Circumcision The jig is Up.
For whatever reason the genital cutting of children came into being, the
time is now right to end it.
Historical reasons for circumcision are hypothesised to be
blood letting rituals, tribal membership rituals, replacement for child
sacrifice, a covenant with God etc.
Myths to perpetuate the practice have evolved such as its a useless
piece of skin, it is dead skin, its cleaner, the child feels no pain, its a completely safe and harmless procedure, and its
better for whatever reason. Then culture
invades medicine and circumcision is used to medically reduce sexuality,
medically prevent masturbation, surgically cure mental illness, and surgically
the only way to prevent disease.
In the 21st century, with the advent of the information age
via the internet we can now dispel these myths and inform people with
facts. The foreskin is a functional sex
organ providing pleasure to the individual and their partner. Circumcision is harmful being extremely painful and it comes
with many complications including death.
There are more effective medical ways to prevent disease. Bodily integrity is a human right, and the
only person who has the right to decide is the individual being circumcised.
The one difficult area in ending circumcision is the religious
one. While people such as myself who are
non-believers find the religious need to circumcise primitive and absurd, those
who believe are deeply disturbed at attempts to restrict their religious
practices. If it was possible to alter
these beliefs my argument would be that to truly make a sacrifice, commitment,
or covenant with God, one must be consciously aware in the process, which
usually comes with adulthood. It needs
to be adults who decide to sacrifice their foreskin to their God, religion or
whatever. That privileges could
accompany those that choose circumcision, such as the position of rabbi or imam
are only available to those adults that chose circumcision for themselves.
The Jig is Up and children need our protection.
