Salem-News.com: Circumcision and Cancer of Sexual Organs with a Minority of Ashkenazi Jews

Dr James Pate, MD: Newborn male infant circumcision declining in U.S. says CDC

Dr. Pate posts information on the recent announcement by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that the rate of male infant circumcision is decreasing.

Salem-News.com: CIRCUMCISION: Medicine Practicing Below the Usual and Customary Standards of Care in Ritual

A discussion of infant circumcision relative to the standard of care of infant surgery.

Circumcision is not a necessary treatment and not recognized as such by any medical organization worldwide.  Circumcision is a sacrificial genital flesh and blood ritual.

“One of the most common ethical issues raised by the principle of respect for the autonomy is paternalism.  The term refers to the practice of overriding or ignoring the person’s preferences in order to benefit them or enhance their welfare.  In essence, it consists in the judgment that beneficence takes priority over autonomy.  Historically, the medical profession has endorsed paternalism.  Today, while still common it is considered ethically suspect. Motivations must be questioned.  Circumcision is an act of violence.

The WHOLE Network: Pressure from Spouses: A Botched Circumcision Leads to Regret

A mother is pressured into circumcising her son. Unfortunately, her son’s circumcision did not go well. Circumcising an infant is more complicated and difficult than most people realize. The penis is small and not fully developed. It is difficult to judge how much to take off. Doctors also do not want to take the time to properly do the surgical procedure and blood vessels are often nicked or severed, resulting in uncontrolled bleeding.

I’m a baby boy, tiny and weak, yet I’m fighting…

but, all alone in this fight… I’ll lose.

Circumcision, the more you know, the more you are against it.

Sickly Cat: Should I Circumcise My Baby?

A father considers the circumcision question for his son. He comes up with 23 reasons not to circumcise an infant son. He does not identify any reasons why other than he thinks guys who were circumcised at birth “turned out alright.” I beg to differ. Many men suffer from botched circumcisions and circumcision complications. Not all men turn out alright by having their sex organ partially amputated.

Intact America: INTACTIVIST OF THE MONTH: Shelton Walden

This month Intact America celebrates Shelton Walden, a media producer, videographer, and host/producer of “Walden’s Pond,” a weekly radio program on health, culture and politics that’s been airing on New York’s WBAI/Pacifica Radio since 1989.

Babble: Two Sons, Two Different Decisions

For her second son, this mother learned about the harms of circumcision and opted to leave him whole. Her first son’s circumcision was very traumatic for him and her.

He was a bloody, screaming mess — and so was I. I couldn’t believe that I had put my brand new, perfect baby through such a medically unnecessary, painful procedure. It was nearly more than I could handle.

heatherly84:

(via Beleives in God WITHOUT EVIDENCE ITS JUSTIFICATION FOR MUTILATING BABIES PENISES - Privilege Denying Dude | Meme Generator)

I don’t know what asshat made this, as it just popped up randomly on MemeGenerator.net when I was going to the Roleplaying Rabbit, but this is so ABSOLUTELY FUCKING ENRAGING that I’m reblogging and hoping that it gets back to the creator by some kind of internet osmosis.

Some facts for you, you asshole:

1. Circumcision is not mandated in very many religions.

Christians are not required to circumcise. In fact, historically, some Christians have been forbidden to circumcise. (The Roman Catholic Church formally condemned the ritual observance of circumcision and ordered against its practice in the Ecumenical Council of Basel-Florence in 1442- if I had to guess, probably because of Leviticus 19:28, which expressly forbids cutting or marking upon the body.)

Pagans/Wiccans are not required to circumcise.

Ba’hai are not required to circumcise.

Hindus are not required to circumcise.

Sikhs are forbidden to circumcise.

And on and on and on. Circumcision is only very rarely a religious issue (such as in Judaism). And on that…

2. Not all religious Jews circumcise.

Hi. I’m Jewish- observant and religious. And I support intactivism. My sons, should I have any (currently, I have only one child- a daughter), will never be circumcised. And there a lot of other Jews out there like me. There are enough like me out there that there’s an entire alternative ceremony for baby boys on the eighth day after their births, called brit shalom, for us to use instead of brit milah (ritual circumcision). There are enough like me out there that there’s an intactivist movement in Israel. IN ISRAEL.

Check out:

http://beyondthebris.com
http://kahal.org
http://jewsagainstcircumcision.org
http://jewsfortherightsofthechild.org
http://www.thewholenetwork.org/14/post/2011/8/the-many-jews-who-oppose-circumcision.html
And the book “Questioning Circumcision” by Dr. Ronald Goldman.

3. Not all Jews who DO cirumcise believe in G-d. 

Jewish is not just a religious descriptor, like Christian. It’s an ethnic descriptor (which breaks down into further ethnic descriptors, like Ashkenazi [white Jews of Eastern or Western European descent, especially German descent], Sephardi [Spanish or Portuguese Jews, or Central/South American Jews of Spanish or Portuguese descent], Mizrahi [Arab Jews], Italikim [Italian Jews], Beta Israel [North African Jews, particularly Ethiopians], Kaifeng [Chinese Jews], Yokohama [Japanese Jews], etc., etc.). It’s also a cultural descriptor (each of the above-mentioned groups has their own traditional language, foods, and other ways of living).

There are entire organizations for ethnically/culturally Jewish atheists, such as The Society for Humanistic Judaism.

A crapton of Jews who’ve circumcised their sons are ethnic or cultural Jews who are avowed atheists, who did it for reasons of family tradition or family resemblance. (I think it’s weird as hell, not to mention completely illogical, when a father insists that his son be circumcised because he wants his son’s penis to look like his own. But it happens. All. The. Time.) They didn’t do it because they’re invested in preserving that particular part of the covenant.

4. The vast majority of circumcision in the United States is “medical” circumcision, NOT religious circumcision.

Raise your hand if you are, or have met, or have had sex with, a circumcised gentile. I’m willing to bet there’s a lot of hands up right now. Most baby boys in my country are circumcised in the hospital by a doctor with a Gomco, Mogen or Plastibell clamp- NOT at home/in temple by a mohel with medical shears. Even a lot of Jewish baby boys are circumcised this way, instead of having a traditional bris. (See above on non-religious Jews who circumcise for other reasons.)

Plenty of atheists with no cultural identification with Judaism still go ahead and circumcise. Check out the chapter of “The Kid: What Happened After My Boyfriend And I Decided To Go Get Pregnant (An Adoption Story)” by Dan Savage in which he and his boyfriend get into a protracted fight on whether or not to circumcise their son. Both Dan and Terry, his boyfriend, are atheists- Dan from an Irish Catholic family, Terry from an English Episcopalian one. Terry, like the fathers I mentioned above, is moved by a desire to have his son’s penis resemble his own.

5. You do not have to be circumcised to be Jewish.

This right here? This is the thing that gets overlooked so much whenever the topic of ritual circumcision comes up. This is the thing that makes me crazy when people blame religion for circumcision, whether they’re for or against the practice.

Let me repeat that very carefully: You. Do. Not. Have. To. Be. Circumcised. To. Be. Jewish.

To be Jewish, you have to either:

A) Have a Jewish mother (this gets you into ANY Jewish movement, whether Orothodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist, Karaite, etc.), OR

B) Have a Jewish father (Reform movement only), OR

C) Formally convert with classes, study, choosing a Hebrew name, satisfactorily expressing yourself to a Beit Den and taking your walk through a mikveh.

End of story. Adult male converts generally aren’t asked to be circumcised unless they’re trying to go into an Ultraorthodox community.

And the funny thing is? When that happens, there’s still no baby’s penis being mutilated, because the convert in question is an adult who is choosing that for himself.

So there you have it.

And, in conclusion…

Fuck you.

gabibear:

clockworkjerk:

restoringtally:

Male Circumcision and HIV: Mike Gatto, The Face of Genital Cutting in America

A California politician instigated a bill banning local communities from restricting infant circumcision. See California proposes an Anti-anti-circumcision bill. Unfortunately, the bill passed and it is now going to the Governor.

don’t maximize the photo if you’re squeamish.

Instead punch his ignorant barbaric face and write him letters of disgust.

perhaps, being a girl i have no right to say anything, but i live in america and have freedom of speech, so here it goes, circumcision has been around for YEARS, in many societies, its not necessarily ”barbaric” considering how young the boys are when they get circumcised, its done for health reasons as well, itd be a lot more ” barbaric” if they did it when the boy was older. but this is just my opinion, call me a monster or whatever, but when i have sons, im getting them circumcised.

There are countries in Indonesia that cut the genitals of baby girls in the hospital. Is that barbaric? If you think so, what is the difference other than their sex?

As for all the other reasons, sorry, but your ignorance is showing. The health reasons are pretty much bogus since everyone has running water available to them.

Just because something was done for a long time does not make it right. Chinese foot binding had a long tradition. But it was eradicated in less than a generation through education.

If a male is circumcised as an adult, he can take pain meds as needed, a baby cannot communicate that his penis hurts after his circumcision. He has to put up with having his wound in a dirty diaper. Surgery is much harder on an infant.

(via gabibear-deactivated20111003)

The WHOLE Network: Circumcision: A Jewish Mother Has a Change of Heart

Circumcision is one of those issues that has moms flaring at the nostrils and screaming in protest regardless of how they personally feel about the issue. This mother came to realize that genital cutting is an alteration to the body that only can be made by the person with the body part to be cut. That is, the male, when he is old enough, should decide for himself if he wants part of his penis removed.

The WHOLE Network: Proper Care of the Intact Penis (From Baby to Teenager)

At birth, the male foreskin is fused to the head of the penis (just like the female foreskin- the clitoral hood- is normally fused to the glans of infant and young preadolescent girls). This is the body’s way of protecting the genitals against urine and feces. Because it is fused shut, bacteria and other foreign particles cannot invade. It is absolutely unnecessary to forcibly retract the foreskin to clean under it, and in fact doing so will cause bleeding, scarring, and damage to the penis.