Circumcision

Male circumcision is the removal by cutting of the foreskin from the penis. The usefulness, necessity and desirability of this procedure has been hotly debated. While circumcision is sometimes performed to relieve foreskin tightness (i.e., phimosis), is is also a cultural and religious practice. Female circumcision is even more contentious, as it involves more radical and invasive surgery, and usually involves an attempt to reduce sexual pleasure. For these reasons, the term circumcision usually refers to the procedure perfomed on males, while female genital modification or removal is often called female genital mutilation or female genital manipulation.

For Jews, circumcision is a commandment in the Torah. For Muslims, it is widely practiced although the Qu'ran does not mandate it. In parts of Africa, traditional rites have included circumcision for males and females as rites of passage, a practice defended as acceptable cultural difference by some, and deemed repugnant by others.

Those who oppose routine circumcision point out that it is extremely painful for a child to go through, is done without their consent, can adversely affect sexual pleasure (Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, an early advocate for routine medical circumcision, argued that circumcision would reduce masturbation), can sometimes have psychological and emotional risks later in life, and can possibly introduce infections. They also argue the performing of medically unnecessary surgery on children is an infringement on their autonomy and even possibly their human rights. Because of the heavy emphasis placed on circumcision, attempts to regulate or ban it have often been painted as anti-religious or anti-Semitic.

Those who support circumcision state that it does have health benefits: twentieth century studies suggested that the sexual partners of circumcised men were less likely to contract cervical cancer, and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) has stated that HIV acquisition from penile-vaginal intercourse is significantly reduced among those who are circumcised. Studies in South Africa, Kenya and Uganda, where HIV rates are high, appeared to show a benefit, but these studies were halted early. Many also state that they support circumcision as a cultural practice - in the United States, although dropping in the 1990s, circumcision has been routinely high - in the seventy-to-eighty percent range - for most of the twentieth century. Some fear that not getting a child circumcised will leave him as an outsider - teased in the locker-room, or with sexual partners preferring the look and feel of a circumcised rather than uncircumcised organ.

The World Health Organization state that 30% of men are circumcised, the vast majority of those being Muslims. In the United Kingdom, the National Health Service does not provide circumcision for non-medical reasons.