Comments on Cut the Chatter, Red Two: Leave that thing alone

On the subject of AIDS, it is critical to note tha...

2006-12-18T12:05:00.000-05:00

On the subject of AIDS, it is critical to note that in Africa HIV is a heterosexual disease, so that female to male transmission (reduced by circ) is crucial to the virus' spread. In the West, AIDS is mostly a disease of gays (receptive anal) and drug users. Circumcision simply won't have any effect on AIDS transmission in the West.

Sorry, this board cuts the link short. It should b...

2006-12-17T16:07:00.000-05:00

Sorry, this board cuts the link short. It should be
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-65847575166
27632617&hl=en and you'll have to join it up yourselves. If that doesn't work, you'll find a link to it on the front page of http://www.circumstitions.com

The link to the video should be http://video.goog...

2006-12-17T16:01:00.000-05:00

The link to the video should be

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6584757516627632617&hl=en

When they say circumcision cuts HIV by 50% in Ugan...

2006-12-17T15:57:00.000-05:00

When they say circumcision cuts HIV by 50% in Uganda, that seems impressive, but they don't tell you it means they'd have to circumcise 56 men to prevent one transmission per year. (In the US, with its lower HIV incidence, the number - other things being equal - would be 380!) The time, expertise and money could be far better spent promoting safe sex, treating ulcerative diseases (which facilitate HIV transmission) and preventing malaria.

But the study is still far from convincing. The circumcised men (but not the control group) had to abstain from sex after their operations. This and cutting the experiment short make the effectiveness seem higher.

Each new experiment has a lower effectiveness, as they correct for more confounders. Not so long ago they were claiming 8-fold reduction. When they've corrected for everything, what will be left?

More at http://www.circumstitions.com/HIV-S
A.html

People who advocate cutting parts of babies' penises off should see what actually happens at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6584757516627632617&hl=en
Make sure you have the sound turned up.

Call me crazy, but shouldn't a decision like wheth...

2006-12-14T16:55:00.000-05:00

Call me crazy, but shouldn't a decision like whether or not to circumcise be made on an individual basis by the male in question when he is of an age to weigh the benefits/risks/consequences?

I had this debate with my parents recently, who told me that had I been a boy, they would've had me circumcised, simply for the fact that they would want me to be like my father. I cringed... I don't like decisions that affect my body, my self and my sex for the rest of my life to be made for me.

I don't see this practice on infant males going away any time soon, not in this country anyway. I found a very good article comparing male circumcision to female genital alteration:

http://law.case.edu/student_life/journals/health_matrix/11-2/59105.pdf

Ok, now let's go a few years into the future. Your...

2006-09-02T14:31:00.000-04:00

Ok, now let's go a few years into the future. Your son starts dating and is about to have sex for the first time...he's excited and thinks nothing of it. Then all of a sudden the girl goes "what is that?". I think getting it cut would actually be better mentally for him. I've known plenty of girls who have told me how they freaked out when a boy wasnt circumcised and I know I wouldn't be able to take that mentally. I for one am extremely happy I was circumcised....I would probably cry if I wasn't.

You probably saw it, but since you wrote this ther...

2006-08-23T15:35:00.000-04:00

You probably saw it, but since you wrote this there has been a lot of news about how circumcision greatly reduces transmission of HIV.

I totally blogged about this.

According to wikipedia, "According to a 1998 study, anaesthesia is used by 45% of physicians performing infant circumcisions... Obstetricians were notable in the study for a significantly lower rate of anaesthesia use (25%) than pediatricians (71%) or family practitioners (56%)." So, it seems that my assertion of "in general, there's no anaesthesia used" was not quite accurate. Still, according to these numbers, more than half of all doctor-performed circumcisions are done without anaesthesia. I have no idea about whether mohels use anaesthesia or not.

When I talked about something that affects you for the rest of your life, I was actually referring to the lack of foreskin, not the memory of pain, though I can see the confusion, since my comment was very badly written. Sometimes the words, they don't always come out, you know, like, goodly.

My point was that as a parent, you will generally do anything to spare your child unnecessary pain, which is what I consider circumcision to be. I don't consider vaccinations to be unnecessary, and the pain level is much lower.

I am not saying that parents who choose to get their child circumcised are evil, abusive monsters. I simply have yet to see any compelling evidence that it serves any purpose - so why would you choose to do something that hurts your child (even temporarily) if it serves no purpose?

First of all, a lot of circumcisions CAN be perfor...

2006-07-27T19:19:00.000-04:00

First of all, a lot of circumcisions CAN be performed with anaesthetic.
Second, most people can't remember anything that happened to them before they were a few years old. If you remember pains from 8 days old, you are the exception.

Are you honestly comparing the surgical removal of...

2006-07-26T22:16:00.000-04:00

Are you honestly comparing the surgical removal of foreskin (with no anesthaesia) to a vaccination, which stings for a few seconds tops? Puh-leeze. One affects you for the rest of your life, the other you forget about after a few minutes. There's no comparison.

Hardly anyone gets polio these days, but we still ...

2006-07-26T13:48:00.000-04:00

Hardly anyone gets polio these days, but we still vaccinate children against it (and it's not like needles are pain-free).