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Q1. How did you find out that Prince William is intact?

A1. Biographers have said Diana defied royal tradition in this regard. She and Charles gave a photo opportunity on a picnic blanket in New Zealand when he was a baby, and he urinated off the side of the blanket in sight of photographers. Reports that Charles ordered him and Harry circumcised after Diana died are wishful thinking by circumfetishists. A website claiming the mohel who circumcised them was a guest at Charles' and Camilla's wedding is satire - it says so on the same page, which is dated April 1. Paparazzi pictures released in November 2008 are ambiguous.

Q2. How do you know that [celebrity] is intact?

A2. Chuck Thompson of Los Angeles kept a dossier for many years, relying on information from actors' dressers, sportsmen's teammates and towel boys, and people who "chanced on" the celebrities at urinals. Wives, ex-wives, lovers, ex-lovers and groupies have reported on others. Some have appeared nude in films or magazines and some have commented in passing on their own status (especially in Britain and Europe where nobody thinks it is anything to be ashamed of). In the case of Elvis and Maurice Gibb, it was in their death certificates. Other sources are parents, brothers, schoolmates, accidental exposure, medical records and police records. Some have been captured by paparazzi (JPGs of celebrities nude with no context are often faked, but those can usually be detected).

Q3. You say Daniel Radcliffe is intact, but according to reports on the Internet from those who saw "Equus", Daniel Radcliffe is circumcised, and it would make sense if he was circumcised since he is Jewish.

A3. According to other reports from the same production he is intact. He says. "I'm not a religious person. My mum was of Jewish blood [that doesn't even make her Jewish unless her mother was Jewish] and my dad was Protestant... I'm very interested in religion as something to study, but I'm not a religious person in the slightest."

Q4. Is Arnold Schwartznegger intact?

A4. Opinions vary. Just from the time and place of his birth, he was almost certainly intact when he arrived in the US. Nude photographs of him as a young bodybuilder are ambiguous. Some have attempted to explain this by saying he had himself circumcised to look more American, but he may have a naturally short foreskin or the photos are misinterpreted.

Q5. You say Leonardo DiCaprio is intact, but in Total Eclipse he looks circumcised.

A5. Any man can look circumcised. (Only an intact man can look intact.) We have it on very good authority that Leonardo is intact. (Total Eclipse was produced by Agnieska Holland, who produced Europa, Europa, a film with circumcision status as a major theme, and would have been critical about such a detail, fitting diCaprio with a prosthesis if necessary, as was done in Y tu mamá también)

Q6. You say River Phoenix is intact, but his autopsy says he was circumcised.

A6. There are pictures of him as an intact young man. He would have been catheterised before he died, and his foreskin retracted to install the catheter, which could lead to a misdiagnosis.

Q7. Is Elijah Woods intact? Is Hayden Christensen intact?

A7. We have no information on Woods. (The circumcision rate in Iowa, where he was born, is very high, but this only creates a probability, not a certainty.) One report says Christensen is not intact.

Q8. Where did the pictures of (botched) circumcisions come from?

A8. Most were published in gay pinup magazines. Some were posted on circumfetishist sites. A few were sent by their owners, who are now Intactivists.

Q9. Is it normal for pubic hair on the shaft of the penis to extend more than half the way towards the glans? It tends to become uncomfortable during intercourse, creating friction and chafing.

A9. While some intact men have hair that extends up the shaft, this is also a common complication of a tight circumcision. A circumcisor has no idea what the final size or shape of a baby's penis is going to be, and hence no idea what is the "right" amount of skin to take. To reduce the chafing you can either remove the hair (temporarily or permanently) or increase the lubrication.

Q10. My foreskin will not retract (go behind my glans). Should I do something about it?

A10. If it is not a problem for you, why? See Care of the Intact Penis and Something They Haven't.

Q11. My foreskin overhangs my penis / just covers my glans / doesn't cover my glans at all. Is this normal?

A11. A wide variation is normal. The commonest length just covers the glans plus a little more (the acroposthion). Much more or less is correspondingly rare (there is a "bell-shaped curve" of commonness centred on that length) but "uncommon" does not mean "wrong". Men with very short foreskins still have the ridged band, with its full complement of nerves, unlike circumcised men whose penises may look similar. A glans that is permanently uncovered may experience the same loss of sensation as a circumcised glans, but the contribution of the glans to the sensation of an intact man is small compared to that of the ridged band.

Q12. A new study has just come out showing that circumcision prevents/cures HIV / cervical cancer / penile cancer / athlete's foot / whatever. Doesn't that mean babies should be circumcised?

A12. No.

Maybe if a disease was very common, very dangerous, had an early onset and circumcision always prevented it completely, there might be a case. (These things can be calculated using two important measures: "number needed to treat" (in this case, how many babies have to be circumcised to prevent one case of the disease) and "number needed to harm" (how many babies are circumcised for every one who is injured [more than the usual circumcision injuries]) before a risk/benefit ratio can properly be worked out.)

In general, the claims you see are made for rare maladies, of late onset (so a man has time to decide for himself whether circumcision would be of value to him), and the effect of circumcision is only claimed to be statistically significant, not major ("significant" as you and I understand the term). Further, these studies generally only show correlation - populations of men who are circumcised have less of the malady than populations that are intact. Correlation is not causation. And neither circumcision nor any of these sicknesses exists in a social vacuum. For example, Muslims are circumcised and are forbidden to drink alcohol. When it is found that the circumcised men in a population have less HIV, it may be because they are Muslims who don't drink and so have less unsafe sex, not because they are circumcised. It is very difficult to correct for errors like that.

Be particularly wary of claims that "All/many/few/no X are circumcised and they never/seldom/often/always suffer from Y." This does not even establish correlation. Almost all Samoan men are circumcised and they hardly ever suffer from frostbite.

Some medical studies are remarkably sloppy. Statistical software now makes it very easy to trawl through data finding correlations. Remember, some people are looking for an excuse to circumcise. Cutting parts of babies' penises off is a human rights issue, and to get deeply involved in medical pros and cons distracts attention from that.

Click here for more detailed answers: HIV/AIDS, Cervical cancer, penile cancer, Urinary Tract Infections, Sexually Transmitted Diseases, "cleanliness".

Q13. My husband / mother / mother-in-law is determined that my baby should be circumcised "to look like his father". What should I say?

A13.
1. If a father wants to look like his son, he can restore his own foreskin.
2. When the boy looks at his father's penis what he will notice is how big and hairy it is. What does his father propose doing about that?
3. Your son is going to spend perhaps five minutes of his life looking at his father's penis, but about four-fifths of his life away from his father (and 20 or 30 years of his life after his father is dead).

This is about the adults' insecurity, not your son's. Mothers and mothers-in-law want to justify having had their sons circumcised, and husbands want to justify their own condition. (But it won't help to tell them that.)

Seriously, say, "That's not a very good reason." Click here to see other short answers.

Questions are welcome. You can email me. I am not a doctor and can not offer medical advice.

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