[ ARC forum 2 ]
Written by Richard at 13 Jan 2002 23:38:17: Re: Politician?
As an answer to: Re: Politician? written by halfclip at 13 Jan 2002 13:07:52:
>>No, one doesn't have to have experienced a condition in order to be able to give advice on that condition.
>On principle, you are right. However, in the case of the circumcision debate, there are enough anti-circ extremists who are making all sorts of claims that one must be careful about any statement that circumcision is never necessary and that creams/stretching will solve all foreskin problems.I don't think anyone here has ever said "circumcision is never necessary". Personally I would want to encourage people to try stretching first before more radical approaches simply because you can't put it back once it's gone. No more, no less, just because stretching worked for me (even before I found this forum, I might add).
>If one does not have personal experience with such stretching, and one *appears* to base his arguments on what he has read on the anti-circ web site, then one has little credibility, especially with those who have experienced circumcision and know that much of what the anti-circ folks say is wrong or exagerated.
I agree up to a point, but I count myself in the general camp against-circumcision-without-having-tried-stretching. And I don't find any evidence of exaggeration in anybody's postings here, to be honest, just a lot of people saying "my anecdotal experience is better than yours".
>Also, I find it disconcerting that "100% success" statements are being made without having even seen a picture of the problem penis, even less having examined it.
Again, no-one's claiming 100% success rates for anything. It really would be worrying if people were basing really important life decisions like circumcision on what they'd read on the internet. I really hope that doesn't happen.
There I go, getting involved in message board politics when I promised myself not to :-)
Richard