If your partner was circumcised, would you have your son circumcised too?

[Nikoletta]

I noticed from another thread that a few women whose partners are circumcised seemed to talk very positively about it for various reasons, either because they believed it was cleaner, or they liked the way it looked, etc.
If your partner is not circumcised, I can well understand it if you would never dream of circumcising your son, as it is not really the norm in this country anyway. But if you do have / have had a circumcised partner, and you like the fact that he is circumcised, what would you feel about having your son circumcised too?
Would it be important for son to match his father?
Would it be inconsistent for you to like the fact that the father is circumcised, but not get son circumcised?
Especially if you have familiarity with circumcision in the family, I would be interested to know your thoughts.
What would you do?

What a good idea, Shhhhh, let's go round slicing the ears off all the Jews and Muslims. Nice one.

'Cut bits off your newborn baby'
Yes, people love this phrase 'cutting bits off' when they criticise the practice of circumcision. It sounds more indiscriminate than cutting off a very specific bit of skin. It sounds more alarming.
Another argument technique that people love to come up with is saying, 'you wouldn't cut off a toe or an ear or something, so why remove the foreskin.'
The more you try and transfer the idea to other examples, the more you fudge your argument.
I think people have a perfectly respectable argument just saying that they don't believe that boys' foreskins should be removed, and leave it at that.

And Devora (my Hebrew name, incidentally!), since many Jews actually oppose circumcision, could you please qualify your statement as "some Jewish people see circumcision as an act of love, not of barbarism". Because some of us do indeed see it as barbarism that has more to do with the easy life and not rocking the boat within the community, and very little do with love - either for our child or for god.

Why is someone challenging you on your beliefs suddenly 'anti-semitism'? Surely being anti-Semitic is somewhat more hateful?

(And as for female circumcision, I meant anything that removes any part of that area)

...and I will echo all the posters who have said that newborn circumcision causes less distress than infant vaccinations. I can tell you, having family members that had to be circumcised later on for "medical reasons", that it's like comparing apples and oranges. Completely different. For what it's worth, I'm rather glad that my parents elected to take me for my baby immunizations, and that my Mum let me have my ears pierced when I was 10 and that I was encouraged to have orthodontic braces and surgery when I was a pre-teen. My body, NOT my decision, but no regrets whatsoever. DH feels the same way and I hope my boys do too.

These threads are frothing, hysterical, witch-hunts and I think they bring out the absolute worst of Mumsnet.

Agreed, SrirachaGirl. Well said.
It's a pity people cannot have strong views AND remain polite to those that hold different views.

I've never heard of circumcision being performed with anaesthetic either so not sure what that is all about .

If you actually read what I wrote, I said medical or religious. I don't care what your excuse is. Removing any area of a body which is not your own is assault.

And here is just one of many anti-circ religious groups, seeing as the anti Semitic card has now been played. Its not just those of us that don't happen to be religious that object to this barbaric practice.

You mean your boys didn't get a little injection of local anaesthetic first?!

without anaesthetic. WITHOUT. . Oops.

I take back back what I said on another thread about loving my IPad. It's possessed by the malevelont spirit of auto-correct.

Phew!

See! Back-to-back backs! It's Rosemary's IPad .

malevolent.

I give up.

I am Jewish and our paediatrican is Jewish too. When I was pregnant with DD decided to not find out the sex so it was something DH and I discussed while I was pregnant. My obn talked to me about and said there was no medical rationale for circumcising a boy. Our paediatrican cracked me up when he said 'We all used to live in caves, doesn't mean we still should.' He had a good point and he also asked if I kept kosher as he had concerns about diet in infants with restricted diets. I am now pregnant with a boy and we won't be circumcising unless medically necessary.

Our son won't be a bad Jew for not being circumcised or eating pork.

not unless it was for a health reason and a doctor had advised that it would be best!!!

No.

I don't understand this 'to look like his dad / brothers' business.

Loads of ways to be different from your Dad / brothers, are you going to make them all the same? Dye their hair? if one gets fat make them all get fat? get coloured contact lenses if one has diffferent coloured eyes, and god forbid one loses a finger in an accident - what would you do then?

They are individuals not clones.

no. Hideous tradition

Ah, now I do object to being accused of 'playing the anti semitism card'. If you bother to read my post you'll see that I am explicitly NOT saying that if you oppose circumcision you are anti-semitic. I say that you have a responsibility to be careful about how you ascribe motive to a whole ethnic community (accepting that many Jews don't circumcise - apologies to Annie and of course many others ). For the record, I think it's completely legitimate to disapprove of circumcision - I expect most of my friends do - I just happen to disagree.

If someone would like to point out to me where I said that you have to be anti-semitic if you oppose circumcision, I will eat a bacon sandwich. In the meantime, those who have challenged me could perhaps explain how describing those who see circumcision as part of their faith as barbaric child abusers, and suggesting they should have their ears sliced, is in ANY way helpful to this debate.

No.

No medical circumcision is mutilation.

siracha my ds had some numbing cream and an injection it was left to work then a ring put on, the dr left us with more numbing cream, antiseptic wash to use in his bath, and a lot of other stuff, the cream was in a syringe, we never needed to use it as my ds was in no pain, after 2 days the foreskin fell of like umbilical cord does. my ds didnt cry during the procedure.

tbh I dont get the to be like your dad thing either.

orange if a woman decides when she is grown that she wants hoodectomy should it be legal then? or are you saying it should be illegal for parents to decide for them?

DP is circumcised and objects to the decision being made for him as a baby. He also thinks it has desensitised him.

We would never have considered circumcision for our boys unless there was a very compelling medical reason.

I just want to stand up as being someone who doesn't prefer the "look" of DH's circumcised penis. I couldn't give a shiny shit about the look of the thing - they're not exactly attractive in the first place! - but I do mind about the loss of sensitivity he experiences. He doesn't know anything about it of course, he knows no better! But I bloody do. It has seriously affected the quality of our sex life (he is the only circumcised man I have been with so I can't say this is the case for all circumcised men, but it certainly makes a difference with DH).

Luckily for him, I don't rate sex as being the most important part of a marriage - if I did, we wouldn't have got married.

My partner isn't and even if he had been, absolutely not.

I've never seen or been with an uncircumcised man, so I wouldn't know I guess. But I wish ds hadn't been done and I won't be having any future sons circumcised.

I am not particuularly pro or anti circumcision but having it done so that your DS(s) and DH have matching penises has to be the daftest reason ever!