Circumcision, a Cultural Perspective
Feb 08 '00
I come from a different background than most people here. We are from the Netherlands and routine circumcision is just not done over there. When I just started reading the Usenet news group misc.kids about 7 years ago, I was really surprised to find that American people did circumcise their infants!!! It seemed like a weird practice. I found it so weird, that I would mention it to other people in the Netherlands, and a lot of people didn't even believe me when I told that it was a normal thing here. They just couldn't imagine that it could be true!
Since then, I have read a lot about it and I still don't see the health benefits. The studies I have seen were not really convincing to me one way or the other and of course, living in a country where almost everybody is uncircumcised, I don't see all the medical problems that uncircumcised men are supposed to get according to the pro-circumcising forces here in the States. To be precise, I know have never seen any problems related to not being circumcised in ANY of my male friends or acquaintances in the Netherlands.
While I was reading about this subject, I found out that the reason it started in the States was to prevent masturbation (dr Kellogs, the one from the corn flakes was big on that reason, actually they were designed to prevent it too!) Later they have tried to find other reasons to justify it. It seems just a cultural thing to me, not a medical one. I guess in the Netherlands we are just not so focused on preventing masturbation, as they are here in the States :-)
More and more kids are not being circumcised today in the States, so nobody has to do it so the kid will look like other kids any more. My first 2 kids were born in the Netherlands, so it was not an issue there, nobody would have dreamt of offering circumcision. The last 3 were born in the States, but were girls, so no problems here either. But if we ever have a boy, he will not be circumcised and I have stated that in my birth plan every single time.
I just feel that I don't want to take away my sons foreskin without his consent. If he really wants to be circumcised, he is free to do so as an adult, but I am not going to decide on it for him while he is an infant. I feel that if you don't circumcise, you can always circumcise later (although I seriously doubt it would be needed or wanted by him). But if I do circumcise, it cannot be put back again later.
I was chatting to a Canadian friend a few days ago and she told me that in Canada it is now not being paid for by health insurance any more, and that has drastically reduced the circumcision rates over there. I have to admit that I was happy to hear that.
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
nursing3
|
|
Member: Karen Plomp
Location: New Hampshire
Reviews written: 62
Trusted by: 39 members
|
|
|
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.