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Darby

Darby
• The practice of circumcision persists in the United States even though it has been abandoned in other English-speaking countries that originally took it up.
• About half of all newborn boys are still being circumcised.
• Rise   of circumcision associated with:
o The fear of masturbation and anxiety about juvenile sexuality
o The misidentification of the naturally non-retractile state of the foreskin as an abnormality.
o The puritan beliefs and morals in the nineteenth century.
o Fear of incurable diseases such as syphilis.
o The rise of surgeons.
• Even though few believe there is real value in circumcision, and many regard it as cruel and harmful, parents still demand it for their children as if it were a social expectation.
• It has been found that circumcised men have more STDs, both bacterial and viral, than uncircumcised men, and that the United States has the highest incidence of HIV infection of any country in the developed world except Portugal.
• A badly performed circumcision causes discomfort or poor cosmetic outcomes, which usually leads to other operations to fix the mistakes, something surprisingly common.
• Since human body parts have a high market value and baby foreskins are major raw materials used for many biomedical products (i.e., antiwrinkle cream), it is believed that the strongest pressure for the continuation of circumcision does not come from doctors or parents, but from hospitals that take the foreskins and sell them.
• In Australia, New Zealand, Britain, and Canada, the duties of pediatrics are to discourage parents from circumcising their children, and to refuse performing the operation. However, in America doctors neither recommend nor deny this procedure, they just do as they are told.
• According to Sarah Waldeck, parents continue to get their male infants circumcised because of the social norms set by society.
• Waldeck concludes that these American norms can be changed if:
o Parents are required to pay for...