Should circumcision be illegal?

[Catholic_Lady]

This is a super hot button topic on these forums. I don't have a strong opinion either way. I can see the argument against it as you're cutting a piece of skin off from a baby. On the other hand, circumcision does have health benefits as it helps prevent infections and the spread of STD's. It's all about whether or not you think the "evil" (cutting a piece of skin off a baby) outweighs the good (preventing future complications/infections). Whether or not it should be legal should also depend on that.

It doesn't have health benefits at all unless the baby actually has a condition that means there is something wrong with their foreskin.

Sure, less STDs if you remove the foreskin... but remove someone's feet and they can't get infected toes either.....

Using condoms is always an infinitely healthier option.

And there just is no possible way to morally justify mutilating someone's body parts without their consent unless it is absolutely medically necessary. Which it isn't.

I find it ironic that Christians who believe God made man in his own perfect image also think that some part needs to be removed!

The argument for it that I heard came from my mother in law back when I asked her about it. She's a doctor. Anyway, what she said was basically that she's seen way too many uncircumcused older men and men with disabilities get infections because they aren't able to clean between the foreskin very thoroughly everyday, and so bacteria builds up in there and gets inside the urethra. In some cases, they have to end up getting a circumcision to treat or prevent the recurring issue. Problem is, doing a circumcision on a fully developed penis is a more severe and complicated procedure than doing it on a new born's penis. So may as well get it taken care of when it's easy and simple to prevent bigger problems down the line, is what she says.

As far as sex goes, condom would certainly prevent the STD issue, and washing the foreskin right before sex would prevent giving the woman a UTI. It's up to the guy to be responsible about it though.

Like I said - when it comes to things like this, it's about whether or not the benefits are worth the procedure. I think cutting off a person's feet would be a much bigger hindrance to the person and their quality of life than not having a foreskin, and so is definitely not justifiable to cut off feat to prevent infected toes.