Rationalizing Circumcision: An Exercise in Alternate Reality

Circumcision is an age-old euphemism for penile reduction surgery. For the past hundred years or so, America has been a largely circumcised society. It is a peculiar cultural trend; but one which could easily have gone down a different path! What sort of society might the Americans have had?

No flames please. This is just something to think about... an interesting comparison. Of course I'm not equating the two procedures, but the human rights issues that would be involved are identical in both cases. Boys and girls are equal under the Constitution, under God, under the Law and under the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights.

Rationalizing Circumcision: Contemporary America.

We have just had a beautiful baby boy, and are intending to have him circumcised.

The main reason we made this decision is that in America they have been routinely removing newborn baby boys' foreskins for over 100 years, and it has become the norm in our culture. Boys want to look like their fathers! Besides, little boys are circumcised.

One other reason we decided to have the procedure done is the risk of penile cancer. We have heard that if circumcision is not done at birth, the man will have to undergo it later in life, which is a painful operation. It is much easier to do a little snip at birth when it is not a problem.

Anyways, men do not need their foreskins. They can still havesex.

It is the right of the parents to decide whether or not their son will grow up with a foreskin. Besides, I have yet to meet any man who says he has felt harmed by circumcision. Anybody who says so must be crazy.

Rationalizing Breastcision: Alternate Reality.

We have just had a beautiful baby daughter, and are intending to have her breastcised.

The main reason we made this decision is that in America they have been routinely removing newborn baby girls' breast tissue for over 100 years, and it has become the norm in our culture. Women want to look like their mothers! Besides, little girls are breastcised.

One other reason we decided to have the procedure done is the risk of breast cancer. We have heard that if breastcision is not done at birth, the woman will have to undergo mastectomy later in life, which is a painful operation. It is much easier to remove the little bit of breast tissue at birth when it is not a problem.

Anyways, women do not need their breasts. Babies are much better off drinking baby formula from a bottle, which has been scientifically formulated (by doctors!) to contain all of the nutrients that they could ever need. There are a gazillion studies to show this.

It is the right of the parents to decide whether or not their daughter will grow up with breasts. Besides, I have yet to meet any woman who says she has felt harmed by breastcision. Anybody who says so must be crazy.

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