photo by realgranola
Please join me in asking the Centers for Disease Control NOT to recommend routine infant circumcision in the United States. Amputation of normal, functional body parts in order to prevent the *possibility* of illness that is preventable through education and hygiene or treatable through less invasive, less universal methods is absolutely unethical. Please support our children by opposing RIC and reminding the CDC that this practice is not based in sensible decision making by reading and signing Intact America's petition.
From Intact America:
No medical society in the world recommends male circumcision – yet newborn male circumcision is the most common surgical procedure in the U.S. This painful and risky procedure deprives over a million boys each year of healthy, functional tissue, while increasing medical costs by an average of $678 per baby.
If you are not familiar with the foreskin, take a moment to find out about its structures and functions and consider whether you truly think the CDC should recommend that all male infants should be subjected to the amputation of normal, healthy tissue. This is not a vestigial, useless body part. Would you support the removal of healthy body parts in any other context? Would you agree to the removal of a female infant's clitoral hood (analogous in structure and function to the male foreskin)? If a part of your body - healthy through your whole life - became infected, would you expect to have it surgically removed, or would you expect your physician to be educated about its function and familiar with a series of less-invasive treatments ranging from hygiene to medicine? Would you have been willing to part with that body part in infancy and experience the side effects of that removal, rather than deal with a manageable infection as an adult?
Are we numbed to what we do to baby boys because it's "normal" culturally? Is it really normal biologically? Do we want our public health agencies recommending amputation at birth because a body part might become (treatably) infected later in life? And if your interest is cosmetic, wouldn't you expect your child to wait until they're an informed, consenting legal adult to make alterations to his or her body?
Think about it. Then sign the petition and encourage the CDC to think about it, too.
And if you have concerns about looking like daddy, teaching kids to clean themselves, stories from relatives who believe they had to be circumcised, worries about how a foreskin looks, or changing your mind about circumcision after choosing to have it done to one child, give me a yell here or via email. I'm happy to hear your concerns and give reassurance! By leaving your future or current son's body intact you are absolutely doing the right thing.
