babybarrister The thread has made me think quite a bit. I started off about as anti circumcision as you could get but the points about the spread of AIDS in some countries has made me reassess my position.
I still think it is a painful needless procedure in the west but if I was a mother in South Africa I may consider it. However using condoms would be the far better approach, with cultural changes that gave women more empowerment and work that dealt with the high rates of rape.
I still think that there are far too many people who just do it because it is the norm and they have never really thought about it. I know a few Jews who do not follow any other parts of the faith and yet they do this. I am just so gob smacked by this. Why this bit when you don't believe in god?
I think the cleanliness angle is very weak. Just teach your child to wash. Brushing your teeth is much more difficult than giving a willy a wash and yet we all do that.
Yes rarely an older child or adult will have to have it done because of problems but as somebody else said (or I think they said) we don't remove all tonsils at 8 days because people may get a lot of sore throats later in life.
Personally I like the look of an uncircumcised penis....but that is all about what you are used to. I read one website where a father was talking about reasons for circumcising his sons and he said he wanted them to look the same as him. I am left speechless by that. Fucking selfish bastard. You should be thinking about them not yourself you twat.