Circumcision: Barbaric Cruelty
Circumcision: Barbaric Cruelty
By Laura Strom
November 24, 2003
"It may well be that society 's greatest madness seems normal to itself."
Allan Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind
Circumcision practiced here in America is a terrible form of torture and mutilation, and should be outlawed. Originally circumcision was cutting a small piece of the tip of the foreskin on Jewish babies, not a complete removal of the foreskin organ. The notion that babies don 't feel pain during circumcision, is false. It is a serious surgical procedure, routinely performed without anesthesia, and has serious consequences for the baby. The foreskin is the sexual equivalent in a man, to the clitoris in a woman. We condemn female circumcision, and refer to it as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). Circumcision, as practiced by our medical community, evolved out of erroneous thinking. The medical community now denounces circumcision as a completely unnecessary surgery in infants. Most other countries do not practice this form of torture. Even Muslim countries, where circumcision is widely practiced, remove only the tip of the foreskin, and not the entire thing. When a society has common practices that are wrong, it is up to individuals to speak out against these wrongs. Circumcision in America is a terrible and cruel form of male genital mutilation, and it should be stopped at once.
It was not until around 200 C.E. that the Jewish circumcision ritual changed to involve the total removal of the foreskin. During the period of the Greek domination by Alexander the Great, it was common for young men to participate in athletic events in the nude. The young Greek men would tie a small string around the foreskin to keep the head of the penis from showing, which was considered rude. The Jewish men would also follow this practice as well, which hid the evidence of their circumcision under the string.1 This angered the patriarchal rabbis, and around the 2nd century C.E. they began a new
By Laura Strom
November 24, 2003
"It may well be that society 's greatest madness seems normal to itself."
Allan Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind
Circumcision practiced here in America is a terrible form of torture and mutilation, and should be outlawed. Originally circumcision was cutting a small piece of the tip of the foreskin on Jewish babies, not a complete removal of the foreskin organ. The notion that babies don 't feel pain during circumcision, is false. It is a serious surgical procedure, routinely performed without anesthesia, and has serious consequences for the baby. The foreskin is the sexual equivalent in a man, to the clitoris in a woman. We condemn female circumcision, and refer to it as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). Circumcision, as practiced by our medical community, evolved out of erroneous thinking. The medical community now denounces circumcision as a completely unnecessary surgery in infants. Most other countries do not practice this form of torture. Even Muslim countries, where circumcision is widely practiced, remove only the tip of the foreskin, and not the entire thing. When a society has common practices that are wrong, it is up to individuals to speak out against these wrongs. Circumcision in America is a terrible and cruel form of male genital mutilation, and it should be stopped at once.
It was not until around 200 C.E. that the Jewish circumcision ritual changed to involve the total removal of the foreskin. During the period of the Greek domination by Alexander the Great, it was common for young men to participate in athletic events in the nude. The young Greek men would tie a small string around the foreskin to keep the head of the penis from showing, which was considered rude. The Jewish men would also follow this practice as well, which hid the evidence of their circumcision under the string.1 This angered the patriarchal rabbis, and around the 2nd century C.E. they began a new
Bibliography: Goldman, Ronald. Circumcision: The Hidden Trauma. Vanguard Publications: Boston. 1997. Gollaher, David. Circumcision: A History of the World 's Most Controversial Surgery. Basic Books: New York, NY. 2000. Ray, Mary. "82% of the World 's Men are Intact". Mothers Against Circumcision Website. www.mothersagainstcirc.org. 1997. Rhinehart, John. "Neonatal Circumcision Reconsidered". Transactional Analysis Journal, Volume 29, Number 3, Pages 215-221, July 1999. The Holy Bible, Revised Standard Version. Thomas Nelson, Inc. Publishers: Camden, NJ. 1952.