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This is easily decided. Look at the medical records and have a doctor examine him. Ask the kid his opinion. If it seems medically necessary, do it. If it doesn't, don't.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/06/15/ci....ap/index.html
CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- Groups opposed to cir cision are watching the case of an 8-year-old suburban Chicago boy whose divorced parents are fighting in court over whether he should have the procedure.
The child's mother wants him cir cised to prevent recurring, painful inflammation she says he's experienced during the past year. But the father says the boy is healthy and cir cision, which removes the foreskin of the penis, is an unnecessary medical procedure that could cause him long-term physical and psychological harm.
"The child is absolutely healthy," the father said during a break in a court hearing on the matter Wednesday. "I do not want any doctor to butcher my son."
The mother testified that her son has had five bouts of painful inflammation and has begged her to help him. Her son cannot wear underwear or jeans during the bouts and is comfortable only in loose-fitting pajamas, she said.
"My child was in the bathroom crying. He asked me to come in because his penis did not look normal," she said, describing one of the episodes.
The couple's 2003 divorce decree gave the father the right to offer input on medical decisions. Earlier this year, he sued to block the surgery and Cook County Judge Jordan Kaplan ordered the mother not to have the boy cir cised until he could hear from both parents and the opinions of doctors who've examined the boy.
The Associated Press is not naming the parents to protect the child's privacy. The father was born and raised in Poland. The mother is from Slovakia.
The case reflects a national debate over the medical necessity of cir cision. In 1999, the American Academy of Pediatrics reversed its support for routine infant cir cision, citing questionable benefits and medical and anecdotal evidence that cir cised men have less penile sensitivity.
David Llewellyn, an Atlanta attorney who specializes in cir cision cases, is helping the father's attorneys without a fee. He called the surgery "a bizarre American custom."
Most U.S. newborn boys are cir cised before they leave the hospital. But a growing number of parents are opting against the surgery. The percentage of male babies cir cised has fallen from an estimated 90 percent in 1970 to about 60 percent today.
Roger Saquet, director of the Non-Cir cision Information Center in Belmont, Massachusetts, said he heard about the case from others who promote leaving boys' foreskins intact.
"I can't imagine an 8-year-old boy to be forced to go to a hospital and have his genitals mutilated," he said.
Tracy Rizzo, the mother's attorney, said religion, not medicine, is the father's concern. Rizzo said the father disagrees with cir cision because he resents the fact that his ex-wife has remarried a Jewish man. The mother lives with her new husband, her son and her husband's son from a previous relationship in Northbrook.
The father, an Arlington Heights resident, denies he's concerned about the religion of his ex-wife's husband.
The mother testified Wednesday that she wanted the boy cir cised when he was a newborn, but her then-husband refused. She quoted him as saying at the time: "There is no way my son is going to be cir cised. He is not a Jew."
But the judge would not allow Alan Toback, an attorney for the father, to ask the new husband, who also testified Wednesday, if he is cir cised.
"We're not going there," the judge said.
For Jews, a ritual cir cision, or bris, is a sacred covenant with God, commanded in Genesis. Jews have been cir cising their sons for thousands of years.
In a March 1999 policy statement that was reaffirmed this year, the American Academy of Pediatrics said there are "potential medical benefits" to cir cision, including a reduction in risk of urinary tract infections. However, existing data "are not sufficient to recommend routine ... cir cision" of newborns, the statement says.
The group estimates that 1.2 million newborn males are cir cised in the United States a year at a cost of between $150 million and $270 million.
Dr. David Hatch, a pediatric urologist who testified, said he performs 250 cir cisions a year, including about 20 on boys between the ages of 5 and 10.
Hatch testified his own three sons are uncir cised because he does not think it is normally medically necessary. But he said he would recommend cir cision for a son with a history of recurring inflammation or infection.
Kaplan declined to decide the case Wednesday, ordering both sides to submit additional arguments in writing.
do that when the er is born. dont wait till he is 8
This is easily decided. Look at the medical records and have a doctor examine him. Ask the kid his opinion. If it seems medically necessary, do it. If it doesn't, don't.
Yes, generally, I'd agree with the last statement, but if he's having painful inflammation and infection, there is medical reason to do the proceedure now.
"David Llewellyn, an Atlanta attorney who specializes in cir cision cases, is helping the father's attorneys without a fee. He called the surgery "a bizarre American custom.""
Dude needs to do some research. Cir cision is not a bizarre American custom, even though America is the only first world country to continue to perform infant cir cision on a regular basis. The origins, as the article pointed out are Jewish, and the practice was continued by the first century Jews who believed Jesus was the Messiah, and the practice spread/continued from there as the Judaism and Christianity diverged and Christianity maintained a connection to the Jewish god YHWH, and claimed the Jewish antecedents and some of the Jewish customs or traditions into Christianity. It's only fairly recently in Europe (latter part of the last century) that the practice declined, as the medical community showed it is not a medical necessity alongside a decline in participation in Christian faith/practices.
hmmm...just curious...do you ladies have a preference?
Cir cised. Definitely.
There isn't a lot of difference when it's in the state I'm aiming for ... so, "no preference" would be my answer.
If the poor child is suffering repeated infections ... WTF is his father's problem? If the boy had recurring tonsillitis, would he object to having those removed also?
I'm pretty sure the boy really doesn't care, as long as the pain goes away. I'd tell the father to bite me & go have it done regardless. He can fight me after the fact.
::Checks in shorts::
::Checks in shorts::
it just seems so much cleaner. glad my parents took care of it when i was a baby
No prefernce here. I'm with SW.
No prefernce here. I'm with SW.
Seriously. All I care about is that it works when I want it to.
Charming and demanding....Seriously. All I care about is that it works when I want it to.
Seriously. All I care about is that it works when I want it to.
Thats all we care about too...
I'm with you ladies! Both work for me.No prefernce here. I'm with SW.
Teach the kid how to wash it properly.
Actually, I'm not sure that's entirely accurate. It didn't become routine in the US until the very early 20th century, and then only because it was supposedly a way to keep young boys from masturbating. (I think we all know how well that worked). I would have to double-check, but I don't think it's declined in Europe so much as it was never something done very often. The great majority of the world's male population is not cir cized. Trust me, when you have a baby and join a pregnancy board (or the " y women" board as I call it), this debate comes up regularly. I happen to believe foreskin is there for a reason. It's loaded with nerve endings and it keeps the glans protected and moisturized. (The glans, incidentally is covered in mucosa--NOT skin... it only resembles skin in cir cized males because it is, in effect, calloused from constant rubbing against clothing).
Bingo!There isn't a lot of difference when it's in the state I'm aiming for ... so, "no preference" would be my answer.
Although... in my experience... which isn't terribly vast... noncirc'd men last longer...
I haven't had any complaints. and maybe they were just inexperienced uncir sized men.
This reminds me of the episode of Bull ! from Penn and Teller that they had about cir sion. It made me laugh so hard. Did y'all see that?
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