Is this the first disagreement you’ve had with your co-worker? She appears to be somewhat prickly.
Perhaps she doesn’t feel like discussing her son’s genitalia with someone she knows on the job. Or offering sufficient detail to excuse behavior you already consider barbaric.
Has she expressed disgust that you’ve chosen to leave your son “natural”? That would be wrong, of course. Since you realize that there’s no real medical contra-indication to circumcision, perhaps you should leave it up to the child’s parents.
That said, I personally am glad I am circumcised, because I like the way it looks. And forgive me if someone above already mentioned this and I missed it, but I have seen studies showing that uncircumcised is more prone to HIV infection.
If I ever have kids (which at this point seems unlikely), it’ll be the father’s decision as to whether to circumsize any potential son. I don’t have a penis, don’t really care whether or not it’s circumsized, and I wouldn’t insist on it to conform, as, well, half of my family line comes from areas where circumcision is incredibly uncommon.
My family doctor pierced my ears at 18. (My grandmother thought it was a barbaric practice–she was the Presbyterian grandmother, not the Catholic one.) He had many Hispanic patients; the little girls usually had their ears pierced by relatives. He had never seen any complications.
Have you ever looked at dresses for baby girls? The ones for “special” occasions–not just lounging about the house. They do, in fact, make the kids look like little dolls. Small, cute–they can’t help it! Should all babies wear unisex sackcloth?
Much what I was thinking. Seems awfully strange to get into a “heated argument” with someone over their religious and medical decisions for their own children, let alone make judgments over how “Jewish” they are. Isn’t that, like, their business?
People can be culturally Jewish without being observably religiously Jewish. Even a non-observant Jewish woman, having Jewish parents and Jewish relatives, might choose to circumcise her son out of respect for her relatives, to whom such a thing might well matter a lot. Besides, precisely how traditionally Jewish must she act before IYO she has the right to have her son circumcised? Who are you to sit in judgment of her faith or lack thereof, or her parenting?
As for my feelings: I don’t have strong feelings either way, but since circumcision is more common than not in the U.S., if my husband didn’t care I probably would have a son circumcised. If my husband didn’t want it done, it wouldn’t be done, because it isn’t a big issue for me either way.
Seems like I’ve heard that men circumsized as adults report a drastic loss of sensation post-procedure. I would think that if more parents knew this (if it is actually true) it would affect the decision making process. I mentioned this once to a (circumsized) male friend once and his reaction was that if he’d had any more sensation in that region as a boy he would never have been able to concentrate on school work - solve a problem at the chalkboard in front of a class, etc.
Why do you care and are pissed off about what your co-worker is going to do?What does being a scientist have to do with it?
Really? I can only remember being with one guy who wasn’t and thought it looked odd.
I’m in the pro-circumcision camp because it looks better. Of course I don’t have a penis. Seriously, it’s up to the parents. I think if your partner is circumcised so are your children usually. My husband was an my son was and never gave it a lot of thought.
My opinion is that it’s none of your business and you should shut up. I agree with Jodi that being Jewish is a cultural as well as a religious thing and that your co-worker going to have her kid circumcised no matter what.
Circumcision is like religion in that there is a 95% chance that you will be cut like your Dad. I suspect that there is a trend away from circumcision in America. When I was a kid in the 60’s, an informal poll in the locker room was that everybody was circumcised.
I think the best argument against circumcision is that there is a small but finite chance of fucking up. I would guess that this is more likely when you’ve got some old Rabbi with no medical training doing it. In a hospital, you probably have some trained surgeons who could sew the thing back on.
I think circumcision is ridiculous, but not as ridiculous as the fights people get into about it.
“Looking better” is obviously highly subjective. We weighed the risks and benefits, decided that aesthetic considerations weren’t really enough to justify a surgical procedure on a newborn, and opted out. That having been said, it’s a personal decision and I got no beef with anyone who goes the other way.
That is a ridiculous statement. I would imagine that most people who have their son circumcised believe that it is in his best interest to do so, whether it’s because they think it is healthier for him, or they think it will prevent teasing, or they think it’s necessary in God’s eyes. I know parents who have had their boys circumcised and parents who haven’t and all of them love their kids with every fiber of their being.
Parents have no more right to surgically alter their son’s genitals without pressing medical need than they do to alter their daughter’s. Routine infant circumcision is completely unjustified, immoral, and barbaric. Religion is no excuse. An uncircumcised male can later decided to have a circumcision later if he so decides. A circumcised male however can NEVER truly restore his foreskin. The most he can do is try go grow extra skin so it looks like a foreskin. I was circumcised as an infant and have never forgiven my parents for it. Ever since I learned was a foreskin was I’ve been upset that they took it upon themselves to have my cut off without even waiting until they could ask me. I’ve started restoring, but it’ll take years to come close to getting back what some quack hacked off in a few minutes.
I’m really surprised at how many people are defending the right of the parents to alter their baby’s body. Babies have rights, and bodily integrity is one of the most basic. I respect tradition enough to be willing to look the other way and allow the tradition to expire in its own time (and it will), and I do believe that parents who do it have as much regard for their children as parents who don’t. But circumcision is still a violation of that kid’s right to control his own body.
That is a ridiculous statement. I would imagine that most people who have their son circumcised believe that it is in his best interest to do so, whether it’s because they think it is healthier for him, or they think it will prevent teasing, or they think it’s necessary in God’s eyes. I know parents who have had their boys circumcised and parents who haven’t and all of them love their kids with every fiber of their being.
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Can’t be true because then they wouldn’t.
No, should the boy get any grand ideas about his own inherent dignity or value, there is the perpetual reminder that he was brought into the world as livestock to be reared for the purpose of propagating a culture or religion.
We were all set to circumcise my son. Did some research and nothing convinced us one way or the other so we opted for the “like father like son”. However, it turned out they were unable to do it at the hospital, the foreskin was too small and the penis too think making it easy to screw up. Took him to a pediatric urologist a couple weeks later to reconfrim and said we could try again after he’s at least 6 months old. I did some more research and came to the conclusion that I’m actually glad it couldn’t be done and we won’t bother revisiting the issue a few months from now. If he wants to or it becomes medically necessary when he’s older that’s fine but just to be similar to me is not a good enough reason to do it IMHO.
Of course I don’t have a penis. Seriously, it’s up to the parents. I think if your partner is circumcised so are your children usually. My husband was an my son was and never gave it a lot of thought.