# circumcision
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circumcision/207076
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [October 13, 2003, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circumcision/207076 "2003-10-13T00:31:19Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@DuhCow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DuhCow)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2003, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circumcision/207076/1 "2003-10-13T00:31:19Z")
what’s the deal with circumcised penises? who gets it done and why? it appears to be more mainstream here, but is it? and a catholic guy down the hallway says catholics don’t get circumcised. who’s who in the world of circumcised penises?
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### Author:  [@UncleBill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBill)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2003, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circumcision/207076/2 "2003-10-13T00:42:27Z")
As a recovered Catholic and circumcised man, I declare your guy down the hall cite a bit questionable. It may not be religiously mandated by the Vatican, but it is a widespread American practice, irrespective of religious leanings.
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### Author:  [@x-ray\_vision](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/x-ray_vision)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2003, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circumcision/207076/3 "2003-10-13T00:43:35Z")
The new (1994) Catechism of the Catholic Church at paragraph 2297 states in part:
“Except when performed for strictly therapeutic medical reasons, directly intended amputations, mutilations, and sterilizations performed on innocent persons are against the moral law.”
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### Author:  [@bradministrator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bradministrator)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2003, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circumcision/207076/4 "2003-10-13T01:00:08Z")
If circumcision and English were good enough for Jesus, they’re good enough for me.
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### Author:  [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2003, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circumcision/207076/5 "2003-10-13T01:55:03Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by x-ray vision \*
> The new (1994) Catechism of the Catholic Church at paragraph 2297 states in part:
>
> “Except when performed for strictly therapeutic medical reasons, directly intended amputations, mutilations, and sterilizations performed on innocent persons are against the moral law.”
Do you have any citation to Catholic authority that interprets infant circumcision as violative of this mandate?
In other words, _you_ are inferring that circumcision is a “…amputations, mutilations, [or] sterilization.” Can you point to any Catholic authority that agrees with you?
- Rick
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### Author:  [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2003, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circumcision/207076/6 "2003-10-13T02:51:00Z")
The majority of males until just a few generations ago weren’t circumsized. I haven’t met a single male my age who has been, except myself.
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### Author:  [@doctordoowop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doctordoowop)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2003, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circumcision/207076/7 "2003-10-13T04:09:59Z")
wait til phimosis sets in - circumcision as a teen or adult is torture-no, there is general anesthsia, but the recovery hurts a great deal(so I hear).
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### Author:  [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2003, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circumcision/207076/8 "2003-10-13T04:23:03Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by doctordoowop \*
> \*\*wait til phimosis sets in - circumcision as a teen or adult is torture-no, there is general anesthsia, but the recovery hurts a great deal(so I hear). \*\*
Strictly in my experience, this is utter falsehood. Getting my wisdom teeth pulled out was far more traumatic and painful. Of course, you need to be vewy, vewy careful about what thoughts linger on in your mind.
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### Author:  [@Alereon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alereon)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2003, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circumcision/207076/9 "2003-10-13T04:25:17Z")
**doctordoowop** : I don’t think Phimosis can just “set in.” Once your penis has finished growing, how would the foreskin just start SHRINKING one day? Of course, I could be wrong. Regardless, circumcision on the off-chance that a child might develop a rare disease that is easily treated is rather silly.
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### Author:  [@Early\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Early_Out)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2003, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circumcision/207076/10 "2003-10-13T04:47:35Z")
OK, who’s been channeling **Jack Dean Taylor**? Come on, 'fess up!!
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### Author:  [@xvxdarkknightxvx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xvxdarkknightxvx)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2003, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circumcision/207076/11 "2003-10-13T05:03:24Z")
I’m 18, and every guy I’ve talked to about it (which is admittedly rare) is circumcised. It even went so far that one night a few of some bored friends and I decided to watch some porn. The owner of the tape asked us if we had ever seen an uncircumcised penis. Nobody had, so he fastforwarded to a scene with one. It was quite odd looking, I must say.
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### Author:  [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2003, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circumcision/207076/12 "2003-10-13T05:21:42Z")
[ABC News](http://more.abcnews.go.com/sections/living/dailynews/circumcision001207.html):
> [@](#):
>
> Today, about 65 percent of newborn American boys have their foreskins snipped in hospitals and religious ceremonies, down from nearly 90 percent a quarter century ago.
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### Author:  [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2003, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circumcision/207076/13 "2003-10-13T05:25:56Z")
[ABC News](http://more.abcnews.go.com/sections/living/DailyNews/circpolicy990301.html):
> [@](#):
>
> In Canada the rate is 48 percent. . .
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### Author:  [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2003, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circumcision/207076/14 "2003-10-13T07:59:30Z")
Tug Ahoy!!
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### Author:  [@Futile\_Gesture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Futile_Gesture)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2003, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circumcision/207076/15 "2003-10-13T12:59:42Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by doctordoowop \*
> \*\*wait til phimosis sets in \*\*
There is no reason to expect anything to ‘set-in’, any more that you should either get your toes amputated or wait until in-growing toenails ‘set in’.
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### Author:  [@MC\_Master\_of\_Ceremonies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MC_Master_of_Ceremonies)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2003, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circumcision/207076/16 "2003-10-13T13:21:59Z")
Male circumsion is practiced by Jews and Muslims as well as various tribes around the world religiously. AFAIK male circumsion is practiced secularly only in North America, orginally as a means of preventing masturbation, now purportedly for health benefits, though these benefits are highly suspect and it’s more of a cultural practice than a medical one.
In terms of world population about 20% of men in the world are circumiczed (I’m guessing that most of these are Muslims).
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### Author:  [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2003, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circumcision/207076/17 "2003-10-13T13:26:44Z")
> [@](#):
>
> who gets it done and why?
Well, according to **Walloon** ’s site, 65% of Americans and 48% of Canadians are the “who” in North America. I’ll bet the rates in Isreal are much higher. As to the “why”, there a variety of reasons. Some circumcise for religious reasons (Judaism calls for circumcision on the 7th day of life), some for medical reasons or on the advice of a doctor, some because “that’s what daddy looks like”.
> [@](#):
>
> Regardless, circumcision on the off-chance that a child might develop a rare disease that is easily treated is rather silly.
**Alereon** , this is \* exactly\* why I had my son circumcised. When the doctor asked us about circumcision I asked her about the medical risks/benefits. She explained that penile cancer and diseases of the penis, while rare in uncircumcised males, are almost unheard of in circumcised males. Hygiene is also an issue for uncircumcised males, especially when young. The single risk is mutilation either by a botched procedure or subsequent infection, either of which are vanishingly rare. I asked what decision she would make/had made for her male child(ren) and she replied “Circumcision”. Since we could virtually eliminate any risk of future disease with a simple, safe procedure my wife and I concurred with the doctor. How does this constitute a “rather silly” decision process?
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### Author:  [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2003, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circumcision/207076/18 "2003-10-13T13:43:47Z")
[Click here for all your Jack Dean Tyler needs](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=47631)
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### Author:  [@Jervoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jervoise)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2003, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circumcision/207076/19 "2003-10-13T13:52:21Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Walloon \*
> \*\*[ABC News](http://more.abcnews.go.com/sections/living/dailynews/circumcision001207.html): \*\*
Following **Walloon’s** GQ lead, the rate of circumcision in Australia has been snipped to around [10 per cent](http://www.cirp.org/library/statistics/Australia/) of infant boys.
However, the rate was much higher in the past: it was over [70 per cent](http://www.cirp.org/library/statistics/Australia/) during the 1960s, before being drastically cut in the following decades. Accordingly, around 50 per cent of Australian males today have undergone circumcision.
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### Author:  [@TVAA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TVAA)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2003, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circumcision/207076/20 "2003-10-13T14:35:16Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Doctor Jackson \*
> \*_ **Alereon** , this is \* exactly_ why I had my son circumcised. When the doctor asked us about circumcision I asked her about the medical risks/benefits. She explained that penile cancer and diseases of the penis, while rare in uncircumcised males, are almost unheard of in circumcised males. Hygiene is also an issue for uncircumcised males, especially when young. The single risk is mutilation either by a botched procedure or subsequent infection, either of which are vanishingly rare. I asked what decision she would make/had made for her male child(ren) and she replied “Circumcision”. Since we could virtually eliminate any risk of future disease with a simple, safe procedure my wife and I concurred with the doctor. How does this constitute a “rather silly” decision process? \*\*
If I may respond:
1. In European countries where routine neonatal circumcision is not practiced, the penile cancer rate isn’t any higher than countries where it is. That claim dates from the times when people with quality medical care and good hygiene were routinely circumcised for cultural reasons (and rarely got cancer) while people without medical care and with poor hygiene (and were relatively more likely to develop cancer) weren’t.
2. Since the prepuce normally remains attached to the glans for several years (sometimes not detaching completely until puberty), hygiene is not a problem for young children. It _becomes_ a problem if well-intentioned but ignorant parents or doctors try to clean under it and rip it away from the glans, which significantly increases the chance of infection.
3. Cleaning under the adult prepuce is extremely easy and takes very little time – it’s a great deal easier than feminine genital cleaning, or so I’ve been told. The risk of serious problems are much less than for women, who have a lot more hygiene issues to worry about.
4. Neonatal circumcision involves the amputation of a healthy part of the genitals: roughly one-third of the total penile skin. This skin has at _least_ the same concentration of tactile nerve endings as the rest of the penis, and some suggest that it’s more sensitive than the rest of the penis (more like the surface of the glans). The frenulum is often also removed in circumcision, and it’s known to be extremely sensitive.
In short, you’ve damaged your child’s perfectly healthy and normal genitals in order to gain the _potential_ benefit of avoiding a very rare disease that can be virtually prevented by basic hygiene. Way to go!
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