It’s not a topic of polite conversation. It is wildly unpopular to criticize circumcision, and even more unpopular to call it what it is – genital mutilation. Whether the procedure is called genital mutilation or circumcision depends upon one’s country of origin and cultural influences.

Despite the innocuous and innocent sounding word for it, circumcision is a violation of our human rights regardless of whether the victim is a boy or a girl. The argument that circumcision is a matter of personal choice is semantically erroneous and illogical, infants do not consent to medical procedures, the parents do. Almost no one would consent to having so much of their genitals removed unless it were absolutely necessary. So of course, that is the lie told by medical professionals, that it is a necessary and beneficial medical procedure.

When discussing circumcision, many celebrities use profanity, because they have strong feelings about the subject. This is understandable; circumcision is a torturous, irreversible procedure. Doctors and nurses routinely lie to parents, telling them their baby slept through the procedure. In routine infant circumcision, anesthesia is rarely used (for fear of complications arising from the anesthesia), and more often than not, the infant goes into shock from the pain. Pro circumcision advocates want to push circumcision on infants, because babies cannot say no.

Alicia Silverstone

I was raised Jewish, so the second my parents found out they had a male grandchild, they wanted to know when we’d be having a bris (the circumcision ceremony traditionally performed 8 days after a baby boy is born). When I said we weren’t having one, my dad got a bit worked up. He couldn’t understand why not – I mean, it’s what our people have been doing for a really long time. Then he started listing reasons for doing it, like uncircumcised penises were hard to keep clean and can get infected, and that it doesn’t hurt the baby – although I’m pretty sure most babies scream and cry at their bris. But my thinking was: If little boys were supposed to have their penises ‘fixed,’ did that mean we were saying that God made the body imperfect? He made all this incredible stuff, and then he just happened to make the penis wrong?

… All those old ideas about why not to do it are totally outdated. A recent review by the American Academy of Pediatrics looked at the data from the past decades to see if there were really, truly any medical benefits to circumcision. Their conclusion? Nope! (2) And according to baby doctor genius and father of eight, Dr. William Sears, not only are there no medical benefits to circumcision, there are actually some pretty weighty drawbacks. The foreskin is packed with nerves (more than any other organ, actually), and removing it can diminish sexual pleasure. It helps protect the head of the penis, which, while also super-sensitive, was meant to be an internal organ. When it is exposed and is constantly rubbing up against clothing, it can become desensitized, which is also bad news when your son starts getting frisky.

Then there are the risks associated with what it is, in truth, a minor surgery: hemorrhage, infection, septicemia, gangrene, disfigurement, or, if too much foreskin is removed, the need for skin grafting later in life.

In case you’re still not convinced that you wouldn’t be committing your child to a life of bad Hebraic karma, consider that in Israel more and more parents are opting to celebrate the first week in their baby’s life with a brit shalom (the “covenant of peace”), a ritual alternative to circumcision.

Mario Lopez

Mario Lopez and his wife Courtney Mazza didn’t see eye to eye on circumcision.

In their reality television show, Saved by the Baby, they aired their dirty laundry while putting away clean laundry.

Mazza: ‘Cause I feel like some of the decisions you’re making, regarding the baby are your choice.

Mario Lopez: What are you talking about?

Mazza: Well ‘sighs’ the main thing that has been bothering me is the circumcision.

Mario: What’s bothering you about it?

Mazza: I don’t know how I feel about that, and every time we talk about it you shoot me down.

Mario: Well hold on, that’s not, I’m sorry babe but that’s not up for discussion. That-

Mazza: How is that not up for discussion?

Mario: Because-

Mazza: Did you make the baby yourself? Aren’t you worried about what people are going to think?

Mario: What do you mean what people are going to think?! What do you think of me? It didn’t hurt me.

Mazza: Well to be completely honest it was awkward for me.

Mario: What do you mean it was awkward?!

Mazza: Yeah it looks like a turtleneck.

Mario: I didn’t hear you complain! Oh really? Now it’s awkward?

Mazza: Well what am I going to say! I was thinking to myself, “What the hell is that?!”

Mario: Hey news flash by the way, this the way all men are born. I can’t believe you are even debating me on this. This is not debatable.

In an interview with Wendy Williams, Mario Lopez explained why it was so important to him to leave his son intact.

… So I said if we were having a boy that I didn’t want him to be circumcised. Because I don’t think that God makes mistakes and it’s not an optional part. And I know some of the women are probably like “Oh!” but believe it or not that’s the way a man is naturally born.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fu_uYwDx_H8

Craig Ferguson

While interviewing a physician on his show, Craig brought a succinct argument in favor of leaving boys intact.

Craig: Did you read in the news last week that the city of San Francisco is considering, banning circumcision?

Dr. Masterson: Yeah and again but you know that’s a personal choice. And I talk to my patients, as an obstetrician I talk to my patients a lot about this. And really there’s a lot of health benefits, and some risk benefits but it’s really a social procedure. So you really have to decide do you want your son to look like you? Do you, you know is it a cultural thing? Is it a social thing?

(Obviously, she has a skewed perception of personal choice. When an infant is circumcised, parental choice has taken away personal choice).

And later in the conversation…

Craig Ferguson: But couldn’t you achieve the same effect (the health benefits of circumcision) by washing your pee pee on a regular basis?

Dr. Masterson: You absolutely could.

Craig: So we’re talking, you could have this chopped off or you can wash it. Your call.

Dr. Masterson: Exactly.

Craig: [sarcastically] That’s a tough choice there doctor I don’t know!

Howard Stern

I am so against circumcision. You know that’s a man-made fucking thing. It’s got to cut down on your sensitivity, on your penis. I’m circumcised because you know I grew up in America, that’s what they do. They cut you, but it’s got to be wrong.

…I am circumcised, and I tell you something, I despise it. I despise it. I despise it.

… I rue the day my parents mutilated me.

…You know, my mother is so into ‘natural’ everything. “The body is beautiful.” You should hear the rap. The body is beautiful; we should leave things natural. So, she wouldn’t get me braces. My teeth were as crooked as a four-way intersection in Washington DC, and green, and bu-bu-bu- wouldn’t get me braces. My teeth were so wrecked because “naturally the body will heal itself.” She’s like a Christian Scientist. But the penis? Right out the window! I am completely pissed off that I’m circumcised.

…I know my penis was mutilated and I called my mother … I said to my mother the other night, I’m really freaked out by this circumcision thing. I think that I was mutilated. I think my penis would have a lot more sensitivity. … I’m talkin’ to my mother and I said, Why did you have me circumcised, exactly?

She goes, “You know, at the time I didn’t even know why. They took my baby from me and they said you know,” ‘This is something you gotta do.’… caught up in the whole tradition, cause my, you know, my father was was like, ‘Hey, he’s gotta be circumcised, he’s gotta look like me.’

 And my mother goes, “I just remember being so out of it that, I knew it was the wrong thing, I knew it shouldn’t be done, somewhere in the back of my mind, but how dare I buck the system?”

 I go, “Well Gee! You’re such a loudmouth on everything else, why weren’t you a loudmouth on this?”

Gerard Butler

In an interview with Howard Stern he was asked if he was circumcised. His response was:

No! We don’t do that!

…Never having been circumcised I can’t say but all I know is for me it’s very sensitive, and when I’m having sex that’s the amazing thing.

Cameron Diaz

Apparently it’s very uncomfortable for people to hear how it works when you have to clamp on the foreskin, pull it over, and then slice it off. Yeah, that apparently is really uncomfortable for people to hear. Yeah, but I think it’s important to know. It’s sort of like, it’s the same way, America is the same way about their beef. They just want it delivered in a Styrofoam package with saran wrap over it. They don’t want to know how it got to you. [It’s] the same thing with circumcision.

Joe Rogan

It’s a weird fucking tradition that we need to end. People get really bad infections. It’s not, it’s not completely innocuous. Kids have lost their penises because, because of circumcision. It’s not common. Yeah man for what? To dress up his dick with a knife? It’s a dick; it’s not a Jack O’ Lantern. You don’t have to chop parts off of it to make it look better. That’s stupid.

…It’s a gross thing isn’t it man? It’s a weird thing that people still cut babies dicks. There’s no logic to it at all. No science. All that nonsense about stopping AIDS. Go Fuck yourself. You’re not stopping AIDS by cutting dicks. By the way you’re not getting AIDS from not washing your dick. That’s nonsense. You’ve got no statistics to back that up. It’s one of those things where it was done to us, and women say, “It looks gross, so cut it”. It’s a really fucked up situation that we still have to deal with this.

…We’re weird about visuals man. People mutilate their kids’ dicks because of visuals. That’s what circumcision is about. A lot of people… Look, I’m circumcised. I didn’t ask to be. I’m sure a lot of you are circumcised, and I’m sure a lot of you circumcise your kids. But when you really stop and think about it, its kind of fucking crazy. I only have daughters but me and my wife got in an argument about this shit and she goes if we have a kid and it was a boy, I would want him to be circumcised. I go, “Why?!” she goes cause uncut dicks are disgusting. I’m like how many have you seen?! It was so confident. It wasn’t like she’d seen two that weren’t that pretty and she was holding out, hoping for a cute one. It was like, ‘No, I’ve fucking seen them, Noooo. No, no.’ I’m just picturing a river of sleepy uncut dicks in her past, just. I’m like what are you saying? That’s ridiculous, what it looks. No, no, no, no, no, it looks gross. It’s all this extra skin. I’m like do you even know what a vagina looks like? Are you serious here? Have you ever been sober and squatted down in front of a mirror and taken a good assessment of what the fuck you’re packing? Because let me tell you something, the extra skin might be the best-looking part of that contraption. Because if you pull that apart, you’ve got the predator’s mouth! All right, and you’re really giving me a hard time about some extra dick skin?

John Leguizamo

[My wife and I] talked about it, and I said there’s no way they’re going to be circumcised, and she was totally cool with it. It’s a beautiful thing. It’s not medically necessary at all. Actually, from what I’ve read, guys lose feeling by doing that. I want my son to have all the feeling he can have. Growing up in New York City, a lot of my friends weren’t circumcised, and my dad’s not circumcised and none of my family members are circumcised, so to me that was normal. When I saw some white kids circumcised, it looked like a mutilated monster. It was weird to me…it was really bizarre.

Colin Farrell

[Women] They are kind of fucking fascinated with a foreskin, aren’t they? In Ireland, at birth we don’t get the tip of our fucking knobs chopped off. I fucking completely disagree with that. People say, “It’s much cleaner to have no foreskin.” What, have you never heard of a fucking shower? Of Q-Tips? Whatever you want to do, just clean the fucking thing. I was at the party with 20 people, one of them an agent from CAA, when somehow the subject of foreskins came up. She said, “I just don’t understand a foreskin. I’ve never seen one.” So I whipped out my dick and said, “Here, that’s all it is. A bit of skin.” I did a little Puppetry of the Penis thing and showed her what it was about. You would have thought she was at a circus the way she was looking at me.

Dustin Hoffman

Sometimes they say someone shouldn’t be circumcised because it’s more natural and they should be circumcised because of hygiene. But the argument against that is if you wanna clean under your nails, you don’t cut your nails off.

Ben Affleck

“I hate circumcisions! Get enough in me, and I’ll tell you how much I hate them!” 

Roseanne Barr

Jews must cease circumcising their male infants! It is a barbaric and backward cult mind control technique that produces ill effects in adults.

Sara Gilbert

Only 32.5 percent of babies are being cut these days, so [an intact baby] will be in the majority if you don’t do it.

Russell Brand

We don’t do it in England. It’s just more like, people don’t worry about it. They just, they just let it go, that sort of thing. … It’s a bit unfair, isn’t it, to do that to babies? I mean, you’re alive a little while, start chopping bits of his dick off. I don’t think God cares about that. He’s got a lot [going] on.

Daniel Tosh

Just for the record…I always wish I wasn’t circumcised.

Billy Joel

I got the, ah, ‘snip’, and I had nothing to say about that. And I’m still a little pissed off about that, actually. They should have asked first.

In the lyrics his song, So Long, Reverend Ike, he sang, “My circumcision grieves me.”

Russell Crowe

Russell Crowe is from New Zealand, though he’s lived most of his life in Australia. Circumcision is uncommon in both countries. Russell Crowe is a father of two intact boys. On Twitter he let his views on circumcision be known.

Proud to have my foreskin. It’s cold in Ireland. It’s like a turtleneck – but for my penis.

[I have] Many Jewish friends. I love my Jewish friends. I love the apples and the honey and the funny little hats, but stop cutting your babies.

Circumcision is barbaric and stupid. Who are you to correct nature? Is it real that GOD requires a donation of foreskin? Babies are perfect.

I will always stand for the perfection of babies. I will always believe in God, not man’s interpretation of what God requires.

Same as tattoos, plastic surgery. He is an adult and he “wants” it then off you go. Mothers were right to keep their babies intact.

Last of it, if you feel it is your right to cut things off your babies please unfollow and f**k off. I’ll take attentive parenting over barbarism.

When one of his fans tweeted him asking him if she should get her son circumcised he had a firm reply as to why she shouldn’t mutilate her son.

Twitter follower ‘Picknic11’ asked him: Do you think I should get him circumstanced?’

He replied, Here’s a life rule, if you can’t spell it, don’t do it.

Conclusion

Circumcision cannot be undone. Most of us have heard the casual dismissal, “Almost everyone is circumcised so it doesn’t matter.” Our contention is that it does matter. It is blatantly sexist to refer to female circumcision as genital mutilation and then to pretend that male circumcision is not mutilation as well. There are more erotogenic nerve endings in the foreskin than in any other part of the body, the clitoris included. The latest statistics we have seen places American circumcised newborns at 55%. But that means that 55% of America’s youngest generation will never know what sex with their entire penis would feel like. What’s worse is that the removal of foreskin robs both partners of sensation, though much more so for the man.

Far too often we also hear the argument that circumcision prevents disease.

Sadly, there aren’t any parts of the body that come with a lifetime guarantee against disease. Breasts can become cancerous, fingers can become arthritic, toenails can become ingrown, earlobes can develop malignant melanomas. Males are far more likely to have serious problems with their appendix than with an intact penis. If disease prevention is insufficient justification for the amputation of fingers, breasts, or the removal of toenails or the appendix, then we should take a moment to ask why routine infant circumcision is really done. If it doesn’t make sense to amputate or remove other body parts upon birth, then there is also insufficient justification for the amputation of foreskins. Male foreskin serves many purposes beyond heightened sensation. It also protect the glans, and this helps to maintain sensation later in life.

If we are to continue the practice of circumcision, then we must continue on our own terms as consenting adults. Parents cannot remove other body parts or tattoo their children upon birth. Why is this human rights violation still tolerated?

Recommended Reading:

• Circumcision, the Primal Cut – A Human Rights Violation
• Celebrities Who Have Spoken Out Against Vaccines

Sources:

• The Kind Mama: Alicia Silverstone on Circumcision – Peaceful Parenting
• Saved by the Baby – The Circumcision Discussion
• Mario Lopez: Circumcised or Not? Wendy Asks. Mario Answers. – You Tube
• Mario Lopez Condemns Circumcision – Howard Stern Show
• Craig Ferguson on Circumcision – You Tube
• The Tip of the Iceberg Famous Men Who Resent/ed Being Circumcised
• Actor Gerard Butler and Howard Stern penis talk – why circumcision is wrong ! – You Tube
• Cameron Diaz Talks Circumcision While Matthew Morrison Squirms – Exclusive! – You Tube
• Joe Rogan and Greg Fitzsimmons discuss circumcision – You Tube
• Joe Rogan talks circumcision- “I think it’s stupid…” – You Tube
• Joe Rogan Live From The Tabernacle – Circumcision Bit
• Say No! to Circumcision – Intact America
• 10 Celebrities Who Are Anti-Circumcision – The Stir Café Mom  

Sometimes trusting your instincts is better than trusting the experts. Too often as parents we ignore our gut instincts, and we are duped into following bad advice, the kind of expert advice that has been backed up with faulty research.

Research is often flawed. In years past, the main problem was bias. In modern times, bias it still a problem, but more often problems arise from conflicts of interest. Instead of pursuing objective results, research is commonly twisted to support corporate agendas. Ultimately the scientific method is self-correcting, but this can take a long time. Life is too short to trust the experts and take harmful advice to heart. There is no substitute for doing your own research.

Cry It Out Method

Culture influences science in many ways and so do changes in family structure. In most parts of the world, parents share caretaking with other adult relatives. In America during the late 1800s, extended families were often broken up and the typical American family became a smaller unit. During this transition, new parents had to cope with raising children on their own, a highly independent but unnatural approach to child rearing. This is the cultural backdrop that gave birth to the crying it out method.

It was falsely believed that parents would spoil their children if they were too attentive to their needs. This belief wasn’t based on real evidence, but it was later supported by several poorly conducted studies. This behaviorist view became ubiquitous, and even the government echoed the same advice.

An old U.S. government pamphlet told mothers that babies should never inconvenience adults and that catering to the needs of a baby was a serious waste of time. The goal was to teach a baby as young as 6 months to quietly sit in its crib.

Letting your infant “cry it out” can cause brain damage, actual neurological harm as well as psychological harm. It is not a way to make a child more independent; it makes a child more dependent. By meeting babies’ needs early on, they become much more independent later in life. And interacting with infants is not a waste of time; it is a highly educational and productive activity. Entertaining your baby stimulates their neural development.

Infant Nutritional Advice

From the late 1800s through the 1960s, many pediatricians’ recommendations were either abusive or negligent, depending upon your point of view. As a matter of fact, following their advice today would most likely result in very sick infants, the loss of parental rights, or both.

Sir Frederick Truby King, and Walter W. Sackett were two widely followed “expert” doctors who were champions of bad advice. Sackett’s books are still being sold.

King believed in enforcement parenting. He advocated feeding babies every four hours during the day and never feeding them at night. He recommended placing infants in their own room and leaving them alone in the garden for long hours in order to “toughen them up”. He also firmly believed that cuddling should never be done to excess. Ten minutes a day was his recommended maximum allowance for physical affection. To him, parenting was about routine and discipline, not affection or bonding. Sadly, his advice was widely taken to heart.

Walter Sackett also advocated a four-hour daytime only feeding schedule. By his own admission, this schedule was enacted for the convenience of the hospital. He recommended the introduction of solid foods for infants who are 2-3 days old beginning with cereal and introducing meat at 14 days. He argued that, “Research has shown that baby’s digestive tract will not be harmed by any food he can swallow.” Of course, modern research refutes this harmful advice. He believed you could give a hungry infant water instead of food. He even recommended giving coffee to six-month-old infants!

Many doctors also recommended formula over breast milk. This recommendation, like so many others, was inspired more by corporate payoffs than by scientific findings.

Obviously, these days we know better. Breast milk is the best food for our babies, and other foods should be introduced one at a time. We recommend starting at the earliest with fruit at six months of age. Foods that are common allergens, such as strawberries, should be delayed. Infant formula should be avoided if at all possible. Many formulas contain GMOs, MSG, and other harmful substances. Even the healthiest infant formula pales in comparison to nature’s super-food, breast milk.

The reason that foods should be delayed at least this long is a baby’s gut is highly permeable. This is known as a virgin gut (in an adult a highly permeable gut is known as leaky gut syndrome). When breast milk seeps through the gut, this is not harmful. Permeability with other foods can result in allergies and other health issues.

Separate Sleeping

It is an American notion that children should be left to sleep in their own room, and if they don’t like it (none of them do), they can just cry themselves to sleep. Throughout most of our history as human beings, and throughout most of the world, infants have always slept with their parents.

WEB MD, American Academy of Pediatrics, and many other medical authorities warn against co-sleeping. Web Med states the following:

Sharing the bed with your baby multiplies the risk for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) fivefold, according to a 2013 study. The American Academy of Pediatrics cites the dangers of SIDS and suffocation, and recommends that parents keep their baby out of their bed, especially during the first 3 months of life.

Colson encourages room sharing. To lower SIDS risk, follow two rules when you do put your baby down in his crib or bassinet. “The most important thing is that the baby is always put to sleep on his back, and that there isn’t anything around the baby like pillows, heavy blankets, or bumpers.”

Many Americans are convinced by their recommendations. In reality, co-sleeping predates SIDS. Before it was known as SIDS it was called crib death, and for good reason. Babies forced to sleep alone (made to sleep in cribs) are more likely to die from the stress, and babies need their mothers in order to take cues for breathing. A breast-fed baby almost never dies of SIDS, and when they do, they are usually well vaccinated and left to sleep alone.

SIDS was so rare prior to 1950 that it isn’t even mentioned in the statistics. Mass vaccinations began after the 1950s. . Forcing a baby to sleep alone is an unnatural arrangement for the baby and the mother. Infants who are fed formula, who are forced to sleep alone, and who are well vaccinated run the greatest risk of SIDS. The SIDS rate in America has fallen with the rising popularity of breast feeding, but there is so much more we can do to protect our children.

Dr. James J. Mckenna shares his research on co-sleeping.

…Touching infants changes their breathing, body temperature, growth rate, blood pressure, body temperature, stress levels and growth itself. In other words, the mother’s body is the only environment to which the human infant is adapted. As Dr. Winnecott, the famous child psychologist put it, “There is no such thing as a baby, there is a baby and someone.

… sleeping alone in a room by itself and not breastfeeding are now recognized as independent risk factors for SIDS, a fact that explains why most of the world never heard of SIDS.

…the breathing of the mother and infant are regulated by the presence of each other — the sounds of inhalation and exhalation, the rising and falling of their chests, and the carbon dioxide being exhaled by one and inhaled by the other expediting the next breath! I have argued in scientific articles that this is one more signal to remind babies to breathe, a fail-safe system should the baby’s internal breathing transitions falter.

…Holding, carrying and sleeping with a baby is not just a nice social idea, but also an important contribution to their well-being.”

Many new parents are worried that they will forget their baby is in the bed with them and roll over on them. This is a remote possibility. New parents are ablaze with hormones (both mom and dad) and it is highly unlikely they will forget the presence of their child, even when sleeping. But a poor diet and environmental toxins can disrupt hormones; making this nightmarish scenario more likely. Co-sleeping is not without risk, but leaving the infant to cry it out and just “get over it and self soothe,” abandoned and alone in its room, is a more dangerous option. Forcing a baby to sleep alone guarantees some harm to the infant, while co-sleeping carries no guarantee of harm.

Child Protective Services and other similar but differently named state agencies do not look kindly on co-sleeping. Many parents who co-sleep still have baby rooms set up, with cribs and all, even if they never intend to use them, just in case overzealous social workers show up on an anonymous tip.

A co-sleeping crib or a co-sleeping basinet is a possible middle ground, as long as the baby can maintain physical contact with his/her mother.

Precautions should be taken to ensure the safety of a co-sleeping infant. Falling off the bed onto the floor can be fatal. To prevent this, many co-sleeping parents simply put their mattress on the floor with no frame and no box springs. Other parents pile up pillows around the bed as a way of breaking a baby’s fall should they roll off the bed.

Circumcision

Since the 1800s, experts have promoted circumcision as prevention for a laughable list of medical conditions from excessive masturbation to crossed eyes, nervousness, and epilepsy. Dr. John Hutchinson, a dedicated advocate of circumcision in the 1890s, states the following in making his case for genital mutilation.

It is surely not needful to seek any recondite motive for the origin of the practice of circumcision. No one who has seen the superior cleanliness of a Hebrew penis can have avoided a very strong impression in favour of removal of the foreskin. It constitutes a harbour for filth, and is a constant source of irritation. It conduces to masturbation, and adds to the difficulties of sexual continence. It increases the risk of syphilis in early life, and of cancer in the aged. I have never seen cancer of the penis in a Jew, and chances are rare”.

Circumcision is an unnecessary, painful, traumatizing operation performed on newborn infants that can lead to infection and death.

Doctors are highly motivated to conceal the true cause of circumcision death. Neonatal circumcision has no medical indication and is now considered to be an unnecessary non-therapeutic operation. It is unethical to carry out such operations on minors who cannot consent for themselves. Consequently, most doctors who have a baby die after a circumcision would prefer to attribute the results of his unethical operation to secondary causes, such as infection or bleeding, while ignoring the primary cause, which is the circumcision that resulted in the infection or bleeding. It is, therefore, very hard to identify the total number of deaths that occur from circumcision. One senses that one may be seeing only the “tip of the iceberg,” with the vast majority of deaths from circumcision being concealed. The deaths undoubtedly cause an increase in infant mortality. Male infant mortality is higher than female infant mortality. It is not known how much of this increased mortality is due to the practice of male circumcision. CIRP

Conclusion

Bad parental advice from the experts is undoubtedly still ubiquitous. On many issues such as co-sleeping, experts are divided on what is best for our children. In times past, there often was more of a consensus on what should be done, but this was still no guarantee that the experts were right, not when the prevailing views of experts were to toughen up our children by abandoning them for extended periods of time and not holding them for more than ten minutes a day.

Other controversies concerning parenting still abound, such as whether or not to vaccinate. If you’re researching what is best for your child, your research should be thorough. Include a look at what other countries practice to gain a more complete understanding. For example, American children are the most heavily vaccinated in the world, and they are also the most chronically ill.

If an expert says something you agree with or disagree with, investigate further and learn all sides of the argument. All children are unique and each family is unique. Ultimately, we decide what is best for our children. Knowledge is our best defense.

Recommended Reading:

• Circumcision, the Primal Cut – A Human Rights Violation
• How To Detoxify and Heal From Vaccinations – For Adults and Children
• Five Things You Can Do to Help Your Child Manage ADHD Naturally
• Children, Cell Phones & Health
• Surprise, Surprise: Soft Drinks Cause Behavioral Problems in Young Children, Research Proves

Sources:

• Dangers of “Crying it Out” – Psychology Today
• Six childcare gurus who have changed parenting – BBC News
• Bringing up babies; a family doctor’s practical approach to child care. – Walter W. Sackett.
• Co-Sleeping With Your Baby Is Risky – Web MD
• My Conversation With Co-Sleeping Expert James McKenna – Huffington Post
• Hutchinson on Circumcision -History of Circumcision
• Circumcision Deaths – CIRP

Imagine This

You bring a beautiful baby girl into this world. You count her fingers and toes. You can’t believe the wonder of this tiny, perfect human being. She trusts you to keep her warm, nourished, and safe from harm.

You and others hold down your baby or when she has grown and is a little girl. Someone uses a scalpel, a knife, a razor blade, a piece of glass, or some other sharp instrument to cut the skin off of her clitoris and remove all or part of it. Perhaps more is done. Perhaps the inner lips of her labia are removed. Perhaps the opening to the vagina is surgically altered. Perhaps the entire labia is sewn together leaving only a small opening, one that is not large enough to deliver a baby, not large enough to allow intercourse unless it is ruptured and torn.

If you live in the United States or Great Britain, you will probably go to the country from which you or your family originated – Africa, Asia, or the Middle East – to have this procedure performed because it is illegal in the United States and Britain. In Britain, you would face a 14-year prison term. In the United States? Probably 30 years, or more.

You love your daughter. Why would you do this?

You do this for social, cultural, or religious reasons. You do this because you have been raised to believe that female circumcision promotes cleanliness and reduction of libido, aiding in chastity before marriage. Your culture tells you your unaltered child is not marriageable. You do it because it was done to you or the mother of your child. You do this because it was done to all the women in your family. You do this because you believe it is the right thing to do.

The list of complications from female circumcision is long. At one end, we find infections, at the other end, sterilization or death. Altered vaginal openings may result in infant death or maternal death during childbirth. Sexuality is forever altered due to the loss of the clitoris and the damage done to other tissues. The circumcision is performed at various ages and can result in significant emotional trauma. This horrific practice continues primarily due to custom and religion.

Now Imagine This

You bring a beautiful, perfect baby boy into this world. In less than 24 hours, a nurse, doctor, or midwife comes to you with a clipboard and a form, asking you to sign permission to cut off the foreskin of your baby’s penis. Skin that nature provided to protect the glans. Skin that is filled with nerve endings that heighten sexual response. Skin that works with the penis during intercourse for normal sexual function, increasing pleasure for both the male and the female.

Why would you do this?

You do this for social, cultural, or religious reasons.

You do this because you have been told that male circumcision promotes cleanliness or prevents disease. You do this because it was done to you or the father of your child. Or you do this because you fell for the lame argument, “You don’t want him to be teased in the locker room for looking different, do you?”

History of Male Circumcision

Looking back at the history of male circumcision in the United States, we find that male circumcision has been the norm in this country for generations. We, as a culture, have been brainwashed into believing that an intact foreskin results in a lack of cleanliness that leads to disease, including cancer and HIV. But that’s not how this medical malpractice started in the United States. It began with the fear of sexuality – specifically, nocturnal emissions (wet dreams) and masturbation. Circumcision was claimed to cure or prevent both of these “horrific acts.” These claims were followed by more claims and “scientific” papers “proving” ridiculous cures through circumcision. These cures and preventions include:

• Prevents syphilis
• Cures epilepsy
• Prevents epilepsy
• Prevents spinal paralysis
• Cures bedwetting
• Prevents curvature of the spine, paralysis, and clubfoot
• Cures abdominal neuralgia
• Cures eye problems
• Prevents crossed eyes
• Cures blindness, deafness, and dumbness
• Prevents blacks from raping white women
• Cures urinary and rectal incontinence
• Prevents tuberculosis
• Prevents penile cancer
• Promotes chastity
• Prevents prostrate cancer
• Prevents venereal disease and cancer of the tongue
• Prevents cervical cancer in women
• Provides immunity to nearly all physical and mental illnesses
• Cures nervousness
• Prevents bladder cancer and cancer of the rectum
• Prevents urinary tract infections
• Prevents AIDS
• Prevents neonatal group B streptococcal disease
• Prevents HIV infection

The information above was included in an interesting slide show presented by the International Coalition for Genital Integrity. Their slides show the rise and fall of circumcision rates in the U.S. and the U.K. along a timeline in association with the misinformation pushed upon the American people through the medicalization of circumcision. (See link below).

The history of circumcision predates recorded history and is a global phenomenon. It is argued that the practice of circumcision came from cultural diffusion, that it was a practice that started with early man in Africa and was retained after humanity dispersed. The argument for this belief is simply that it was unlikely the practice started spontaneously across the globe in various cultures. However, we should bear in mind that many human behaviors started spontaneously and independently across the globe including agriculture, pottery making, tools, and weaponry.

It is also argued that foreskin (especially if it is tight) is a physiological barrier to early sexuality that aided in delaying reproduction, thereby favoring natural selection. Many cultures ritualized circumcision as a rite of passage from childhood to manhood—preparing the young man for a sexual union.

It was not only a tribal rite in many places across the globe. It was performed in ancient Egypt as shown by mummies and by hieroglyphics, it is also believed it was performed on slaves and conquered warriors as a show of dominance and humiliation.

Circumcision and Religion Today

People of the Jewish faith practice circumcision due to their belief that God commanded it of Abraham and his descendants (and those he bought) as “…a token of a covenant betwixt Me and you. …And the uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that should shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken My covenant.” Genesis 17:714

Cleanliness and hygiene are essential to the Islamic faith. Circumcision is believed to be an important aspect of cleanliness. “Five things are part of the fitrah: shaving the pubic hair, circumcision, trimming the moustache, plucking the armpit hairs, and cutting the nails.” Although they do not believe it to be a covenant between God and mankind, they do believe circumcision is submitting to the will of God. They believe female circumcision to be mutilation; it is strictly forbidden.

The Current Pro-Circumcision Argument

In 1975 and again in 1983 and 2005, the American Academy of Pediatrics stated, “…there is no absolute medical indication for routine circumcision of the newborn.” Today they state the following on their website:

“The American Academy of Pediatrics believes that circumcision has potential medical benefits and advantages, as well as risks. Evaluation of current evidence indicates that the health benefits of newborn male circumcision outweigh the risks and that the procedure’s benefits justify access to this procedure for families who choose it, however, existing scientific evidence is not sufficient to recommend routine circumcision. Therefore, because the procedure is not essential to a child’s current well-being, we recommend that the decision to circumcise is one best made by parents in consultation with their pediatrician, taking into account what is in the best interests of the child, including medical, religious, cultural, and ethnic traditions.”

The arguments for circumcision include:

• Fewer urinary tract infections
• Less risk of penile cancer
• Less risk of transmission of some STDs including HIV

Urinary Tract Infections

Multiple studies have consistently shown fewer urinary tract infections among circumcised infants compared to uncircumcised infants. However, it is important to note that urinary tract infections among all male infants are rare with an annual estimated rate of 0.18% in circumcised male infants verses 0.70% in uncircumcised male infants.

Penile Cancer

According to the American Cancer Society, “Risk factors for developing penis cancer include human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, not being circumcised, being age 60 or older, phimosis, poor hygiene, many sexual partners, and tobacco use.”

Penile cancer is rare. In the U.S. the current projected stats for 2015 are 1,820 new cases will be diagnosed and 310 men will die from penile cancer. It accounts for less than 1% of the cancers afflicting men; however, it accounts for up to 10% of cancers in men in some parts of Asia, Africa, and South America. Penile cancer is more common among Hispanic men than non-Hispanic men.

HPV, the human papilloma virus, is believed to be responsible for about 63% of penile cancers, though the CDC states that cancer registries do not collect data on the presence or absence of HPV in cancer tissue at the time of diagnosis.

HIV and Other STDS

When reading scholarly articles about circumcision and STDs, the logic or lack thereof in some of the reports is astounding. For example, in the report, Male circumcision: assessment of health benefits and risks, it states: “There is substantial evidence that circumcision protects males from HIV infection, penile carcinoma, urinary tract infections, and ulcerative sexually transmitted diseases.”

It also says, “Eight (studies) reported a statistically significant association between presence of the foreskin and HIV infection, one reported a trend towards an association, one reported no association, and one reported an increased risk with circumcision. To our knowledge, the latter report is the only one in the literature in which, after controlling for potential confounding factors, male circumcision has been associated with an increased risk for HIV infection.”

In another study, male circumcision and common sexually transmissible diseases in a developed nation setting, its conclusion is as follows: “From the findings of this study, circumcision of men has no significant effect on the incidence of common STDs in this developed nation setting. However, these findings may not necessarily extend to other setting where hygiene is poorer and the spectrum of common STDs is different.”

Circumcision is Painful

We do everything in our power to protect infants from fear and pain, and yet we pretend circumcision is not painful. In reality, it is both painful and traumatic.

Most babies scream frantically when their foreskin is cut off. Some defecate. Some lapse into a coma. The reason some babies don’t cry when they are circumcised is that they can’t cry because they are in a state of shock.” –NOCIRC

Risks of Circumcision

It is rare that a circumcision is completely botched, but it does happen. There are cases where the outcome is the loss of the glans, the shaft of skin, or the entire penis. And there have been cases of sexual reassignment due to the loss of a penis. Babies have died. Other risks include infection, excessive bleeding, and complications from anesthesia (if it was used). We do not know but can only guess at the emotional cost an infant suffers from the initial cut and up to 10 days or more of painful healing. We do not know how this trauma affects bonding during this crucial time.

Circumcised males may suffer from scarring, skin bridges, tearing and bleeding at the circumcision scar site, curvature of the penis, or tight, painful erections.

Not only have they lost the foreskin with all of its many nerve endings, most or all of the sensitivity of the glans has been lost as well. Many circumcised males resent the fact that they are not intact and were not given the choice.

Declaration of the First International Symposium on Circumcision

We recognize the inherent right of all human beings to an intact body. Without religious or racial prejudice, we affirm this basic human right.

We recognize that the foreskin, clitoris, and labia are normal, functional parts of the human body.

Parents and/or guardians do not have the right to consent to the surgical removal or modification of their children’s normal genitalia.

Physicians and other healthcare providers have a responsibility to refuse to remove or mutilate normal parts of the body.

The only persons who may consent to medically unnecessary procedures upon themselves are individuals who have reached the age of consent (adulthood), and then only after being fully informed about the risks and benefits of the procedure.

We categorically state that circumcision has unrecognized victims.

In view of the serious physical and psychological consequences that we have witnessed in victims of circumcision, we hereby oppose the performance of a single additional unnecessary foreskin, clitoral, or labial amputation procedure.

We oppose any further studies that involve the performance of the circumcision procedure upon unconsenting minors. We support any further studies that involve identification of the effects of circumcision.

Physicians and other healthcare providers do have a responsibility to teach hygiene and the care of normal parts of the body and to explain their normal anatomical and physiological development and function throughout life.

We place the medical community on notice that it is being held accountable for misconstruing the scientific database available on human circumcision in the world today.

Physicians who practice routine circumcision are violating the first maxim of medical practice, “Primum Non Nocere” (“First, Do No Harm”), and anyone practicing genital mutilation is violating Article V of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights: “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment…”  –  Adopted by the General Assembly, March 3, 1989 Anaheim, California USA

Conclusion

The truth is simple. There was no flaw that surgery can improve upon in the design of our genitals. The foreskin protects the penis. During infancy, the foreskin is adhered to the glans, protecting it from urine, feces, and friction from diapers. In later years, its protective cover keeps the glans moist and the skin soft while protecting it from trauma and injury, whereas unprotected glans become dry, calloused and desensitized. The two other functions of the foreskin are sensory and sexual. An intact penis is four times more sensitive than a circumcised penis. Genital integrity is the right of every human being. It’s time we put an end to this barbaric practice.

Sources:

• Where We Stand – Healthy Children.org
• Female genital mutilation – NHS Choices
• Jewish Practices & Rituals: Circumcision – Brit Milah – Jewish Virtual Library
• Penile Cancer – American Cancer Society
• HPV-Associated Penile Cancer Rates by Race and Ethnicity – CDC
• Male Circumcision – CDC Fact Sheet
• Personal Hygiene : Cleanliness is Half of Faith – The Religion of Islam
• Male circumcision: assessment of health benefits and risks; Stephen Moses, Robert C Bailey, Allan R Ronald – Departments of Medical Microbiology, Community Health Sciences and Medicine, University
• of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
• Male circumcision and common sexually transmissible diseases in a developed nation setting B Donovan, I Bassett, N J Bodsworth, Genitourin Med 1994;70:317-320