NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/misc/kids/31039

Internet Message Format | 1992-12-22 | 2.7 KB

Xref: sparky misc.kids:31039 soc.men:21683 alt.atheism:24194 alt.sex.wizards:4097
Newsgroups: misc.kids,soc.men,alt.atheism,alt.sex.wizards
Path: sparky!uunet!scifi!watson!Watson.Ibm.Com!strom
From: [e-mail] (Rob Strom)
Subject: Re: A few facts about circumcision
Sender: @watson.ibm.com
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 92 20:33:20 GMT
References: <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]>
Organization: IBM Research
Followup-To: misc.kids,alt.atheism
Lines: 40

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Paul Potts) writes:

|>
|> Among my earliest memories are memories of going to a doctor multiple
|> times to be treated for a swollen, purple, infected circumcision scar.
|> My penis is pretty normal now, but the area below and around the glans
|> is largely scar tissue - inflexible, dry, and easily irritated, like
|> a rubber band constricting the glans. When I become sore from sex, the
|> circumcision scar is invariably the only part that becomes sore. I'm
|> pretty well convinced that if I had a foreskin intact, I would be able
|> to engage in sex longer without becoming sore, and not wincing half
|> the time when my partner plays with my penis a little too roughly.
|> Now, I'm not a genital cripple, and enjoy my sex life, but feel that
|> perhaps it could be a little bit better with original factory equipment.
|>

You remember what happened when you were 8 days old???

|> A lot of men are likely to become flippant and say "oh, you're just
|> whining" or "get over it." Well, I don't spend all my time griping
|> about my circumcision. It's a little thing (was literally at the time...)
|> but a rather personal thing. And so, my point of advocacy: don't
|> perpetuate this rather bizarre practice, founded in a religious tradition
|> and mostly unnecessary in a modern culture of cleanliness and reason.
|> Sure, if there is some problem with the foreskin of your son, get it
|> taken care of. But, as was pointed out, why routinely do something that
|> only enriches the medical establishment? I certainly wish that I had
|> mine to play with; in another 25 years, your son might be thinking the
|> same thing. Will you be able to justfify your decision then?
|>

Jewish circumcisions (which is where this thread originally started)
are not performed by "the medical establishment".

The mohel who circumcized me did nothing but circumcisions;
the mohel who circumcized my son did nothing but circumcisions.

--
Rob Strom, [e-mail], [phone]
IBM Research, 30 Saw Mill River Road, P.O. Box 704, Yorktown Heights, NY  10598