[ ARC forum 2 ]

Circumcision, Personal choice & Parents resposibility

Written by Leo H at 24 Apr 2004 17:12:20:

In the last 6 months or so, I have read 1,000's of stories from those who were circumcised at birth, those who were not and are still intact, court transcripts, doctors's testimonies, statements from hospital staff and other health care profesionals, clinical study reports, and even some death certificates. Excluding my own personal feelings,(I myself am circumcised, in the process of restoring), The following conclusions would seem to need urgent attention.
1. On the basic Human Rights issue; Since this 'ELECTIVE' surgical proceedure is being performed on an indiviual, it only stands to reason that the choice to proceed or not, should be at the discretion of the person upon which the surgery is to be performed. It should be noted that most children will probably not fully understand the full scope of the issue of circumcision (pro/con) untill they have reached puberty. At which point they can make THEIR choice.

2.Parental Responsibility; Perhaps the most astounding message that is brought up in these stories is, that virtualy all of the parents mentioned within were near-ignorant or completely oblivious to natural human anatomy, ie. What is it? What it does? How to care for it(properly)? How to teach the child to care for themselves? How to teach the child about it?
If you are a fist time parent, it cannot be stressed enough to go out and learn everything there is to know about the life you are about to bring into this world. You owe that much to the child.

3. The Medical Comunity, (Doctor's, Nurses, etc.); Has a three fold resposibility when it comes to this issue. First and foremost is the gross violation of their prime directive, DO NO HARM.
Since modern medicine has been made available, scociety has relied upon the physician to KNOW about the human anatomy, what ails and what cures. If in the event the they did not know, they were required discover.
In any case, scociety has looked to the doctor for the information and the cures. By no means should this information, in part or in it's entirety be with held from scociety. Otherwise, INFORMED CONSENT means nothing.


Answers: