Circumcision is Plastic Surgery

To snip or not to snip ... that is the question. We didn't have to think about this issue at all the first half of our pregnancy because we thought he was a she. Now that we know what equipment we're dealing with we are faced with the decision every couple who has a boy is faced with- whether on not to have our son circumcised.

For some it's a no-brainer. Of course you have your son circumcised. It's automatic. Push 'em out and slice it off. But when you ask "Why did you do it?" you get superficial answers like, "well his father is circumcised" and "it looks better" which should be the definition of plastic surgery. Some seemingly legit reasons pop up from time to time. For example some say it's more hygenic to remove the foreskin, easier to keep clean, easier to teach your son how to clean, or that it reduces their chance of getting an STD. All this time I thought condoms were responsible for reducing a guys chances of catching an STD - silly me.

But for others, it's an issue worth investigating. I mean he's born with it. It can't be that harmful to our species or evolution would have eliminated it with the tail. And have you seen a circumcision video online or in person for that matter? It's horrifying! We don't do this to baby girls. It would be considered genital mutilation for female newborns. So why is it different for boys?

Non-religious neonatal circumcision exploded in popularity for us Westerners around the 1900's. The general public was becoming more and more germ-phobic and the penis became the scapegoat for the many new diseases running around. I can imagine the WANTED signs of male genitalia. Subtitled "Off with his head!"

Other non-sense reasons included the thought that removing an infant's foreskin would make him less likely to constantly masterbate when he's older and even later in life would reduce the chance of infidelity. Good thing no one told them their sex drive is in their head, not their foreskin, or the decapitation rates would have sky rocketed!

But seriously, are there hygiene and medical benefits to this procedure? The American Academy of Pediatrics released a statement in 1999 that said "Circumcision has been suggested as an effective method of maintaining penile hygiene since the time of the Egyptian dynasties, but there is little evidence to affirm the association between circumcision status and optimal penile hygiene." Contrary to popular opinion, circumcision does not prevent UTI's, penile cancer, or STDs. Infact, having a circumcision can have complications including infection. It is minor surgery after all.

Well, I didn't chop my dog's tail off for esthetics (or to fit her breed) and I won't chop off normal, healthy, functioning tissue from my son for appearance sake ... unless you can guarantee it will make him masterbate less when he's a teenager.