The news radio on the way to work made note of the following story:
(Geneva-AP) March 28, 2007 - UN health agencies are recommending that heterosexual men undergo circumcision. They say there is "compelling" evidence that it can reduce their chances of contracting HIV by up to 60 percent.
Considering how simple the procedure is and how great the benefit, this would seem to be the classic case of 'low hanging fruit'.
I had sometime in the past, just out of idle curiosity, researched the topic. My take-away opinion was that the procedure was at worst pretty much harmless and at best seemed to decrease the risk for some pretty vile urinary illnesses.
I also came across today a study looking at bias in decision-making when the decision would have an effect on the decision-maker. From the latest
Science News
People who suffer damage to a brain area that generates compassion, shame, and other social sentiments apply coldly rational thinking to hypothetical moral dilemmas, even those that involve terrible personal loss, a team of neuroscientists finds.
And of course, those of us who lack brain damage (who are you saying
lacks brain damage?) do
not apply coldly rational thinking when it involves themselves. Now, I am either circumcised or not, but one thing is clear. I didn't have anything to do with the decision and in fact it was so routine when I was born that there really wasn't any decision-making being done.
dbp
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2 comments:
Sure the procedure may not pose much harm. It's the long term side effects from circumcision that gets us all upset. Circumcision is the sacrifice of the erognous tissue of the male and female prepuce. The function of this pleasure flesh is to protect with natural anti virals, and to enhance sexual pleasure with specialised cells. The prepucial frenular delta nerves trigger erections when pulled or stroked and sometimes get severed during some forms of neonatal circumcision, short circuiting the normal pathways to the brain parts responcible for reproduction. Physicle, mental, and spiritual malfunctions may occur leading to suicidal bombing paranoid delussional schizophrenics to go walking around thinking they hear the voice of Allah calling them home.
Hi fredr,
Thanks for your commentary. I think you go far in ascribing mental illness to males who have been circumcised. The vast majority of American men are circumcised as well as all Jewish men and those two groups are not known for being prone to paranoid delusions--any more than men in general, that is. In addition, it is only a tiny minority of Arab men (and there have been some women) who have become suicide bombers.
There are two populations which are largely similar in terms of lifestyle, racial configuration and economic development, but which only differ in terms of circumcision: In the USA most men are circumcised and in Europe most men are not. If the differences you talk about were real, scientific studies would have shown this by now. They have not. That is not to say that in some small percent of cases, the procedure is botched, leading to long term issues. It is like immunizations: Most benefit by becoming resistant to disease, some have harmfull side-effects.
dbp
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