# Circumcision...medical necessity or barbarism **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 6, 2003, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circumcision-medical-necessity-or-barbarism/159606 "2003-03-06T23:48:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2003, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circumcision-medical-necessity-or-barbarism/159606/61 "2003-03-08T01:20:46Z")
My opinion on this manner goes along the following lines: 1. I don’t think it is nessacary, but I don’t find anything wrong with it either (“Barbaric” would not be an adjective I would agree with, except in the case of female circumciscion). 2. I am snipped, but it doesn’t bother me at all and I never once wished that I wasn’t. 3. Which choice you make for your kid is your business and only your business. 4. If I have a son, well, I guess it would probably be up to the mother since I really don’t care either way. ---
**Author:** ![istara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e79b87/32.png) [@istara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/istara)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2003, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circumcision-medical-necessity-or-barbarism/159606/62 "2003-03-08T04:35:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by catsix \* > \*\*Really, the foreskin moves right? It should slide back over the glans so it can be cleaned. \*\* Yes. In cases like my friend, where it’s too tight to slide back properly and causes discomfort, that’s when you may have to get circumsized later in life. ---
**Author:** ![Elethiomel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Elethiomel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elethiomel)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2003, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circumcision-medical-necessity-or-barbarism/159606/63 "2003-03-08T12:41:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by istara \* > \*\*Yes. In cases like my friend, where it’s too tight to slide back properly and causes discomfort, that’s when you may have to get circumsized later in life. \*\* I have foreskin that is too tight, but I won’t have to get snipped. I’m going to have an operation that stretches it so that it slides easily back. So that’s not a situation where you have to get circumcised for medical reasons - there are alternatives. On another note, I was self-taught when it comes to cleaning the penis under the foreskin. It’s not hard, not in the least. (My foreskin is only too tight when the penis is erected, so it slides easily back when it’s flaccid.) ---
**Author:** ![elfje](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19b73/32.png) [@elfje](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfje)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2003, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circumcision-medical-necessity-or-barbarism/159606/64 "2003-03-10T22:20:33Z")
Male circumcision has/had a hygienci reason. Men do not suffer because their foreskin has been removed. I’ve had a few lovers, and only my current boyfriend has been circumcised, and I have to say: I prefer it bigtime. It’s a whole different iussue where women is concerned, as wioth women, circumcision has nothing to do with hygien, and everything with dominance and power. FGM or Female gender mutilatiopn, as it’s called, removes the women’s pleasure from sex, while ccircu,cison woth men actually can highten it (the head of the penis gets a bit less sensitive, which means the man can go on for longer). I’m nopt in the pro camp or anti camp, I think it;'s personal decision. there are grown men who want to get circumcised, it’s not just babies that are “subjected” to it. ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2003, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circumcision-medical-necessity-or-barbarism/159606/65 "2003-03-10T23:32:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tars Tarkas \* > **I’m snipped, i think unsnipped penises look freaky,** There may come a time when penises that aren’t pierced by cock rings will be seen as “freaky”. Perhaps parents will even get their infant sons’ dicks pierced so that they’ll fit in better. ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2003, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circumcision-medical-necessity-or-barbarism/159606/66 "2003-03-10T23:35:19Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by elfje \* > **FGM or Female gender mutilatiopn, as it’s called, removes the women’s pleasure from sex, while ccircu,cison woth men actually can highten it (the head of the penis gets a bit less sensitive, which means the man can go on for longer).** How does becoming less sensitive **heighten** sexual pleasure, other than in the “endurance” department? (Fun fact: reduced sensitivity will result in longer lovemaking sessions if the man is sufficiently aroused, but if the man cannot reach that heightened level of arousal that time around – for whatever reason – then his reduced sensitivity will simply make him lose his erection.) ---
**Author:** ![pizzabrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e9c0ed/32.png) [@pizzabrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pizzabrat)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2003, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circumcision-medical-necessity-or-barbarism/159606/67 "2003-03-11T00:15:26Z")
Lissa: > [@](#): > > One friend of mine was about to make love to her boyfriend for the first time, but was very turned off when she saw his “un-cut” penis. Telling me about it later, she said she knew there was nothing “wrong” with it, just that it was the first she had ever seen with foreskin intact. To her, it was bizzare and unnatractive elfje: > [@](#): > > Male circumcision has/had a hygienci reason. Men do not suffer because their foreskin has been removed. I’ve had a few lovers, and only my current boyfriend has been circumcised, and I have to say: I prefer it bigtime. I cannot express how **infuriated** I am that _women_ are advocating the genital mutilation of _men_. If you can’t handle a real penis, that’s _your_ problem. > [@](#): > > It’s a whole different iussue where women is concerned, as wioth women, circumcision has nothing to do with hygien, and everything with dominance and power. FGM or Female gender mutilatiopn, as it’s called, removes the women’s pleasure from sex, while ccircu,cison woth men actually can highten it (the head of the penis gets a bit less sensitive, which means the man can go on for longer). How horrifyingly hypocritical (and just plain incorrect). ---
**Author:** ![Ms2001](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ms2001/32/18463_2.png) [@Ms2001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms2001)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2003, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circumcision-medical-necessity-or-barbarism/159606/68 "2003-03-11T02:18:54Z")
Occasionally, something goes wrong during a circumcision, and the baby ends up with a mutilated penis. It’s rare, but it happens… I used to know someone who was the victim of a botched circumcision, and he was still pissed about it 25 years after the fact. If you don’t circumcise, there’s no chance of it going wrong. That’s reason enough for me. ---
**Author:** ![forceps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/839c29/32.png) [@forceps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/forceps)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2003, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circumcision-medical-necessity-or-barbarism/159606/69 "2003-03-11T02:32:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by FDISK \* > \*\*I think that circumcision is bad, and I think it’s morally wrong to circumcise a child without a legitimate medical reason. However, I also don’t find it a terribly huge deal, certainly not on the level of female circumcision. If I was a doctor, I would refuse to circumcise a baby, and would strongly counsel the parents against doing so, but if people I know have their son circumcised, I’m not going to raise the issue. I see no reason, outside of religious ones, that parents WOULD circumcise their kid. If you really care, then let him make his own decision when he turns 18, fully aprised of the gravity of the decision. \*\* i decided on circumcision as an adult… it was late… i had my foreskin completely “developed” with veins through it and now it is visible that it was cut… few shadows from where stichces were are there too… if a doctor would noticed that i have problem with my foreskin and recomended circumcision in my early age these efects would be avoided… penis sure is not something for exhibition but… uhmm… why not?😛 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circumcision-medical-necessity-or-barbarism/159606.md?page=3)