Cutting babies 1

I’m going to post some quotes about reasons for circumcision.  I want people to think if these are good reasons for cutting children’s genitals and what we could do instead.  If you agree with these statements, then I’ll do what I can to change your mind in the future, but fair enough. If you don’t, come back for the next post to discuss the issues.

Unfortunately, our daughter fell into the statistical minority, developed UTIs, and was circumcised before 6 years old to prevent recurrence. I no longer had to fear for my daughter’s fragile teenage years (which will soon be upon us), and her mother understood that, for our daughter, the procedure was medically necessary. But if I were making the decision today for a young child, given the current medical advice, I hope I’d be more open to leaving things the way nature intended them.

Is this how we would typically treat a UTI in North America or Europe?  I had a few of them myself growing up, it’s not abnormal.  I didn’t get sliced up – even if it would have helped – instead I was given antibiotics.  Yes antibiotics carry their own risks and can damage the gut through eradicating gut flora.  Nevertheless with a bad infection it’s the best course of action.  Surgery for anything is normally a last resort.  Apparently, when it comes to children, it’s easier to slice up their bodies.  They cannot really say no, make their own decisions.  

Then I saw this about bullying:

Please have girls circumcised my wife still at 48 has emotional scars.  The kids nicknamed her spinster, called her ugly – other girls age 8 tried to pull her pants down and with a pocket knife saying they were going to make her normal and pretty.  (Their mothers wanted her to be marriageable). 

Is this typical of dealing with bullying? Rather than dealing with bullies and cruelty, we plead the right to mangle children.  Why have emotional scars when your privates can be one big jagged scar of vacant flesh.

Are these good reasons to circumcise?  Should we allow female circumcision (any of the four types), based on the pleading of family?  Avoiding emotional scars, infections, “health issues”, ability to marry… could we validly say these are serious considerations for mutilating young children?

It would be great to hear some opinions before posting the follow up, so I have more to work with 🙂