Yes. Millions of babies have had cleft lips repaired.
Is cleft lip/palate really in the same category as circumcision? I suppose it’s “elective” in that you could hypothetically leave it and the child would survive, unlike something like hypoplastic left heart syndrome, but it can cause feeding issues, make the child’s speech virtually unintelligible, and cause them social ostracism. You could choose not to have the issue fixed in your child but I think that would probably get Social Services interested in you.
Nothing substantive to add…
but…
Wasn’t it a plot line in Nip Tuck that the teenage son of one of the doctors tried to perform a self circumscision? Mum found out and had to call dad who had to “fix” the problem…he did if for his girlfriend if I recall - she didn’t want to have anything to do with a foreskin and said teenager wanted to get himself some.
Homer Simpson: Dean Peterson, I’m really sorry for the running you over with my car prank.
Dean Peterson (in a hospital bed): Prank?
I’d say cleft palate surgery is more reconstructive, and it actually improves function so one can hardly say it’s just cosmetic. Circumcision doesn’t make a penis work better.
I think it’s an utterly unnecessary procedure for the vast majority of boys born today. It’s really just kept up for religious and cultural reasons and hopefully it’s starting to decline. We’re about to have our first (a boy) and we’ve made it clear that he will not be getting this procedure. Our (Jewish) doctor could not be more supportive of this (but then he’s just a top class doctor all around, highly recommend him if you’ve having a baby in the Chicago area).
One thing I would like to add though is one “argument” (absurd for so many reasons) that people give in support of circumcision: the myth of the locker room.
I’ve never been to a locker room where I’ve had men or boys stare at my junk. In fact, if you did so as a teenager you’d be the center of a shit storm of scorn and abuse for checking out another guy. By way of example for two years I was the only un-circumcised male in a locker room of over 90 Jews so I think (at least anecdotally) I know what I’m talking about.
As a counter-example, I remember kids in 4th grade pointing and laughing at one boy. His penis was downright conical. Later that same year I had some weird condition where part of my penis was swollen in an unusual way, and I took great pains to hide it in the locker room.
Never came across that myself and honestly that’s the first time I’ve ever heard a story like that. It also seems that the poor kid had a very unusual penis, with or without circumcision.
Honestly it was the only time I saw it happen.
Sounds unpleasant. Complete tangent but kids can be very unpleasant at times. My best friend was the resident tough guy in our neighborhood (I was born and raised on Dublin’s Northside which is traditionally the more working class area of Dublin). He was genuinely tough as nails and prone to exceptional violence. The only time he ever gave me grief though was when I was picking on a neighborhood kid who couldn’t run. He made it clear that bullying someone for imperfections that were outside of their control was a sign of weakness and need on my part. Pretty profound for a twevle year old! Always stuck with me.
Twelve years of public school, 11 years of gym class, 6 of which required changing, not once did I ever even have to take my underwear off.
I will always regret not having my kids’ appendixes (appendices?) removed. I swear to god those kids have abdomens only a mother could love.
Seriously - I don’t know what to say about the original story beyond my stock answer for really bad stories: some people just fucked in the head.
Y’know, a mean prank on a drunken comrade is leading him to get a tattoo of something you tell him are the Chinese characters for “I ride the dragon’s fire” when it actually stands for “I like to take it up the rear”. Or having him wake up wearing only girls’ panties and handcuffed to a railing on the Main Street bridge.
But, …this…? Actual surgery-under-the-influence, by unlicensed moyel, on your “unit”? :eek::eek::eek:
That’s setting the bar high(?).
That’ll be enough thread-shitting from you, MPB. Cut it out.
Point taken.