Porc Therapy 133: Circumcision

Stephanie and Mike talk about whatever issues or questions you have. In this episode:

[Listener feedback] Feedback from our swearing episode and talking to kids about swearing.

[Question] Hello Mike and Stephanie. Something that has been bothering me lately is the practice of newborn circumcision. Where did this originate from? How could parents who claim to love their children agree to circumcising them? If someone wants to be circumcised, then that should be that person’s decision and not the decision of anyone else. How could someone who was circumcised without his or her consent trust the parents who gave the healthcare professional permission to do the operation? Clearly any reasons given for circumcision are unfounded. According to some statistics, infant circumcision rates in the U.S. are falling; however, I’d like to that rate fall to zero everywhere. What really upsets me is people that say that the infant doesn’t feel pain when being circumcised. If you have seen video or pictures of a circumcision, you know that those people are clearly talking out of their rear end. I believe the relationship between parent and child is tainted in the first hours of life for people who are circumcised. If parents are full of it on the subject of circumcision, what other subjects are they full of it on? What are your views on circumcision? How could parents in this day in age be so clueless or heartless? Thank you for taking this on.

P.S. Stephanie, Does I have gud grammer!

[Stuff we talk about]
• Our swearing episode: http://porctherapy.com/2010/12/01/porc-therapy-101-swearing/
• Our circumcision episode: http://porctherapy.com/2010/04/16/porc-therapy-039-circumcision-decision/ (and the followup: http://porctherapy.com/2010/04/28/porc-therapy-043-circumcision-follow-up/)
• Stephanie’s article about circumcision on Lew Rockwell: http://www.lewrockwell.com/murphy-s/murphy-s12.1.html

[Disclaimer: take us with a grain of salt!]