Why is circumcision legal?

[NutellaEllaElla]

I’ve never understood it. Same with baby ear piercings. Non medically necessary procedures on non consenting individuals.

I think it should be illegal the same as female mutation of the genitals, The foreskin is probably the most sensitive area of a man’s body, removing all of the nerve tissue will deny years of intense pleasure.

Pandering to religious sensibilities. Same reason why halal and kosher slaughter is still legal, even though animals are supposed to be stunned prior to slaughter.

Double standards.

A lot of people argue religion but personally, I think it's just the tip of it

Parents consent to all sorts of things for their children (and indeed children for elderly parents).

I don't agree with circumcision and view it as genital mutilation.

However I do worry that by attempting to ban it, you may find that you have only banned safe circumcision.

When abortions were illegal people didn't stop having them - they were forced to go to shady back room providers and many women died or were left infertile or had life long health complications as a result.

I worry that a ban would push people towards unsafe providers of circumcision and lead to worse outcomes for many young boys.

I'm not sure what the answer is really. I think we need to focus more on education and breaking the generation cycles that surround circumcision. It's tough when it's to closely tied into some religions though.

Because it’s inextricably tied up with religions. And money. Simple.

Circumcision is one of those things that really ought to have stopped happening when hygiene and cleanliness was established. Men can clean under their foreskins. They couldn't stay clean in hot, arid climates where you sweat like a pig, so the tradition came about to cut the foreskin off. There was no way they knew about how sensitive the glans penis was back in those days, or that constant contact with fabric can dull sensation.

FGM ought to be outlawed as well seeing as it's a cruel way to stop women from feeling anything down there.

Not eating pork is also up there. Again, back in the days before refrigeration came about, pork could only be preserved using salt and even then it never kept well in the desert.

Some religious customs made sense once upon a time, but haven't caught up with the modern world and if you try to explain, you just get told you're racist.