Bi Avenger: Actually, a lot of people do compare male circumcision to female circumcision. Of course that's hyperbolic, but bear in mind that it's done without the child's consent. As for foot binding, I do agree with that comparison. Circumcision isn't fully reversible (even with foreskin restoration), and it can impact one's sex life. Notice, for example, how cut guys often have to use baby oil or hand lotion to jerk off, while uncut guys don't. That's not surprising, considering that it was originally adopted in the English-speaking world in the late 1800s and early 1900s as a way to prevent masturbation!

Second, the practice he's referring to is the routine circumcision that's done to boys in this country, not the religious practice among Jews and Muslims. There's no conclusive evidence that it has any medical benefit, including preventing infections, at least any more than using a condom and bathing regularly.

It's also worth noting that the U.S. is highly unusual in this practice. It's mostly died out in Canada and other English-speaking countries, and never really caught on in mainland Europe or Latin America. It's pretty common in South Korea, only because they picked it up from us, but uncommon in Japan and China.

We started doing it in this country because of misguided Victorian-era medical thinking, and now it's mostly because fathers don't want to have to explain why daddy's winky looks different and because stupid kids in the locker room might make fun of the guy with an "anteater."

I was fortunate enough to keep my foreskin, and I actually prefer guys who still have theirs as well.

The circumcision debate is somewhat interesting from a health policy perspective, but I have two main thoughts whenever the discussion turns personal.

1. Men who reach adulthood and begin or continue to mourn the loss of their foreskins need to just get over it. It's not coming back, and there are probably unrelated adjustments you can make to greatly increase your sexual pleasure.

2. Whether parents are going to have their child circumcised is a matter for them to decide and is not anyone else's business. Most boys I've met would be much more mortified to find that people are discussing their foreskins than to find that part of theirs is missing.

Wow, Father Tony, this is an issue that gets my blood boiling. The fact is the correct term here is barbaric! Religion itself is barbaric. They have a history of murder, torture, hate-mongering and yes, circumcision is barbaric. To cut on a small child (more often than not without anesthesia)is BARBARIC. How can anyone say cutting on someone who just comes into this world that it's Christian? How un-Christian!

Bi Avenger and Lucrece are out to lunch. Stupid in fact. Just plain stupid and arrogant. They are both barbaric in their thinking.

I just love these people who tell other people to butt out and not offer an opinion about male circumcision. Is it also "righteous" to have an opinion against female circumcision?

Any by the way, circumcision is a disgusting practice. Have you ever seen a botched circumcision? Not an attractive thing.

I thought the foreskin was supposed to be buried in the dirt in your backyard. There were no backyards in the South Bronx. I think this is a popular ritual because people feel males are uncooth, unclean and generally sloppy so let's make it easier on the mothers of newborns by eliminating "their" problem. Since a healthy penis is a source of immense joy, i don't see why the foreskin does not contribute to that significantly. I would also like to insist that all fathers of boys be present to witness the event. Great way to experience not protecting your kid in a moment of need the very first time you meet him. Ghastly. just horrible. Look at the pain involved. Tears and screams mean pain. I think circumcision is an assault on male infants that is meant to shock them into someones warped interpretation of the cruel world they have just come into.

Let's be clear on this. The only reason Christianity doesn't insist on circumcision (as Judaism and Islam do) stems from a marketing decision Saul of Tarsus made to make Christianity more appealing to adult pagan men. I'm Jewish, so the decision was automatic, and I like uncut men as much as anyone.

Yes, I generally oppose ANY opinion that's based on something in the Bible, but in this case I think we should understand the history involved. As long as there are no civil laws either way, why does it bother anyone that other people follow their beliefs?

Circumcision is torture!!!!! Helloooooooooooo

1. A parent making a life choice for an infant simply becasue they can is... well, barbaric. The child is an infant today and your child sure. But they do tend to grow up and someday will have the capacity to make that descision for themselves.
2. Circumsion isn't a hair cut, it doesnt grow back.
3. IMHO Enough accidents and infections happen that render the penis unviable afterwards to make this a really questionable practice.

Michelangelo's David is indeed uncircumcised. Many of the great Italian artists weren't much for realism, however. If, for example, you take a walk through any of the major Italian art museums, you will see any number of Annunciations in which it is apparent that Mary received the good news while reading in her well-appointed parlor in Tuscany.

Most people really can't properly say how terrible Circumcision is.

I myself am one of the people mentioned in "D" up there in this article, The foreskin was closing up and they had to cut it off, and really, comparing it to Binding feet is right on the spot.

Now I can't testify on whether it made sex more or less desirable since I'm a virgin, but even after the initial 2 weeks I had to recover from the circumcision and let the stitches dissolve, it took another 2 weeks to recover emotionally.

It was painful enough recovering from it, I can only imagine the pain of the babies, they aren't put under with laughing gas first and they don't get prescribed Pain killers to weaken the pain.

If you have a baby boy and you got him circumcised and he just wont stop crying and you've tried everything, it's probably because you circumcised him!

Sure, people who were circumcised from birth don't think it's a big deal but they don't remember having foreskin, and people who weren't circumcised can't even imagine how bad it is.

Who cares if it's important religiously to you, Mormons find Polygamy important to them, we don't make that legal.

Also pants are less comfortable without foreskin.

David: My comment was not exclusively about jewish people and i did not call it barbaric. I do not respect taking a knife to a newborn boy anymore than i do to a female entering womanhood. I never said that the right to circumcize should be denied you. I did not disrespect religion simply because you choose to honor your own. However, there are UNNECESSARY things people will do if they think they are behaving as god would deem fit. I do not have a theory about this and you are mistaken that i said it was "wrong" or implied that some law should be enacted not permitting the practice.

Two brothers are no longer talking. This is the more important issue.

I read that penis foreskin is often turned over to tissue banks for use in plastic surgical repairs for accident victims. The skin is especially useful for eyelid replacements.
I had to laugh when I read this, wondering if this made the recipients cockeyed?

Well David, i know from your posts how important your religion is to you and i can hear that in your words. I do think though that cutting is cutting. Although i admit after the physical healing, circumcision does not cause any further pain. It really is not a necessary procedure. I equate it more on the level of people with dredlocks. I have been told they believe god is going to pull them up to heaven like one pulls a carrot out of the ground hence; the hair is kept that way. We both know that if there is a god (that there is no need to prove), god will not select those with dreds only. I enjoyed hearing your pride in how the procedure is done but i did not hear the significance as to why? That would be interesting to know as well. There must be a spiritual reason that eveyone believes to put an infant child through that pain at eight days old.

I attended international schools where I was in the majority with my intact penis. I did however discover through interactions with several South Asian girls that our minority of cut males was balanced by a minority of cut girls.

My Indonesian friends for example informed me that over 95% of both boys and girls in that country are mutilated. My choice of words tells you where I stand on this issue. In their culture they believe that by removing the external portion of the clitoris they remove the "male" portion of the vagina and by removing the foreskin they remove the "female" portion of the penis.

I had a rare opportunity to discuss this issue in an Ethics class with Jewish males and Muslim girls present. The arguments are identical. The girls felt just as strongly that their religious rights must be respected and that having the tip of their clitoris removed at birth was an essential part of their relationship with God. The American media has been very careful to compare the most benign and "safe" forms of male genital mutilation with the most severe forms of female genital mutilation.

This doesn't represent reality. For every "civilised" Bris there is a surgeon removing a clitoris under local anesthetic and for every girl held down in a ditch and cut with a dirty knife there is a boy enduring the same fate perhaps nearby. The difference is that the Western world has agreed to protect the girl and ignore the boy.

I made my circumcision for the converting purpose of my muslim girlfriend's wishes. Her family arranged to my khatnah on their ritual way and it did not allow any skin to cover my glan. The circumciser pull my foreskin as much as he can to top and all extra skin over glan is removed by his sward then he made only sulture over edge. At this process he did not use any medicine. After healing, I and my gf like my all time exposed circ style. As for me, its not only hygiene but also my circ scar is love trade mark for my gf.