The Genital Mutilation Thread

[Nat]

For conversations about genital mutilation.

[Nat]

My personal belief is that the genitals of children should not be mutilated.

I think designated male, female and intersex kids deserve to choose for themselves if they want alterations made to their bits.

[Lady Pamela]

A little information on the subject...To better understand what takes place...then you decide what can be done.

Also listed at the bottom are places we can join to help in this matter.

Even if that means just signing petitions or what have you.

http://www.members.tripod.com/~Wolvesdreams/FGM.html

[blush]

Thanks, Nat!

I'm repeating my post from the "breeders" thread:

It's interesting to me that we stand united (myself included) about genital mutilation in girls, but we don't seem to be as horrified by foreskin removal in boy infants?

I didn't want to quote others who posted about it, but I hope they'll join in the conversation.

[Unndunn]

Originally Posted by blush

Thanks, Nat!

I'm repeating my post from the "breeders" thread:

It's interesting to me that we stand united (myself included) about genital mutilation in girls, but we don't seem to be as horrified by foreskin removal in boy infants?

I didn't want to quote others who posted about it, but I hope they'll join in the conversation.

I just came across this thread and haven't seen any others about these issues. I'm not going to comment on the religious reasons for circumcision. I think of this as more of a medical issue. As a healthcare practitioner, I have to say that I don't think of male circumcision (removal of foreskin) as being comparible to the genital mutilation that is done to girls/women. Male circumcision is a way of decreasing risk of infection, including HIV. Female circumcision has not been shown to have any health benefits. Also, female circumcision isn't usually just the removal of skin (ie, the hood of the clitoris) it can be the removal of the entire clitoris.

a link from Scientific American: http://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...-hiv-infection

[Lady Pamela]

Originally Posted by Unndunn

I just came across this thread and haven't seen any others about these issues. I'm not going to comment on the religious reasons for circumcision. I think of this as more of a medical issue. As a healthcare practitioner, I have to say that I don't think of male circumcision (removal of foreskin) as being comparible to the genital mutilation that is done to girls/women. Male circumcision is a way of decreasing risk of infection, including HIV. Female circumcision has not been shown to have any health benefits. Also, female circumcision isn't usually just the removal of skin (ie, the hood of the clitoris) it can be the removal of the entire clitoris.

a link from Scientific American: http://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...-hiv-infection

I agree with what you said.

I also wanted to add...

Most girls having this done..Are actually done in a way that is very un sterile and usually without any numbing and with objects very dangerious.

Here in the states when males are done..They do numb the tops and only remove the very top layer..they do not take the whole thing off or mutilate it.

Just my opinion.

[Selenay]

I was recently party to a brit milah, which translates to "Ritual circumcision."

I'd never been to one, before, and I was Very Very Curious how it was all going to go down; after all, it was happening in the rec-room of an apartment building. Let me tell you for free, my first question was, "Is this even sanitary?" (It was. I had my doubts, but it was quick and very very clean.)

The second thing of which we were all assured by the man performing the circumcision is that, were anything at all even so much as a cough or a sneeze or a decline in pallor was wrong with the child, the circumcision would n-o-t NOT happen.

I won't go into the religious aspects of what all went on, but the boychik was well taken care of. The boy was tended to by a nurse who specifically handled post-circumcision babies, who was very insistent about the way Things Were Going To Be. Furthermore, he did not appear to be in any more distress than a child who's just received a shot.

The grandparents, on the other hand, looked like they suffered far more than their grandson... But they were the ones holding him still and steady while the circumcision was being done.

As for the medical benefits, an article from the New England Journal of medicine comments that none of the 1600 people involved in their study of penile cancer had been circumcised at birth; and the complication rate of a circumcision is as low as .13%, and the most common complication is excessive bleeding (New England Journal of Medicine, 1990).


Edited to add: I would, however, like to point out that not all circumcisions done in the United States are performed with anesthesia... Not all are done in hospitals, either; anesthesia is sometimes declined for fear of the risks it would pose to the child's body or the belief that it is unnecessary.