Banning circumsicion

[arewethereyet]

Now that you know, would you elect to have your son cut?

No, I don't think I would.

But I also didn't pierce my daughters' (or son's) ears until they were teens and could ask to have it done and were old enough to care for them.

I did take kid 2 and kid 3 for their first tattoos but made them pick something out and think about it for 6 months so they were sure it's what they wanted and not a whim.  They were not 18.  For kid 2, it wasn't that big a deal.  For kid 3, he borrowed a friend's ID.  They were both over 16 though.

[FrustratedFool]

That seems reasonable to me.

The difference between a teen and an infant is enormous. The difference between an expressed desire of a teen and just doing something to a baby are like night and day to me.

[The Grand Nudger]

The benefits of circumcision are oversold, the consequences are under reported, and the reason it’s become a cultural norm here comes down to how a nutball many years ago thought we would jerk off less if we did it.

As for how to handle a natural dick - it’s easy. You wash it. There’s this other small eldritch ritual that has to be performed just so on the proper moon phase, but I can’t share that with the cut or I’d get kicked out of the peckerskin club.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Cultural mores  may be regnant, but that doesn't necessarily make them ethical.

Ethics are cultural constructs and evolve over time.

edit - I don't mean that in a sassy way. Culture always determines what is ethical. It's the mirror culture holds to itself. But this is off topic for this thread.

How do ethics evolve, if not by the observations of the individuals inside a culture?

Remember, slavery was at one time regarded as entirely ethical in America, until enough people raised enough of a stink that a war broke out. Same with gay marriage, though no war was needed.

The point is, is that this domineering culture is itself made up of people, whose views change over time. Simply because a culture deems something right or wrong is not a measure of the rightness or wrongness of a practice.

It follows that citing majority opinions in defending this or that practice only measures the popularity, not the rectitude, of any cultural more.

[Nanny]

All - Thanks again for the great responses. You lot are a bunch of smart people.

I would be interested in a theist's opinion on this but prob mot in this subforum. Particularly how to differentiate absolute morality from cultural morality, given that a church is a culture.

Thump - Aren't we saying the same thing?

[Gawdzilla Sama]

The "cleanliness" thing bugs me. How can you bathe a baby and miss such an obvious place to clean carefully, whether the boy is cut or not. I mean when I was backing up our corpsman I didn't have to give instructions to Hmong moms.

[Thumpalumpacus]

All - Thanks again for the great responses. You lot are a bunch of smart people.

I would be interested in a theist's opinion on this but prob mot in this subforum. Particularly how to differentiate absolute morality from cultural morality, given that a church is a culture.

Thump - Aren't we saying the same thing?

To be clear, I believe that morality is relative. However, for my part, I think of the infliction of unneeded pain upon an unconsenting person to be immoral.

[Nanny]

Nobody said anything about hygiene

[Silver]

As one who likes the D, I prefer the aesthetic of the circumcised over uncircumcised.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Nobody said anything about hygiene

I did.