigial, unnecessary body part. The foreskin has a vast number of very important protective and sexual functions that benefit not only the man but also his partner(s).
Whether or not to remove the foreskin is a permanent and highly personal decision that should be left for your son to make for himself at the age of consent. Check out The WHOLE Network, both .org and on Facebook, to learn more.
