Circumcision should be banned.

[ArabellaScott]

https://www.secularism.org.uk/news/2025/01/judge-and-parents-call-for-boys-to-be-protected-from-circumcision

Article describes an upsetting case of two doctors performing these ops without anesthesia, and with sometimes serious side effects. One boy nearly died.

The National Secular Society is running a concurrent campaign to ban all 'religious cutting' - that includes both FGM and male circumcision. I wholeheartedly agree that no baby or child should suffer in this way. More info:

https://www.secularism.org.uk/religious-surgery/

YABU - circumcision for religous reasons is fine
YANBU - circumcision should be banned (unless there is a medical reason)

@Cunningfungus No - we don’t need to help men’s issues. Let them do that for themselves.

What you have said here is that women should not help infant boys, and that it's only the responsibility of men to protect infant boys.

You have well and truly gone to looney land then.

And the in lies a lot of the problem - women being the caretakers of male health and wellbeing.

Yes, I think the key thing is to keep them separate.

Why shouldn’t men advocate for male infants? Find me a board where men are up in arms about this?

You realise we are talking about infant children here, right?

I’ve got two sons…. should I not take care of their wellbeing?

I think collaboration is important, & mothers are presumably 50% of the decision to circumcise infants, tho in some v conservative communities they may not have much say. But I agree meen need to challenge the male rabbis, imams who promote it, the doctors & the men who promote it without taking account of those who've suffered bc of it.

People on the thread are saying they put their infant’s bodily integrity first. You put your child second, behind something else (you don’t say what and it doesn’t really matter).
Perhaps it didn’t hurt. But if he ever wants that part of his body or that extra sensation back, he can’t get it. You’ve decided that for him. What gave you the right?

This is irrelevant to how appropriate it is for women to be doing it. There is no moral arguement for not doing something because someone else also hasn’t.

You’ll never find “real” data about the FGM carried out as most of it is underground.

WRT male circumcision- outwith medical reasons it’s a cultural practice. And who determines cultural practices - oh that’s right, men.

However, if you re-read the op, there was no comparison or equivalence claimed to FGM - was it just the mention that was enough?

Is it ok if it's not mentioned in any way or will that result in "what about FGM" posts?

FGM is fully illegal under all circumstances and all age groups in the UK, quite rightly. It's certainly relevant to bring up the difficulty in bringing prosecutions, but not relevant in whether a ban on elective male child circumcision is desirable or achievable which is what the post was about.

Actually not necessarily accurate. Some men can have issues from scarring if they had an infection. There are also men who suffer hypersensitivity from having no foreskin.

This is key imo, these infants are partly being mutilated bc of their mothers & partly bc of their fathers.
I can't get my head round men, who ought to know how badly it could affect these boys, encouraging it. Women should know, but I can see it's a bit easier to be swayed when all the men are saying it was fine for them. Otoh men who had it done as infants may well not remember the trauma. & so the brutal tradition continues. ..
Besides, this isn't feminism, but AIBU. It's not solely for women's issues!

Exactly, and I’ll say it AGAIN. If this wasn’t a common cultural / religious practice and someone suggested it, WE’D PUT THEM IN JAIL.

No there is no moral argument. But as we all know, women are the gatekeepers to health so it largely falls to them to keep everyone safe. If men stood up and campaigned against male circumcision then maybe they could also campaign against FGM.

Yes, I agree pps worried too much. I wasn't responding to the OP, I replied to later FGM posts. I think it's wisest to keep them separate.

Please, please don’t conflate FGM with male circumcision. The level of barbarity and inherent misogyny of FGM is in a completely different stratosphere.

Male circumcision still allows men to fully function but the ideology behind it is warped AF. What holy creator demands this? Why? You want to be ‘clean’? Easy. Learn to wash your cock and teach it to your sons.

I’m not sure who’s campaigning or who’s not but it’s irrelevant to this conversation. I know 100% if I suggested chopping off our baby boys foreskins, my DP would fight me until the end of the earth to stop it happening. In exactly the same way he’d fight to stop punching them in the face. It’s the same. You might not think it is (if you’ve been conditioned to think it’s ok) but it’s the same.

Excellent news - no-one on this thread is doing that. Phew!

It’s not the same (practically) but it fails the same moral test. They are both done, without consent, for no benefit to the recipient.

@Cunningfungus Why shouldn’t men advocate for male infants?

I didn't say that men shouldn't advocate for male infants! I think that both men and women should advocate for male infants. You're the one who said that women shouldn't advocate for male infants, and it should solely be the responsibility of men.

Have you lost your marbles?

Find me a board where men are up in arms about this?

Have you done a 30 second search on Google??

Actually it is a really simple issue. Genital cutting is abhorrent.

Men should campaign against FGM. I would argue tho that FGM is not as common here as circumcision- or is it? It should be the priority, as it's more risky.
However, circumcision is NHS sanctioned so I think that needs to be highlighted as it's unacceptable. I also can't believe religious ones are allowed w no other medical supervision. If it must be done, it should always be in hospital under anaesthetic.

To those arguing in favour of circumcision, “Three children have bled to death in recent years in the UK following circumcision.” It is barbaric and unnecessary. Occasionally it might be needed for medical reasons, but that is an entirely different matter. I am outraged on the baby boys’ behalf that they should have something both painful and permanent inflicted on them with no autonomy over their own body. We do not allow children to have tattoos - why should it be permitted to chop pieces off them on their parents’ say-so?