The Debate Over Circumcision
Sends A Couple Into Cyberspace

by Darline Turner Lee, Physician Assistant, ACSM Exercise Specialist

Article Last Reviewed: Sept. 9, 2006

I’m giving birth to a little boy this month. I’m excited, but very much out of my element.

Evidence of this new experience came when I got my obstetrician’s bill. Our insurance will cover ninety percent of the charges for routine prenatal care and delivery. But “If there are any additional tests needed, complications or surgical procedures such as cesarean section or circumcision there may be additional charges.”

I showed the statement to my husband and he said, “Of course he’ll be circumcised. It’s the right thing to do.” I stared at him in disbelief. This is a man who waits until he’s horribly ill or in utter pain before he even considers going to a doctor. Yet he showed no hesitation when talking about subjecting our newborn to elective surgery!

“I think that we need to think about this circumcision thing,” I said. “I’m not convinced that it’s best for him.”

My husband nearly burst a blood vessel. “What do you mean? Of course it’s best. Thousands of babies are circumcised every day. It wouldn’t be done if it weren’t best.”

“Just because it’s done regularly doesn’t mean it’s best. I’m not convinced and I won’t sign to have it done until I’m absolutely sure,” I snarled

Suffice it to say that there have been some “quiet” days around the Lee household. You’d never know that my husband and I sleep in the same bed or have computers in adjacent rooms given the flurry of e-mails that have been flying between us. It’s an emotional issue and so far neither of us is budging.

My husband found a May 15, 2000 East Bay Express article titled, “The Case for Circumcision” in which Edgar Schoen, MD, a retired pediatric endocrinologist, former chief of pediatrics at Kaiser Permanente in Oakland California and former chairman of a task force to determine a new policy on newborn circumcision for the American Academy of Pediatrics (1989) presents his rationale for circumcision. Schoen stated, “Circumcision is one of the best health insurance policies you can give a son.” He bases his opinions on the associations he saw in large urban and Army hospital settings between being uncircumcised and urinary tract infections, poor hygiene and penile cancer.

David Halperin, Ph.D associate professor of anthropology at the University of California San Francisco is also heavily quoted. Halperin researches the AIDS epidemic in Africa and South America. He has seen firsthand how deadly the disease can be and while he does not believe that circumcision alone will prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS, he stated, “You need to use all possible interventions that you can find.” He says that promotion of circumcision should not replace condom use but be a complement to it.

I found that Polynesians, Africans and Aboriginals have circumcised boys for centuries as a rite of passage into manhood. The ancient Egyptians practiced circumcision to promote hygiene and reduce the spread of infection and disease in the population. Jews and Muslims circumcise their sons in observance of the covenant between God and Abraham in the Bible.

What does this mean for my son? There are no rites of passage in the Lee or Turner families. We are neither Jewish nor Muslim. We live here in the good old USA where penile cancer rates are low and genital infections come primarily from sexual contact and poor hygiene. My son doesn’t fit into any of these categories, and will learn good hygiene habits, so why circumcise him?

Circumcision gained popularity in the late eighteen hundreds as a way to curb masturbation in boys. Western physicians blamed masturbation for everything from deviant sexual behavior, laziness and mental retardation to tuberculosis and epilepsy, and they believed circumcision stopped these maladies. In 1971 The American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Fetus and Newborn Health published Standards and Recommendations for Hospital Care of Newborn Infants. They found no connection between whether a man is circumcised and increased or deviant sexual behavior or illness. Rock on my son!

As far as circumcision reducing the spread of sexually transmitted diseases and penile cancer, the American Cancer Society, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Academy of Family Physicians do not recommend newborn circumcision for these reasons. They advise proper hygiene, limiting sexual partners, and educating people to refrain from first intercourse at an early age as the means to reduce the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. They also recommend men use barrier forms of contraception (condoms) to prevent transmission of Human Papilloma Virus (a leading cause of cervical cancer) and HIV/AIDS. While I can’t yet fathom my unborn son at an age when he will be having sex, I believe that my husband and I can teach our son the importance of intimacy and commitment in sexual relationships and not to “dip his wick” hither and yon!

We love this little boy and each want what’s best for him as evidenced by our intense cyber exchange. Still we have to decide whether to circumcise our son in hopes of reducing the risks of disease risks later in life, or accept the responsibility of meticulously cleaning his genitals now, teaching him how to clean and care for himself as an adult, and allow him to decide whether or not to be circumcised.