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)

Absolutely all of those sound bloody awful.

I agree there's a difference in order or magnitude, but babys have died from male circumcision, and the article below details children's hospitals seeing a steady stream of complications.

Don't care. Cutting off the healthy body parts of any child is abusive. If that's supremacist (why?) then so be it. It's common in the USA, despite not being a religious thing (most of the time.) What else do you think is okay because of other people's morals? Child marriage? Polygamy? Men being allowed to beat their wives?

Yes, it has dropped a lot in recent years. Part of that is because it can double the hospital bill for the birth of a boy.

How come there wasn’t anaesthetic? That’s so cruel.

educate yourself. Circumcision is scientifically proven to be a hygiene/ health benefit. FGM has no health benefit and in fact, as the name suggests - is mutilation. FGM is banned, and rightly so.

so we have two dodgy individuals breaking the law, and so now we ban circumcision??

A dodgy builder built a death trap of a house. We should now ban all builders from ever building a house.

give me strength!

I actually disagree with this. This is like saying that it’s ok for girls to get married at 9 because that’s their culture or other horrific things. I don’t know enough about male circumcision to know if it’s cruel and wrong if done a certain way. If it is, then culture is no excuse. It’s actually more racist to act like you don’t care because they’re not my culture.

FYI FGM is cultural , not religious

Me too, newborn baby, absolutely horrific !

You educate yourself
Babies arrive with all the necesssary bits there in most cases. Its not up to non medically qualified people to decide that some bits should be cut off.

You know the moment someone starts off a post with 'educate yourself', the rest of the comment is going to be moronic.

Circumcision has not been proven to have a health benefit. Take your misinformation elsewhere

It became popular in (puritanical) America for the same reason it became popular in religions: because it makes masturbation less fun. Everything else is post hoc justification and not based in science.

I've heard Muslims trying to claim that eating pork is intrinsically harmful to the human body in a way that eating beef isn't (as opposed to potentially poisonous because pigs are not very clean), and I would not be at all surprised to find that some highly orthodox rabbi has a video demonstrating that if you cook veal in a cream sauce it transmogrifies into plutonium or something.

As someone whose child has to undergo potentially life saving surgery when very young, I really struggle with this unnecessary mutilation of a perfect newborn/infant. I will never forget my eldest needing a cannula put in his hand as a newborn: that was horrendous enough to put him thorough although, again, medically necessary.

health benefits of voluntary male circumcision.
Global HIV Programme

Of course it should be banned!

Because Hospitals can charge for it

You will never outlaw FGM while male circumcision is allowed.

If you want FGM to stop it all stops.

I was circumcised within days of being born. Our family doctor was adamant that the foreskin served no useful purpose, and increased the possibility of infection.
In later years, I was happy with having been circumcised and always flinched at the idea of a penis that was "uncut."
I will have to reread this thread to see if there are posts from women who express any preference either way in respect of partners

Circumcision by Country 2024

Then they can be lumped in together - unnecessary surgical operations on genitals that need to be banned. Why complicate things.

By that reasoning then let’s also ban ear piercing on babies and young children then 🙄 FWIW I remember my brother had to have it done as a young child because his foreskin was too tight. My husband had to have it done as a teen, for the same reason. He soon got over the procedure. And it’s much easier to keep clean down there because there’s less area for bacteria to accumulate and multiply.

Circumcision offers benefits of easier cleanliness though and can avoid issues of the foreskin becoming too tight. FGM offers no benefit whatsoever…

A child can never consent to this procedure. Surely, if that child grows up, and wants to go through it as an adult than that’s fine.

The majority of people do it, because they are told that it’s „”a religious tradition”, or that „”it’s a cultural norm”, or that it’s just what has always been done”. Etc. In most instances, it’s never an informed decision, people just go along with it blindly, without properly questioning the reasoning behind it. Like I said, a child is not able to consent to such an extreme procedure. I would never put religion/culture/tradition ahead of putting my child’s well being first, never. They were born perfect. Just because some things have been done since year dot, doesn’t mean they are right, and we should always be questioning, and not accepting things in blind faith. Surely a mother, if given the chance, will know what is the best for her own child, more so than some holy man or some elder, who think they know better. Seriously, tradition doesn’t always equal good.