Should circumcision be illegal?

[Catholic_Lady]

Very rarely are braces beneficial to health. It's almost always a purely aesthetic thing.

...foreskins are beneficial to health. Mutilating foreskins isn't.

I can't understand how as a Christian you can think that God made man in his own image "apart from the foreskin which is an unhealthy mistake than God made" (not quoting you directly just pointing out that your position makes no sense).

All the stuffs about improving hygiene and STD prevention are myths and red herrings. Like I said, removing someone's foot is a also a way to prevent toe infection... and you could make many of the same arguments for removing clitorises...

Wash your penis and wear a condom. Washing your penis is a better way to keep it clean than removing a foreskin and wearing a condom is a better way to prevent STDs than mutilating part of someone's penis.

And by the way, anytime you say something like asexuality isn't natural again I'll try to remember to say "Neither is cutting off part of someone's penis but at least asexuality is harmless."

As I said, the information I got comes from my mother in law who is a doctor. According to what she has seen, the problem arises when, for whatever reason, a man is not washing himself very well. Whether that be because of old age, disability, being in an environment where it can't be done, etc. And for his sexual partner, if he doesn't wash up right before sex (or wear a condom if he has an std).

So yes, there ARE health and hygene benefits to circumsicion. Henry even posted an official medical link saying exactly that. The question is whether or not those benefits outweigh the pain and/or discomfort a baby feels during the procedure, to where doing it is justifiable.

Personally I don't have a strong position on this, and can see both sides. I think if the issue becomes relevant to someone because they have a baby boy on the way, that person should ask the opinion of a doctor they trust as well as do their own research to make the decision that they believe is in the best interest of their son and his health and quality of life. Whatever is done should be done in the best interest of the boy, period, and not for any sort of personal self fulfilling reasons.

As far as the Christian thing goes, the majority of Christian denominations don't view it as sinful to change certain things about our bodies when doing so may be beneficial in some way. We can do laser hair removal to permanently get rid of body hair, we can wear braces to change the alignment of our teeth, we can get tattoos, we can get piercings, and we can surgically alter certain parts of our bodies, etc. Being "created by God" doesn't mean our bodies are perfect, because the natural world, which we are a part of, is not perfect.