Why Is Circumcision Wrong

Circumcision On Male Babies In The U.S

Imagine having a part of you removed without your permission; that is what some babies go through every time their parents decide to circumcise them. Circumcision is a surgery performed on male babies to remove the foreskin from the head of the penis. It is unnecessary and unethical to put these babies in a position that could potentially scar them for life.

The procedure in unnecessary because the reasons behind it are contradictory and have many other solutions. For example, a reason why circumcision became common was because it was “a hope that circumcision would result in a decrease in masturbation” (Andres, 2007). However, circumcision was also thought as a way to prevent HIV (WHO, 2015).

Unless it is for religious reasons, many stating that masturbation is immoral and dirty, masturbation is the best way to go when it comes to preventing HIV. This procedure is unnecessary because it desensitizes the head of the penis, and there is no difference between being circumcised and uncircumcised, except for the pain that these infants have to endure since some babies do not even receive anesthetics. Since this is a surgery, it poses complications and sometimes even death. In a study conducted, 8,967 children were circumcised and 424 of the children had complications from previous neonatal circumcision such as “Penile adhesions, skin bridges, meatal stenosis, redundant foreskin (incomplete circumcision with uncircumcised appearance), recurrent phimosis, buried penis and penile rotation” (Pieretti et. al, 2010). These surgeries, although rare, can also result in death.
Circumcision is also unethical because it is forced upon these infants who have no say in whether they would like to be circumcised or not. We can use the example of children getting baptised as a baby. Some children who grow up as a Christian leave their religion when they grow up, because they did not choose it, it was forced upon them. The case is worse for babies getting circumcised because they do not get to just grow back their foreskin. Performing circumcision on male babies, while we dread the idea of circumcision on females, is wrong. To an infant, being forcibly restrained and having part of them cut off while feeling severe pain is comparable to being assaulted or tortured according to Goldman (1999). He also goes on to state that some infants can even develop PTSD symptoms such as having dreams about it and also try to avoid the topic of circumcision. Being a parent, how could you put your child in such pain without giving them a decision to make.
It is no surprise as to why parents would want to circumcise their child. Some parents do it because of religious reasons, hygienic reasons, and sometimes it is because they might even want their son’s penis to look the same to other men in the family. However, none of those reasons should be enough to put your child though such a traumatic position. Circumcision is an unessential procedure and it is a violation your child’s rights as a human being.