The Big C: Circumcision

Male circumcision has the same basis in medical fact as antibiotics for the flu: i.e., none. It does, however, have a very long and hoary tradition. The first recorded evidence of male circumcision comes from Egypt around 2300 BC. Also, the OT has it listed as a "covenant" between Abraham and God (Genesis 17, IIRC), so odds are it was borrowed from earlier, animist or pagan tradition like a lot of the OT. My guess would be it orginated as some kind of rite of passage thingy. There has been a fair amount of religious support for the practice, at least Judeo-Christian tradition. There was a cultural tradition in the US that provided a "medical" reason for it - during the 18th and 19th Centuries circumcision supposedly helped stop masturbation (like that makes sense...), again probably derived from a puritan-type religious stance that masturbation was a bad thing. IOW, from a scientific standpoint there's no medical reason for the practice.As to the ethics of an infant "owning" its foreskin... Well, I'll let the people who like to argue obscure moral points take that one.

Hi greyline. I guess I was unclear. I think I answered your question concerning the medical reasons (or lack thereof) and added a bit of history of the procedure. I also stated that I had no interest in discussing the ethics of whether a neonate can be considered to "own" his foreskin. By extension, this lack of interest in discussing ethics should be extended to the two questions you posted above. No offense, but I swore off philosophy and metaphysics (a New Year's resolution) because to me most of the discussions appear to de-evolve rapidly into the semantic equivalent of arguing over the square root of a duck. You'll need to find someone else to discuss ethics and morality with on that score. Happy hunting.

Yeah, I kinda figured you wanted to discuss the topic seriously, which is why I backed out. For me, it's an SQR(DUCK) question, but I know it's a hot topic for others. The problem's with me, not the topic.OTOH, I'm not sure how many takers you'll have here that will argue the "pro-" side of the question, which is why you haven't had huge response, I think.Anyway, as a peace offering, there's a nice discussion going on over on IIDB at this thread on the topic. You might have more luck over there for this particular conversation.