There has been a lot of debate on male circumcision. Is it really a necessary operation which every male should undergo?
I have been prompted to ask this after reading content on the internet where one gentleman wrote, "As a male that was circumcised 50 years ago at the age of 6, I say there is no good reason for circumcision. If your doctor says you need to be circumcised, get another doctor! Competent doctors can treat the rare problems of an uncircumcised penis without surgery, incompetent doctors circumcise".
Some of the reasons he gave for this are that if you do a lot of walking, running, cycling or climbing, the rubbing against your clothing will feel like you are rubbing the tip with sand paper.
I am not circumcised so I can't say whether this is true but I have reservations on circumcision because I have never come across any convincing reason why it is important to be circumcised. Most of the reasons given are either more to do with promiscuity or plain unreasonable.
Take for instance the argument that MC (male circumcision) enhances your hygiene because it allows you to wash your head easily. I honestly don't think it is that complicated to pull the skin and wash the head. How long does it take for someone to pull back his foreskin to wash himself? Using surgery instead of washing in a modern society makes no sense at all. In infants, the foreskin is attached to the glans at birth and it is should never be pulled to try to clean under it. It requires no care and should be left to be retractable on its own at a given time, the average age being 5 - 10 years. Don't you think there is a reason why it is naturally like that? One of the reasons could be for protection from infections from outside. There are also moral arguments against circumcising a child as it removes a part of that child's genitals without his consent.
There are people who say that male circumcision is the first line of defense against sexually transmitted diseases and that women prefer it.On protection against sexually transmitted diseases, I think it is preposterous for anyone to believe this. Women get infections as well but we do not remove their labia to prevent it. STDs are prevented by condoms or abstinence.
Many people choose to be circumcised and that is purely their own choice and nothing that should be forced on anyone especially through misinformation. Medical studies have shown that there are no medical reasons for circumcision and like all other surgical procedures, circumcision has a risk of complications and adverse events that include bleeding, infection, surgical error, injury to the penis, etc.
It makes sad reading when we read stories like the one in 2007 about a nine week old baby boy who bled to death hours after being circumcised. The baby was operated on but later his parents opened his nappy and found a huge amount of blood. Wast it worth it to lose that life?
Photograph courtesy of Victor Habbick / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
