Birth As We Know It: Circumcision

I’ve been thinking on this idea a lot lately. I agree with the idea, but I’m not sure people “get” it when they hear this. After all, I wouldn’t want to watch heart surgery, even if someone I love needed it. But the way that it makes more sense to me is more straightforward: If no doctor was available, would you perform the surgery yourself?

(Say, with a guidebook. My scenario, my rules. Yeah, it’s not totally worked out.)

Think about it. If someone I love needed heart surgery and I had to perform it, I’d do it. Sorta like the pilot dies while in flight scenario. Appendicitis? Same thing. I’d do everything I could to figure it out and perform the surgery.

Circumcision? No way am I figuring out how to do that unless the boy needed it. That’s the theme I think we’re all trying to get across. For most circumcisions, the boy doesn’t need it. It’s not in his best interest.

Like I said, I don’t have it all figured out, but I like this thought experiment. I doubt I’d ever be able to sell it to someone who doesn’t already question routine circumcision. “That’s stupid,” I can already hear. But marketing is a big reason circumcision continues, so any counter-marketing helps, I hope.

Does that make any sense?