Rrhain,
As mentioned in my post to greyline - I'm not arguing in favour of circumcision. Indeed, you've posted some very powerful arguments against it and I tend to agree with you.
I am arguing that just because any operation is performed purely for cultural reasons, or to avoid social stigma, does not
automatically make it undesirable. Each case should be argued on its own merits.
With your argument comes an implicit idea of reverting to the norm, which is fair enough, really - although, in the case of circumcision, you've restricted the norm to be that which the boy in question was born with. And in situations where circumcision is the norm in society, you've previously argued along the lines that the child should have the -ahem- cajones to avoid teasing by declaring his penis a non-topic for conversation. Now its a matter of degree really, social stigma caused by growing up with an outward appearance that differs from the norm and the attendant mental anguish / suffering that this causes - but I certainly wouldn't put it so bluntly as to say that the prevailing culture was irrelevant to the decision to operate in all cases.
As with all these things, the decision needs to be made in light of what is best for the child, and not simply because it may be a backward practice. You've done a pretty good job so far of arguing that circumcision is rarely very good for the child.
PE