In defense of foreskin

A couple of years ago, I wrote in my previous blog about circumcision.  I concluded that entry by saying:

As far as I am concerned, circumcision is an elective cosmetic procedure being routinely performed on individuals who are incapable of giving consent. Although they can not communicate the extent, and do not remember years later, circumcision causes infants stress and at least some degree of pain. And although the complications are infrequent, it is by no means clear that the benefits outweigh the risks. Therefore, I would not, as a doctor, recommend neonatal circumcision to my patients, I would not perform neonatal circumcisions, and my sons, if I have any, will not be circumcised. That said, I understand that many people have and will continue to choose circumcision with the best of intentions. I only hope that parents who have yet to make those decisions will do so with an open mind and as true an understanding of the facts as is possible.

Now, not quite two years later, I am a mother to a son and, as promised, my son is still in possession of a foreskin.  I felt pretty strongly about the subject back then but it should come as no surprise that my feelings are even stronger now.  More than ever, I have a hard time understanding how anyone could give birth to a normal, healthy, baby boy, look at him and think, "He's perfect!  Well, except for that bit of skin there on his penis.  That needs to come off."  Do we really believe that 50% of the babies born in the world (ie. all males) are born with a birth defect requiring surgical correction?  When we took the twins for their 2 months appointments, they each got two shots, one in each thigh.  I understand the need for vaccinations and I won't hesitate to have the twins receive all of them.  But I hated seeing them in pain.  I cried with them because it hurt me to see them hurting.  Likewise, it would hurt me to see Liam strapped to a table and it would hurt me to see a part of his body removed when there is insufficient medical reason to do it.

Liam Connor McPherson, born perfectly perfect.

I know this is a very sensitive topic and many of my dearest friends and family members are mothers and fathers to circumcised sons.  And I know that men who are circumcised themselves will likely be incapable of discussing the subject without some significant cognitive dissonance.  To those of you who are still in the pro-circumcision camp, I still love you.  But I hate what you are doing to your sons.  To those of you whose sons are yet to be born, with very few exceptions, your sons will be born just as they are meant to be.  They are born to a generation that, unlike yours, is mostly uncircumcised.  The boys they grow up with will mostly be uncircumcised and the women they date and eventually marry will be more accustomed to uncircumcised men.  Their foreskin is impregnated with thousands of nerve endings and will protect the sensitivity of the glans of their penis.  The Gardasil vaccine will protect your son from the kinds of genital warts that lead to penile cancer.  The good hygiene you teach him will protect him from everything else.  Leave him be.