Re: Genital Mutilation and Jewish Religion

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From: young_h@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz (Hugh Young)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish
Subject: Re: Genital Mutilation and Jewish Religion
Date: 21 Oct 1995 20:35:21 GMT
Organization: Wellington City Council, Public Access
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In Message: <4635qr$1kr@netnews.upenn.edu>
weemba@sagi.wistar.upenn.edu (Matthew P Wiener) wrote
 
>Foreskins don't have a use.

Uses of the foreskin:

protects the glans from abrasion and keratinization
contains 100,000 Meissner corpuscles for sexual sensation
For the first three years, while attached by the synechia, protects theinfant glans from irritation, meatal stenosis, UTI.
as a rolling bearing, facilitates masturbation and vaginal intercourse.
stimulates partner's genitalia
stores smegma, nature's own lubricant
in plastic surgery, for repair of hypospadias, burnt eyelids (for the foreskin's *owner*, I mean - which reminds me, we haven'teven *touched* on *property rights* here) etc.
There are more...

>Routinely cutting them off is no problem,
>from a strictly medical point of view.

Problems of circumcision:

Urinary tract infection
In our experience, we have found cases of staphlococcal pneumonia, ascending urinary infection, and sepsis that have resulted from infection at the site of circumcision.
~ T E Reichelderfer and J R Fraga, Circumcision in: K S Shepard, Care of the Well Baby, 2nd ed, Lippincot, 1968, p 302
Haemmorrhage and sepsis
Although haemorrhage and sepsis are the main causes of morbidity, the variety of complications is enormous. The literature abounds with reports of morbidity and even death as a result of circumcision.
~ N. Williams and L Kapila, Complications of circumcision, Brit. J Surg 80: 1231-6, 1993
Pain
There is no doubt that circumcisions are painful for the baby. Indeed, circumcision has become a model for the analysis of pain and stress responses in the newborn.
~ H Stang et al, Local anesthesia for neonatal circumcision, JAMA 259: 1507-11,1988
Necrotizing fasciitis
galloping gangrene
~ J R Woodside, Circumcision disasters, Paediatrics 65: 1053, 1980.
Surgical errors and healing problems
The nature of circumcision dictates that errors of omission and commission, i e too little or too much, in assessing how much foreskin to remove are likely to happen and one of he commonest complaints is of an unsatisfactory cosmetic result.
~ Williams and Kapila, op cit.

(In this connection, wouldn't the best amount to be taken depend in some measure on how big the penis was going to be in adulthood - something the surgeon couldn't possibly know?)
Death
It is an incontestable fact at this point that there are more deaths each year from complications of circumcision than from cancer of the penis.
~ S S Gellis, Circumcision, Am Journ. of Diseases of Childhood, 132: 1168, 1978

Most practicising paediatricians have seen unfortunate consequences from the operation of circumcision, and seen or personally heard of death directly resulting from it.
~ R S Illingworth, The Normal Child, Some Problems of the Early Years and their Treatment, 8th ed, Churchill Livingston, Edinburgh, 1983, p 98.

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