Board index » Word on the Street... » News & Debate




Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 460 posts ]  Go to page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ... 23  Next
Author Message
 Post subject: The Fight Over Circumcision
PostPosted: Thu Jun 15, 2006 2:24 am 
Offline
User avatar
too drunk to moderate properly
 WWW  Profile

Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 7:19 pm
Posts: 39068
Location: Chapel Hill, NC, USA
Gender: Male
Quote:
Mom, dad in court over son's circumcision
By CARLA K. JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer
41 minutes ago

CHICAGO - Groups opposed to circumcision are watching the case of an 8-year-old suburban Chicago boy whose divorced parents are fighting in court over whether he should have the procedure.

The child's mother wants him circumcised to prevent recurring, painful inflammation she says he's experienced during the past year. But the father says the boy is healthy and circumcision, which removes the foreskin of the penis, is an unnecessary medical procedure that could cause him long-term physical and psychological harm.

"The child is absolutely healthy," the father said during a break in a court hearing on the matter Wednesday. "I do not want any doctor to butcher my son."

The mother testified that her son has had five bouts of painful inflammation and has begged her to help him. Her son cannot wear underwear or jeans during the bouts and is comfortable only in loose-fitting pajamas, she said.

"My child was in the bathroom crying. He asked me to come in because his penis did not look normal," she said, describing one of the episodes.

The couple's 2003 divorce decree gave the father the right to offer input on medical decisions. Earlier this year, he sued to block the surgery and Cook County Judge Jordan Kaplan ordered the mother not to have the boy circumcised until he could hear from both parents and the opinions of doctors who've examined the boy.

The Associated Press is not naming the parents to protect the child's privacy. The father was born and raised in Poland. She is from Slovakia.

The case reflects a national debate over the medical necessity of circumcision. In 1999, the American Academy of Pediatrics reversed its support for routine infant circumcision, citing questionable benefits and medical and anecdotal evidence that circumcised men have less penile sensitivity.

David Llewellyn, an Atlanta attorney who specializes in circumcision cases, is helping the father's attorneys without fee. He called the surgery "a bizarre American custom."

Most U.S. newborn boys are circumcised before they leave the hospital. But a growing number of parents are opting against the surgery. The percentage of male babies circumcised has fallen from an estimated 90 percent in 1970 to about 60 percent today.

Roger Saquet, director of the Non-Circumcision Information Center in Belmont, Mass., said he heard about the case from others who promote leaving boys' foreskins intact.

"I can't imagine an 8-year-old boy to be forced to go to a hospital and have his genitals mutilated," he said.

Saquet criticized the parents for letting their dispute escalate.

"They're using the kid as a weapon against each other," he said. "It's really sad. My heart goes out to that kid."

Tracy Rizzo, the mother's attorney, said religion, not medicine, is the father's concern. Rizzo said the father disagrees with circumcision because he resents the fact that his ex-wife has remarried a Jewish man. The mother lives with her new husband, her son and her husband's son from a previous relationship in Northbrook.

The father, an Arlington Heights resident, denies he's concerned about the religion of his ex-wife's husband.

The mother testified Wednesday that she wanted the boy circumcised when he was a newborn, but her then-husband refused. She quoted him as saying at the time: "There is no way my son is going to be circumcised. He is not a Jew."

But the judge would not allow Alan Toback, an attorney for the father, to ask the new husband, who also testified Wednesday, if he is circumcised.

"We're not going there," the judge said.

In a March 1999 policy statement that was reaffirmed this year, the American Academy of Pediatrics said there are "potential medical benefits" to circumcision, including a reduction in risk of urinary tract infections. However, existing data "are not sufficient to recommend routine ... circumcision" of newborns, the statement says.

The group estimates that 1.2 million newborn males are circumcised in the United States a year at a cost of between $150 million and $270 million.

Dr. David Hatch, a pediatric urologist who testified Wednesday, said he performs 250 circumcisions a year, including about 20 on boys between the ages of 5 and 10.

Hatch testified his own three sons are uncircumcised because he does not think it is normally medically necessary. But he said he would recommend circumcision for a son with a history of recurring inflammation or infection.


http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/to ... ision_feud

If the fucking kid is in pain, why wouldn't you let him get a circumcision? By the way, this whole circumcision-causes-psychological-suffering thing is bullshit. If you're suffering mentally from a lack of a foreskin, you have a mental disorder which would have existed with or without a foreskin and which should be treated with counseling or medication.

_________________
"Though some may think there should be a separation between art/music and politics, it should be reinforced that art can be a form of nonviolent protest." - e.v.


Top
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu Jun 15, 2006 2:58 am 
Offline
User avatar
Unthought Known
 Profile

Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2004 11:30 pm
Posts: 7110
Location: the Zoo.
I love the term "genital mutilation" in regard to circumcision.

I don't care either way, I don't feel that it's a big enough issue to worry over, unlike some people that campaign like we're talking about nuclear arms. However, I must say this:

Removing the foreskin from an infant (usually, of course) so as to prevent medical/hygienic problems isn't "genital mutilation."

What I would end up doing to Lindsay Lohan's vagina, provided the opportunity to have sex with her, that is genital mutilation.

_________________
tommymctom wrote:
If He willed it I would happily suck i_i's dick.


Top
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu Jun 15, 2006 3:07 am 
Offline
User avatar
Unthought Known
 Profile

Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2004 2:29 pm
Posts: 6217
Location: Evil Bunny Land
inadvertent imitation wrote:
I love the term "genital mutilation" in regard to circumcision.

I don't care either way, I don't feel that it's a big enough issue to worry over, unlike some people that campaign like we're talking about nuclear arms. However, I must say this:

Removing the foreskin from an infant (usually, of course) so as to prevent medical/hygienic problems isn't "genital mutilation."

What I would end up doing to Lindsay Lohan's vagina, provided the opportunity to have sex with her, that is genital mutilation.


Hahaha.

That was horrible.

_________________
“Some things have got to be believed to be seen.”
- Ralph Hodgson


Top
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu Jun 15, 2006 3:21 am 
Offline
User avatar
Unthought Known
 Profile

Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2004 11:30 pm
Posts: 7110
Location: the Zoo.
Gimme Some Skin wrote:
inadvertent imitation wrote:
I love the term "genital mutilation" in regard to circumcision.

I don't care either way, I don't feel that it's a big enough issue to worry over, unlike some people that campaign like we're talking about nuclear arms. However, I must say this:

Removing the foreskin from an infant (usually, of course) so as to prevent medical/hygienic problems isn't "genital mutilation."

What I would end up doing to Lindsay Lohan's vagina, provided the opportunity to have sex with her, that is genital mutilation.


Hahaha.

That was horrible.


Wasn't it?

I hope it was in that really good horrible way. Or that really, really horrible way. I'd hate for it to linger in the in-between.

_________________
tommymctom wrote:
If He willed it I would happily suck i_i's dick.


Top
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu Jun 15, 2006 3:40 am 
Offline
User avatar
Administrator
 Profile

Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2004 10:53 pm
Posts: 20537
Location: The City Of Trees
I might as well throw out there that Penn and Teller did a great Bullshit episode on circumcision.


Top
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu Jun 15, 2006 5:20 am 
Offline
User avatar
Supersonic
 Profile

Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 3:07 pm
Posts: 12393
That is crazy. However, 9 times out of 10 circumcision is completely unneccessary and functionless. Seems like it should be a procedure used in response to problems like this one, rather than done arbitrarily. But culture is as culture does.


Top
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu Jun 15, 2006 7:41 am 
Offline
User avatar
AnalLog
 Profile

Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2004 11:15 pm
Posts: 25452
Location: Under my wing like Sanford & Son
Gender: Male
As someone who's uncut, I can't imagine having my shit just "out there" all the time. The chafing...ouch. I've also read a lot of things saying that there is a sexual purpose for the foreskin (which makes sense), so I'm not bothered by it in the slightest. But if it's something that's going to help this kid (if this problem isn't temporary), than maybe he should do it.

_________________
Now that god no longer exists, the desire for another world still remains.

Always do the right thing.


Top
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu Jun 15, 2006 9:05 am 
Offline
Got Some
 WWW  YIM  Profile

Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 10:40 am
Posts: 2114
Location: Coventry
I've got a foreskin but have you
I've got a foreskin but have you
I've got a foreskin
I've got a foreskin
I've got a foreskin but have you

_________________
"If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them" -Karl Popper


Top
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu Jun 15, 2006 11:03 am 
Offline
User avatar
Yeah Yeah Yeah
 Profile

Joined: Tue Oct 19, 2004 5:17 pm
Posts: 3822
Location: gone
let the kid decide...he is 8 years old for god's sakes.

monogamous gays are the instrument of the devil, and divorcing parents who fight over their child's foreskin are the foundation of society.

:roll:

_________________
cirlces they grow and they swallow people whole
half their lives they say goodnight to wives they'll never know
got a mind full of questions and a teacher in my soul
and so it goes


Top
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu Jun 15, 2006 2:27 pm 
Offline
User avatar
Former PJ Drummer
 Profile

Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 4:56 pm
Posts: 19957
Location: Jenny Lewis' funbags
Orpheus wrote:
As someone who's uncut, I can't imagine having my shit just "out there" all the time. The chafing...ouch. I've also read a lot of things saying that there is a sexual purpose for the foreskin (which makes sense), so I'm not bothered by it in the slightest. But if it's something that's going to help this kid (if this problem isn't temporary), than maybe he should do it.


As someone who is cut, i can say that the only time i suffer from chaffing is when i've been cranking it too much.


Top
 
 Post subject: Re: The Fight Over Circumcision
PostPosted: Thu Jun 15, 2006 2:36 pm 
Offline
User avatar
Unthought Known
 Profile

Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 12:16 pm
Posts: 8820
B wrote:
Quote:
[But the father says the boy is healthy and circumcision, which removes the foreskin of the penis, is an unnecessary medical procedure that could cause him long-term physical and psychological harm.



Hmmm, I'm imagining that a court battle between one's parent's about one's penis would cause a lot more psychological harm than an operation that will stop painful infections...

_________________
http://www.farmsanctuary.org

"Think occasionally of the suffering of which you spare yourself the sight" - Albert Schweitzer


Top
 
 Post subject: Re: The Fight Over Circumcision
PostPosted: Thu Jun 15, 2006 2:50 pm 
Offline
User avatar
Supersonic
 Profile

Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2004 4:52 pm
Posts: 10620
Location: Chicago, IL
Gender: Male
B wrote:
If the fucking kid is in pain, why wouldn't you let him get a circumcision? By the way, this whole circumcision-causes-psychological-suffering thing is bullshit. If you're suffering mentally from a lack of a foreskin, you have a mental disorder which would have existed with or without a foreskin and which should be treated with counseling or medication.


I think not being cut would cause the psychological effects. I know kids can be brutal, particularly when they are forced to shower together after gym class or basketball practice. Plus, my ex-girlfriends always told me how disgusted they were by the sight of an uncircumcised cack, and how they could never date anyone that is uncut.


Top
 
 Post subject: Re: The Fight Over Circumcision
PostPosted: Thu Jun 15, 2006 2:56 pm 
Offline
User avatar
Supersonic
 Profile

Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 7:54 am
Posts: 10731
Location: The back of a Volkswagen
Chris_H_2 wrote:
B wrote:
If the fucking kid is in pain, why wouldn't you let him get a circumcision? By the way, this whole circumcision-causes-psychological-suffering thing is bullshit. If you're suffering mentally from a lack of a foreskin, you have a mental disorder which would have existed with or without a foreskin and which should be treated with counseling or medication.


I think not being cut would cause the psychological effects. I know kids can be brutal, particularly when they are forced to shower together after gym class or basketball practice. Plus, my ex-girlfriends always told me how disgusted they were by the sight of an uncircumcised cack, and how they could never date anyone that is uncut.


We were never forced to shower after gym class. :?


Top
 
 Post subject: Re: The Fight Over Circumcision
PostPosted: Thu Jun 15, 2006 3:00 pm 
Offline
User avatar
Yeah Yeah Yeah
 Profile

Joined: Tue Oct 19, 2004 5:17 pm
Posts: 3822
Location: gone
PJDoll wrote:
B wrote:
But the father says the boy is healthy and circumcision, which removes the foreskin of the penis, is an unnecessary medical procedure that could cause him long-term physical and psychological harm.



Hmmm, I'm imagining that a court battle between one's parent's about one's penis would cause a lot more psychological harm than an operation that will stop painful infections...


BINGO!

especially now that it is a news story. how long before his friends find out his parents are numbnuts and fighting over his pee pee? poor kid.

_________________
cirlces they grow and they swallow people whole
half their lives they say goodnight to wives they'll never know
got a mind full of questions and a teacher in my soul
and so it goes


Top
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu Jun 15, 2006 3:24 pm 
Offline
Got Some
 Profile

Joined: Wed Oct 20, 2004 10:37 pm
Posts: 1281
Location: Tampa, FL
MF wrote:
Orpheus wrote:
As someone who's uncut, I can't imagine having my shit just "out there" all the time. The chafing...ouch. I've also read a lot of things saying that there is a sexual purpose for the foreskin (which makes sense), so I'm not bothered by it in the slightest. But if it's something that's going to help this kid (if this problem isn't temporary), than maybe he should do it.


As someone who is cut, i can say that the only time i suffer from chaffing is when i've been cranking it too much.


Yeah, there really is no chaffing that I have ever noticed. Maybe the skin toughens since it is out in the open all of the time?

I never even thought about this issue when our son was born 3 years ago. We just had him circumcised the day after he was born. I don't think it really matters much either way. If a boy is getting infections, though, he should definitely get it done ASAP.

_________________
"Relaxed, but Edgy" - Ed, Raleigh, NC April, 2003


Top
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu Jun 15, 2006 3:45 pm 
Offline
User avatar
Unthought Known
 Profile

Joined: Mon Jun 27, 2005 10:05 pm
Posts: 7354
Location: expanse getting broader
I'm cut so I don't know from experience, but isn't it easy to prevent problems by regular cleaning?

Apparently tides are turning on this issue. My wife is a doctor and tells me that the medical community widely regards circumcision as a completly unnecessary surgery.

This story's sad though. I can't imagine how this kid is being fucked up by having his parents argue over his penis in the news. Now there's some great parenting!!

_________________
I am a Child, I'll last a while.
You can't conceive of the pleasure in my smile.


Top
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu Jun 15, 2006 3:49 pm 
Offline
Force of Nature
 Profile

Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 1:36 am
Posts: 449
Location: Tomorrow Never Knows
I don’t believe in circumcision at all. I am not and every girl I have been with likes the fact that I am not. Your skin is there for a reason. It protects the glands and removing does cause psychological damage as a baby. I was not circumcised and I had a bad urinary track infection but I was told by several doctors that being un-circumcised doesn’t increase the risk of UTI, the fact that I was not breast fed does. Currently 25 babies a year die from circumcision. This is an unnecessary procedure and I feel so bad for the parents of those 25 kids that died for no reason.

I have never been embarrassed by it. In fact I am embarrassed for people who are circumcised because they are missing an important part of their body. America is the only country that does it regularly. England has a .5% rate and I even heard they are trying to ban it from Australia. Almost all of Europe has abandoned the practice, except for religious reasons, since a book that came out in the 1950’s talked about how many babies died from it.

I have taken showers with other guys after football and I wasn’t staring at their dicks and I hope they were not staring at mine. I used to work at a hospital and almost all of the doctors I know are against it. One even stated that he does it only because he gets about $400 for each one (think about that). Our insurance premiums are higher because of it and I feel that is wrong as well.

I can’t believe that in today medicines that the boys inflammation (whatever the cause of it may be) can’t be cured with antibiotics. To me this is more of two parents trying to get back at each other and putting a poor, innocent kid, in the middle.

Circumcision started a comeback in order to prevent kids from masturbating. I am also strongly against circumcision as a baby. I would not want someone deciding something for me that important and I have to live with the outcome.


Top
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu Jun 15, 2006 3:53 pm 
Offline
User avatar
Stone's Bitch
 Profile

Joined: Mon Nov 29, 2004 10:40 pm
Posts: 4668
Location: Belfast
Holy shit. 90% of American boys are circumcised? :shock:

That's fucking insane.

_________________
denverapolis wrote:
it's a confirmed fact that orangutans are nature's ninja.


proud member of team corduroy_blazer


Top
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu Jun 15, 2006 3:56 pm 
Offline
Force of Nature
 Profile

Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 1:36 am
Posts: 449
Location: Tomorrow Never Knows
I have hear that the number is 60%. I think the 90 was back in the 50-70's


Top
 
 Post subject: Re: The Fight Over Circumcision
PostPosted: Thu Jun 15, 2006 4:00 pm 
Offline
User avatar
Supersonic
 Profile

Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2004 4:52 pm
Posts: 10620
Location: Chicago, IL
Gender: Male
flavdave wrote:
Chris_H_2 wrote:
B wrote:
If the fucking kid is in pain, why wouldn't you let him get a circumcision? By the way, this whole circumcision-causes-psychological-suffering thing is bullshit. If you're suffering mentally from a lack of a foreskin, you have a mental disorder which would have existed with or without a foreskin and which should be treated with counseling or medication.


I think not being cut would cause the psychological effects. I know kids can be brutal, particularly when they are forced to shower together after gym class or basketball practice. Plus, my ex-girlfriends always told me how disgusted they were by the sight of an uncircumcised cack, and how they could never date anyone that is uncut.


We were never forced to shower after gym class. :?


Neither were we, until we got to about the 7th or 8th grade (when guys started reeking up the afternoon algebra classes after gym).


Top
 
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 460 posts ]  Go to page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ... 23  Next

Board index » Word on the Street... » News & Debate


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 15 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
cron
It is currently Fri Mar 29, 2024 1:51 am