Anything to make parents feel better is logical, I guess.
Even though the studies (and circumcisions) were performed on grown men, the study results are relevant to baby circumcisions since the biology is the same — presence of penis foreskin increases the risk of contracting HIV, whether the circumcision was performed at birth or in adulthood.
In addition to focusing on males circumcised as adults, these studies only analyzed female-to-male HIV transmission. Any assumption beyond that is nothing more than an assumption, with potentially dreadful consequences for the male circumcised as an infant to prevent an unlikely HIV infection. We’re not discussing insignificant decisions. We’re discussing medically unnecessary surgery. There should be more than “this is probably true”.
That’s all nice, but the specific facts of the writer’s theory are fascinatingly wrong. The biology is fundamentally not the same. The infant foreskin is attached to the infant glans by synechia. This bond will not separate for several years, at the earliest, unless forcibly torn apart as is required in infant circumcision. Any sort of tearing may lead to bleeding and scarring. The surgeon will also have no effective method for determining how much skin is too much. He or she must guess how the infant’s penis will develop. Of course, he or she will not have input from the patient as to how much of his foreskin he might like to keep. (The answer might be 100%.)
With adult circumcision, the foreskin is no longer attached to the glans. The bond is broken. There will be no need to forcibly separate the two parts of the adult penis. The adult penis is fully developed. The surgeon may judge how much foreskin he or she has to work with. But his or her judgment isn’t necessary. The male to be circumcised is fully aware of the decision. It’s his penis being operated on and he is presumably intelligent enough to request how much foreskin he’d like to keep. The decision changes from an uneducated guess to informed consent.
The study results are not relevant because the biology is not the same.
Although the studies were done in Africa, Africans were never the real target audience of the propaganda campaign that followed….American parents were.
A fact that becomes more glaringly obvious with each passing day.
I agree.