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What is the motive?

OK - now I'll get on my soapbox and criticize male circumcision. And for those that minimize the negative impacts on boys and men, consider this:

1) complications in baby boys ranging from minor secondary infections, to major necrotic penile tissue, amputation and even death. These are all well documented in the U.S. The annual numbers for these major complications are a few hundred per year. With U.S. baby boy births in the 2 million or so (annually), that may not sound like much. But what do you say to these boys for completely unnecessary surgery? Whoops?

2) lifetime pain is possible if they cut off too much tissue. In those cases it is an erection itself that causes the pain (not enough skin). I'm going to get personal now and admit that this is my case. I don't blame anyone, this was simply the custom at the time. But people know better today.

3) 2/3 of the nerves to the penis are severed with circumcision. Can anyone credibly claim that this forcible diminishment of sensation is not wrong?

4) Older men that have been circumcised have substantially higher rates of impotence, presumably due to the greatly reduced sensation.

Though it is not as bad as female circumcision, like female circumcision, if done non-consensually, it is a violation of human rights (in my opinion). How can anyone defend this?

While I agree that male and female circumcision are different, they both are still genital mutilation. And worse, conducted on a child who is unable to give consent. In todays modern age, there is NO reason, not even a tiny, itty-bitty reason, for male circumcision to still be carried out. Health wise, boys need only to be taught how to clean themselves properly. Similar, for example, that little girls need to be taught to clean themselves. If one wanted to argue that the skin should be removed for cleanliness, the same person could argue that the labia be removed on a woman for sanitary reasons and "cleanliness." Are we seriously suggesting that boys or girls can't figure out how to clean their body?

I think circumcision done on a minor is a human rights violation. Its genital mutilation and anyone who argues against that is just blindly following a tradition, or refusing to see that men, too, can be victims of genital mutilation.

Unlike some of the posters seem to be arguing, one can be against male circumcision AND against female circumcision. Stating that male circumcision is genital mutilation does NOT distract from female genital mutilation. It is not one or the other.

I think people are so used to male circumcision as a cultural imperative that they have chosen to ignore how pointless it is. They're willing to fight to the death to keep this practice in place, and I think that it's largely because there are so many men walking around out there who were circumcised at birth and don't like the implication that something bad was done to them when they were too young to object to it. So they sort of have to pretend to be cool with it. In fact, plenty of them will get defensive when you suggest that we shouldn't be doing it to infants.

For God's sakes, a penis is perfectly clean with its foreskin intact as long as you teach little boys how to clean it properly. Why not just shave off a little girl's labia when she's an infant because you think it "looks funny"? Body modification of a child IS TWISTED. They're BABIES. There is nothing WRONG with them.

I'm also disgusted by the piercing of little girls' ears while they're still babies, but that's a whole other rant.

UPDATE: Whoa, Fereshte, get out of my head, girl!

circumcision of males is just as pointless and ridiculous as it is of females. The health risk stuff is a load of crap. Anybody that can't figure out how to wash his dick shouldn't be trusted with one in the first place.

And I have known males - usually at the urging of their mates - that were circumcised as adults, and they said they felt a marked decrease in sensation. And that is certainly the majority opinion.

It's a superstitious, religious, cruel and totally unneccessary practice.

Just glad my parents weren't stupid enough to buy into it.

edit: having said that, I still think Fereshte should get best answer.

I have read some strange answers in the defense of such an act.
1. It looks better.....Look genitalia are all ugly, sex isn't called bumping uglies for nothing.
2. It's cleaner. Look I have had a foreskin all my life and it's like any other part of the body if you don't keep it clean it will eventually smell and get infected. If you didn't wipe your **** that wouldn't be healthy either.
3. It feels better for females? This is the funniest of all. Though I am not a female I am pretty sure their vagina's are not that sensitive they can tell if a man has a foreskin or not, I mean it's designed retract to expose the glands during intercourse intercouse anyway.

Yeah, religion sucks.

It is such a commonplace injury that people want to believe it is not a severe one. No parent wants to have to face that they have harmed their infant.

The denial about male circumcision is such that I have heard Western feminists who are educated and enlightened about all the ways women have been injured or harmed dismiss the male foreskin as "just a little piece of skin". The placement of the scars would indicate otherwise, but we do not see what we do not know to look for.

It is an unethical medical procedure. There is no medical necessity to amputate healthy tissue from an infant, and from what I've read the human foreskin is not just tissue, it is an organ with a function.

There are many societies in this world where circumcision is required for religious reasons and custom.
In our country practicing Jews are circumcised because of their belief in Torah and laws that govern Judaism. The practice of circumcision in Judaism is thousands of years old.
I disagree it is a mutilation; it is a ritual that is performed with care.

Everything we do has a risk. You walk, you have the risk of falling. You drive, you have the risk of a wreck. Women choose to give birth, which could also kill them. We make our choices and hope for the best.

Everything we do has a risk. You walk, you have the risk of falling. You drive, you have the risk of a wreck. Women choose to give birth, which could also kill them. We make our choices and hope for the best.

I've honestly never even seen a penis that hasn't been circumsized. :/