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The variety of reasons given for male genital cutting (and the irrationality of many of them) is amazing. List them all together and your mind will boggle.

(All of these reasons have been seriously offered, or even led to circumcisions. All spelling and punctuation is sic.)

(Yes, there are also some good reasons.)

ANY TIME



0. For no reason at all / Cuz / Because he just should be / She's not even clear on [it]. She just wants it, you know. / Because "it had just never occurred to them not to" / Because my husband and I wanted him to be and nothing anyone else says can convince me that it was the wrong thing to do.
   Rosie O'Donnell, in Redbook, October 1997/Responses to a survey conducted by Paul Baker <pbaker[AT-sign]nermal.santarosa.edu>/Joe Crummey KABC AM 790, Los Angeles Dec 5 1999 / big_giant_head on Chronicle of Higher Education, June 18, 2010 / badunkadunk13 on babynbump forum, May 6, 2009
   
   

   Austin0205 Message #1148 03/31/07 05:19 PM

   Want to know Why I circed my sons. Ummmmm, let me think for a sec....OH yeah I know, cause I wanted to, thats why. None of you anti-circ, people bashing, assh*les know ANYTHING you just know what you read and hear. You think ONLY you are right and EVERYBODY else is wrong. But guess what, You don't get to tell us what we can do to our own children because their OUR children not yours. If you want your son to look like a freak and feel bad about himself thats fine ,what-ever-floats-your -boat. But when it come to MY child, he is under MY control till he is 18. I say what goes, not him. When we ALL become parents, we have to make a decision right or wrong but it is ours to make. Not yours or Joe Shmo down the steet. I gave birth to my beautiful sons and I am the one to make that choice for him because he can't. So stop making parents that have circed their sons feel bad about because they shouldn't, its their child so keep you big fat fuukin noses out of our(their) buisness....To each their own. Posted in MSN message board

    

1. because "we couldn't decide. WHAT A STUPID REASON!! It was more a..."Oh, I guess do it, I don't know.." attitude. If only I knew then what I know now."
   Midwesternmomma on a page for regreful parents (560 messages in May 2010) at mothering.com, Februay 7, 2004
   
   
2. Because "[I] thought [he] might as well be circ'd." / "just in case" / Because "we just do it. It's better this way."
   Actor Tony Randall on the Late Late Show, Oct 6, 1998 / said to a man being operated on for kidney stones / Told by a doctor to T--, now a restoring father
   
   
3. Because it's better and it has to be done
   Said to the source's mother-in-law in 1971 at Baptist Hospital, Lynchburg VA - <japg[AT-sign]mindspring.com>
   
   
4. Because "without it being done his son would not achieve the high grades needed at school."
   Said to the doctor by the father of a schoolmate of hoodyh1(AT)yahoo.co.nz, posting to Circumsexual(AT)yahoogroups.com on Aug 14, 2007
   This may have been true: hoodyh1 was told "it was expected by the college that a circumcision would take place regardless of the students wishes."
   
   
5. Because "These things must be done for boys and the time had come"
   Told to a schoolmate of matelot923(AT)yahoo.com, posting to Circumsexual(AT)yahoogroups.com on Aug 14, 2007
   
   
6. Because it only seems natural / It seemed like the natural thing to do
   The Hite Report on Male Sexuality, pp. 397-398 / Sara, writing to Chatelaine
   
   
7. Because it is a sin not to
   According to a patient of Phil Nguyen, Indiana U School of Medicine
   
   
8. beacuse it is the only decent thing to do
   feedback from M Hogan
   
   
9. The main reason to circumcise is possession of a foreskin
   Theodore Spearman, Judge in the case of McLain vs Biedel, 2005
   
   NEONATAL
   
   
10. Because "He doesn't choose to be born, either."
    - response by an expectant mother, having been told that circumcision is torturous and denies his right to choose.
    
    
11. To impress the poor
    "Until the Second World War it was regarded as a class symbol in many parts of western European society [False - only the UK]: in the eyes of the poor, circumcision was evidence that a boy's parents were affluent enough to afford some medical treatment." - Dr Thomas Stuttaford in The Times Online
    
    
12. Because it's a lot more easy for the baby
    Response to a survey conducted by Paul Baker <pbaker[AT-sign]nermal.santarosa.edu>
    
    
13. Because "They're my kids and I'll do any god-damned thing I want to them, so you lost this argument, Asshole."
    posted to <Glharryman[AT-sign]aol.com>
    
    
14. Because of an "accident on medical records..." According to the "paperwork guidelines, I was not supposed to be Circ."
    Told by (ERWI2)<erwi2[AT-sign]aol.com>
    
    
15. "Because any child with a foreskin is a pedafile"
    A woman on the circumcision board at Parentsoup quoting a female friend
    
    
16. "Because NOT circumsizing your child is just...well WARPED!"
    According to (JL) <merilin[AT-sign]winternet.com>
    
    
17. I am not sure why, but my family has done it for a long time. You could call it tradition, I guess / because my family has always had circumcisions / Because of custom / Because it's habit and the way the society works / Because "it was simply a common social custom which we took more or less for granted" / "mostly because everyone in our family has, more of a tradition. Not really sure how I feel about it one way or another."
    Response to a survey conducted by Paul Baker <pbaker[AT-sign]nermal.santarosa.edu> / Shannon M. Corn of Knightdale, North Carolina, quoted in the Raleigh News and Observer, 31 Oct 2001 / Response to a survey conducted by Paul Baker <pbaker[AT-sign]nermal.santarosa.edu> / Bryce Courtenay in April Fool's Day. His son was haemophilic and nearly died. / Karijoy writing in the SheKnows blog, March 2008.
    
    
18. "Because I was circumcised and so was my dad. It’s about being part of our tribe."
    Darrell at Art of Manliness February 22, 2009
    
    
19. Because it's a "religious practice that has been going on for thousands of years"
    feedback from <ALibLaiR18[AT-sign]aol.com>
    
    
20. Because "to NOT BE CIRCUMCISED ... [is] ... old-fashioned"
    feedback from <ALibLaiR18[AT-sign]aol.com>
    
    
21. Because it makes the penis look more modern
    Told in Guadalajara to Dr Sergio Aquilar, who told Gary Harriman<Glharryman[AT-sign]aol.com>
    
    
22. Because it is a good and proper thing to do/Because all the nice families are having it done
    Reported in Canadian Medical Association Journal, Vol 95 (Sept 10, 1966), pages 576-581/Said to the mother of Neal Smith <neal_smith[AT-sign]rocketmail.com> North Carolina, 1940
    
    
23. Because his mother had an episiotomy ("I was cut, why shouldn't he be?")
    
    
24. Because his mother suffered much greater pain during childbirth / Because the father "just didn't want to argue with her after she'd been through all that suffering." / Because "women have to go through a bunch just because we are women. I personally think that a male child should have to suffer a little."
    / According to <JJMaloneJr[AT-sign]aol.com> / Comment by MizMoxie at this isby.us on April 25, 2008
    
    
25. Because the woman is the one to change the diapers
    Mother of Kerri W. on AOL MomsOnline
    
    
26. To teach him that the world is a painful place / that life hurts / To toughen 'em up for real life / Because "It teaches them that pain doesn't matter."
    /Told to Susan Peer <susan[AT-sign]noln.com>/Told to Curt Geiler <curt[AT-sign]null.net>
    
    

    46.

    April 5th, 2007 7:10 pm

    REAL PURPOSE OF CIRCUMCISION: a little pain right after birth to innoculate the boy against the pains of life a little tough love right off the bat — Posted by face it to the NY Times

     

27. Because "I'm not messing around with this guy [God] right now."
    The baby had been born premature, and was in an incubator. Shalom Auslander in his book Foreskin's Lament
    
    
28. Because "his little peepee is so small"
    Said by a doctor to a mother who tells her story on blOUCH!: the circumcision was botched, the baby haemorrhaged, almost died, and will need more surgery.
    
    
29. Because infant circumcision is much less complicated, painful, and heals faster than adult circumcision.
    According to Gwen A Orel <gaost3+[AT-sign]pitt.edu> 5 October 1996
    
    
30. Because it will have to be done sooner or later
    
    
31. To prevent "psychological trauma due to castration anxiety"
    ( ! )
    
    
32. Because it's just part of being born / Because all males are circumcised/Because it is hospital policy/Because it was pretty much mandatory/Because "they just do it automatically" / Because when his mother said "What's circumcision?" they said, "Don't worry dear, we'll look after it."/Because it's a law / Because "in Tennessee, it was required"/Because "it was THE LAW and they could NOT take their sons home unless they were circumcised."
    / Told to John Chastain//According to Tom H. <workhard[AT-sign]home.com> of Oshawa, Southern Ontario / / T.G.'s mother, told to Ken Drabik/Reported by John M Foley MD in FACT magazine, July - August 1966 / Told to Amber Craig <jcraig2[AT-sign]ibm.net> at the Charlotte, N.C., Baby Show, 6 Nov 99/Told to neighbors of "mattdog" <mattdog[AT-sign]goldrush.com>, now in their 70's, by both Kaiser Hospital and San Jose Memorial Hospital, now part of Stanford University medical school.
    
    
33. Because I was born in the US
    Told by his mother to Mike Giamo <giamomj[AT-sign]post.drexel.edu>
    
    
34. To protect him from being kidnapped and sacrificed
    "In Uganda, the increase [in the circumcision rate] is due not only to HIV risk prevention -- but also because some parents believe that a circumcised child is less likely to be kidnapped, and then offered as a sacrifice." CBC Jan 3, 2007 (Kidnappers consider a circumcised child unsuitable for sacrificing, and check first - but pricking his ears also works; Ugandan kidnappers apparently take "intact" very literally.)
    
    
35. Because the doctor "circed all babys, for their own good" / Because the doctor just did it
    Chris Oehler <COehler[AT-sign]wow.com> had this happen to his sons - contrary to his instructions / John M Foley MD in FACT magazine, July - August 1966
    
    
36. Because the doctor just likes doing it
    I've known of doctors in clinic type settings that gladly circumcise every baby they can just because it's something that they like to do, even when they don't get paid. - Rosemary Romberg, author of Circumcision: the painful dilemma
    
    
37. Because "they were kind of pressuring me at the hospital to do so."
    Told by a friend to mamarama on YouTube
    
    
38. Because they told his mother at the hospital if she didn't have him circumcised he wouldn't be able to father children
    Told by Susan Peer to Al Field <albfie[AT-sign]worldlynx.net>
    
    
39. Because circumcision is insignificant compared to the truly important issues that come with raising a child
    According to Len Denzo
    
    
40. Because the foreskin is a mistake of nature/Because the foreskin is a mutation that only appears on some males and must be removed
    According to Dr Thomas Wiswell/Told by a woman doctor to an intact man, as reported in a newspaper read by Chuck Kappenman <chazbsweet[AT-sign]hotmail.com>
    
    
41. Because his mother had never seen an intact penis and thought it was deformed/To make it look "more like a penis"
    It was "Derek Townsend"'s mother / Said by <notw[AT-sign]my-deja.com>'s girlfriend, told on alt.circumcision
    
    
42. Because "I don't want him to look like he has a dog dick."
    A mother to nurse Mary Conant <wholebaby2[AT-sign]juno.com>
    
    
43. Because it is rooted in our culture
    Blue Cross Blue Shield of Utah vice-president W. Knox Fitzpatrick
    
    
44. Because we live in the country
    ...the midwife told me that 20 % city people circumcise, and 50% country do it. We are from a country town, so i guess we fit into that. Jennifer05 at Bub Hub
    
    
45. Because it is culturally significant / culturally necessary / a cultural norm
    //According to <prhagen[AT-sign]bitstream.net> (Paul Hagen
    
    
46. Because they have a device to do it, so it must be okay
    According to Michael Lines' <linesm[AT-sign]gnn.com> sister in law
    
    
47. Because the opposition to it is too shrill / bizarre / On principle / To spite its opponents/To spite his absent/divorced father/Because his (gay) uncle recommended against it
    So said Bob Cohen in Living Marxism, May 1996 ////Given by Don Morgan/the case of a guest on an aborted Dr Laura show Sept 18, 2000/The uncle was Fred Bradford <avpower[AT-sign]pacbell.net>
    
    
48. Because to oppose it would give away that he liked foreskins
    

    I'm clipped, as were almost all boys in my generation. When I was in grade school there was only one boy in my gym classes who wasn't (as I'd spied in the locker room) and I felt so sorry for him because he had this horrifically deformed dick! Then, in 8th grade a slutty girlfriend told me about circumcision and I was absolutely shocked that my parents had volunteered part of my dick to be cut off??? WTF!!! Nonetheless, when I got married and had a son my wife was insistent on him being clipped, and since I'm bi (as wifey knows) I didn't want to advocate not clipping him just because I find playing with foreskins wildly hot and hours of extra entertainment. ArtIsDead on Gawker, August 17, 2010

    
    
    
49. To get even for having been raped as a teenager
    A British nanny, Angela, cited by "The Cutter" <cutter[AT-sign]circum.demon.co.uk>
    
    
50. Because "I don't want to piss off my mother-in-law." / Because "My mother won't babysit him if he's not circumcised."
    A father to nurse Mary Conant <wholebaby2[AT-sign]juno.com> / A mother to nurse Mary Conant <wholebaby2[AT-sign]juno.com>
    
    
51. In exchange for not having to change his diapers
    Joe Crummey KABC AM 790, Los Angeles Dec 5 1999
    
    
52. As a birthday present to his father.
    "Taffy really didn't want to go "European" with this decision and therefore I granted his wish and Gio got circumcised. Because it was Taffy's wish to circumcise our precious son, I consider my approval of it, my early Birthday gift for my dear Husband. Dear Husband, Happy early Birthday, I got you a circumcision!!"
    blog: Life with two Kids and one Taffy, October 30, 2008
    
    
53. To honour his late father's memory.
    "He lost his father at a young age and wanted to honour his memory by circumcising their son."
    Husband of Danae Elon in "Documentary deals with circumcision debate", CTV, August 19, 2010
54. Because his intact brother, aged 10, wished he had been.

    Mom of two sons, ages 7 and 17: "One is circumcised, and the other is not. When my youngest was born, I asked my then 10-year-old if he thought his brother should be circumcised, and he said yes, that he wished he was."

    quoted by Gina Chen in the Post-Standard, Syracuse, April 23, 2009
    
    
55. Because if he isn't circumcised at birth he won't want to be circumcised later
    [Well, Duh! And why should he be circumcised later?]
    
    
56. Because his mother doesn't want to have to explain why his penis looks different from his father's./ "I didn't want him to question why daddy looked different"
    (...so now he can question why they look the same...)
    / A (former?) friend of Rockett <dropforged[AT-sign]sprintmail.com>
    
    
57. To prevent any discussion about it later
    
    
58. To "outmanoeuvre the cultural police later on!"
    Opstoker on Dispatch Now 24/1 (South Africa), June 15, 2010
    
    
59. Because "It hard enough to talk about "parts" without having to explain other parts."
    tryoneve... in Oh Yahoo! Answers June 28, 2008
    
    
60. Because the decision was made for me, so I'll make the decision for my sons / Because I had no choice
    
    
61. Because it's part of his father's identity
    Mrs Ines Ford-Bruins in the NZ Sunday Star-Times (Nov 9, 2003), New Zealand, where routine circumcision is almost obsolete
    
    
62. If I had to, he has to.
    Husband of  mattdog[AT-sign]pacific.net 's niece
    
    
63. Because his father had been circumcised as an adult and had been traumatised by it.
    (The father's foreskin "had torn during intercourse" - it was probably his frenulum, but in any case circumcision was not required. Wasn't the son lucky his father never had his arm amputated!)
    "Tilly" <climbaboard[AT-sign]hotmail.com> on alt.circumcision, 12 August 2003
    
    
64. Because it saves him from the embarassment of having to ask for it
    
    
65. To keep peace in the family
    
    
66. "To save our marriage"
    (Her second husband wanted the boy cut and she didn't want to have a big argument. )
    She'd had the first son cut because she missed her dead husband's penis! Sent by remdog <remdog[AT-sign]earthlink.net>
    
    
67. Because the foreskin will fall off if a baby is put into a hot tub of water for a bath.
    "His perception was that the foreskin was something like the umbilical cord, and that it needed to be removed shortly after birth, lest it become the site for infection."
    (Babies shouldn't be put in hot water, of course.)
    Believed by a 20 y o friend of Art Boy (Jeff Borg) <artboyz[AT-sign]worldnet.att.net>
    
    
68. Because the foreskin would fall off by itself if it wasn't cut off by the doctor, just like the umbilical cord.
    Believed for 24 years by Steve Wilder <wilder[AT-sign]ksl.stanford.edu>
    
    
69. Because "If not, the boy will end up with a mis-shapen penis, bent at the end."
    According to len orwill on MSNBC Newsvine, January 12, 2020
    
    
70. "...since he had heard of some intact baby boy who had gotten a hair wrapped around his glans and strangled his penis!!!"
    A first-year medical student at the U of Chicago to Dan Strandjord" <danstrandjord[AT-sign]att.net>
    
    
71. To prevent tears later in life (in the skin, not the eyes)
    This is quite false: the circumcision wound may tear.
    Given on Medline: http://www.medscape.com/HomeExamRoom/spotlight/05.97-spotlight.html
    
    
72. Because a friend of a friend of a... "had to be" circumcised later in life.
    
    
73. Because a neighbouring year old was born "naturally circumcised" and needed it
    (?)
    Told to vuckovic[AT-sign]interaccess.com (G. Vuckovic)
    
    
74. Because it's covered by Medicare / National Health / Social Security / Health Insurance / State insurance
    ////At Charity Hospital, New Orleans, told to John Erickson
    
    
75. Because doctors make money from it / Because if he didn't some other doctor would get the money. / Because the hospital charges a circumcision fee whether he's cut or not
    / Said by a retired OBGYN to Patricia Robinett<patricia[AT-sign]efn.org> / Said to the source's mother-in-law in 1971 at Baptist Hospital, Lynchburg VA
    
    
76. Because a military surgeon "wanted to get back into practice because she could get $100 apiece for them in private practice." / To provide practice for house-surgeons (interns) / To provide practice for Navy surgeons waiting for action / "... circumcision also benefits the future health workers of the country. It is through circumcision that they hone their surgery skills before they perform that risky procedure to save someone else’s life."
    The surgeon spoke to Darillyn Starr <sstar[AT-sign]vii.com> / Jason Ashley / Aboard USS Peleliu in the Arabian Sea, 2 Nov 2001, Reuters / PreMEDitated by John D Cruz MD
    
    
77. "In order [for the doctor] to be granted privileges in neonatal circumcision"
    Practice guidelines of the University of Manitoba medical school
    
    
78. Because they're fun to do.
    '"I like doing circumcisions. They're fun procedures because they're one of the few procedures I can do on a healthy kid." Then she immediately said something like, "Why are you looking at me like that? I knew you wouldn't understand!" She made this comment in a roomful of other students which had two other doctors in it and they were nodding in agreement.' - a midwife posting on the Midwifery Today forum
    
    
79. To get sterile urine samples, to see if he has a urinary tract infection.
    Letter to Pediatr. Ann. 1997: 26(5): 278 from S A Bailis

    When you see a young baby that has a very high fever, one thing you immediately think of is a UTI. To rule it out, you need a sterile urine sample. A circumcised penis gives sterile urine naturally, but because of bacteria under the foreskin, an uncircumcised penis doesn't. So, for a proper workup, you need to tranquilize the baby and pass a tube in, and it becomes an invasive procedure just to get a sample. Dr Edgar Schoen, in The Nest Baby Talk about snatching victory from the jaws of defeat! It was the unsterile urine samples of the intact boys that formed the basis of Tom Wiswell's (false) claim that they are more susceptible to UTIs!

    
    
80. Because [doctors] would not be able to pull the foreskin back to see if anything is wrong. The circumcision would be free now, but if she went out the door, when she returned it will cost her. [$25 off if you call in the next ten minutes!]
    Told by doctors at Kaiser Permanente to a pregnant woman who visited David Bradt's Intactivist stand at Venice Beach, Los Angeles. He succeeded in savng the baby.
    
    
81. Because "he is already going to be different because he is going to be raised by two moms why put him at a further disadvantage"
    Mom T on Momssquared
    
    
82. Because "there is a probability that sometime in the near future that it will be recommended that all boys will be required to have it done after birth"
    Mom T on Momssquared
    
    
83. Because doctors know best
    
    

    POST-NEONATAL
    
    

84. To make the penis look like that of a kangaroo
    John Cawte, cited in The Universality of Incest
    
    
85. To symbolise humanity's unique essence as more than animal
    Ben David <b_david2[AT-sign]netvision.net.il>
    
    
86. Because "It's what distinguishes them from animals. ... There are few to no circumcised animals in the world. Ritualistic circumcision separates men from animals. If you find an ancient corpse and it's impossible to tell what it is, if it's circumcised, you can be fairly certain it's a man and not an orangutuan.
    Allie Baba on US Message Board, July 2, 2009
    
    

87. To keep a bargain Abraham made with G*d
    (Gen. 17:10-14)
    
    
88. "... because Jewish men should be able to feel the pain of others more easily."
    Dr Aaron Jesin, quoted in the Toronto eye, 7/99
    
    
89. Because he's heir to the British throne and Queen Victoria believed they were descended from King David
    The second part of this has been disputed.
    
    
90. To bribe Satan: "Kabbalah explains that we say to Satan that we take the holy part, which is the child, and the unholy foreskin we give to Satan. Because of this gift, the Satan is bribed to the extent that he then praises the Jews and becomes a defender rather than a prosecutor."
    http://www.shemayisrael.com/mikvah/britmilah1.html
    
    
91. As a badge of Jewish identity.
    Rabbi Lawrence, in "The Naked Penis" TV3 New Zealand, May 30, 2001
    
    
92. As proof of Jewish identity.

    When the Russian Army came closer to the camps, the Germans started marching us back toward Germany. We were seven young men who escaped the Death March. One day the Russians made us pull down our pants to see if we were circumcised; that was the only way they could tell that we were Jewish. It saved our lives. Bless the ancient tradition that I am here to write about. Henry R. Schindler in LoHud.com, August 2, 2009 [It was not only liberating Russians who pulled down men's pants to see if they were Jewish, but conquering Nazis. It cost those men their lives. Did they bless the ancient tradition they are not here to write about? ]

    
    
93. Because "when the Ethiopian Jews were discovered in the Gondor region, and they had been separated for 2,000 years from Jews with Talmudic traditions, ... they STILL circumcised their boys. ... If they hadn't done this ritual, we'd have lost the connection to a whole branch of the family."
    posted by "paying3tuitions" at College Confidential
    
    
    
94. To make him look different from outsiders
    
    
95. To remind him of anti-Semitic persecution
    (which was facilitated by circumcision)
    
96. To get revenge on anti-Semites
    "Curt to the point of rudeness, [the mohel] shouted over the baby's cries that every time we circumcise a Jewish child, we are getting revenge upon the anti-Semites who wanted to crush us." - Lila Hanft, Becoming a Jewish Mother
    
    
97. To prevent another Holocaust (he's a gentile: circumcising gentiles will hide Jews)
    Helen Latner, columnist for Jewish Week, quoted in "Humanistic Judaism. Volume 1, No 4 (Winter 1983) pp 46-6 no. 4 (Winter 1983): pp. 43-46
    
    
98. To prevent Jews and Muslims from being marginalised (he's a gentile: circumcising gentiles will normalise Jews and Muslims).
    "Ancient ritual does no harm", Catherine Ford, Calgary Herald, March 31, 2001
    
    
99. Because Allah wants him to be a Muslim.,
    Davoud Jenkins has formed a Yahoo! group, Circumcised became Muslim

    ... I am a Muslim American, circumcised at birth by the will of Allah. This was His sign to me to become a Muslim. ... Were you circumcised without any reason, like already being a Muslim? You are probably wondering why you received the sign of circumcision. Well, welcome to this group! Here you can discover the true reason for your circumcision from Allah, the Merciful.

    
    
    
100. To bond him with his community / To enforce social cohesion
     Gwen A Orel <gaost3+[AT-sign]pitt.edu> 3 July 1996 / Yehudi Cohen, cited in The Universality of Incest
     
     
101. To educate him in his parent's faith / Because it is "an educational measure".
     
     
102. Because the sexual organ is where the future generations of Jews come from. Comment by Sarah Sutton on Newsweek on May 3, 2007
     
     
103. To signify the union of body and spirit
     (Cutting part off to signify union...)
     According to <b_david2[AT-sign]netvision.net.il)
     
     
104. To offer our children to a higher spiritual life
     Ruth Ostrow, "Tradition cuts to the present" the Weekend Australian, June 16-17, 2001
     
     
105. To ensure a share for him in the world to come
     According to Matt Prastein <smp[AT-sign]fgi.net>
     
     
106. To draw down the Divine light, bring down the soul of holiness into the body, reveal the Jew's inherent connection to G-d
     According to CHABAD-LUBAVITCH in CYBERSPACE <listserv[AT-sign]chabad.org>
     
     
107. Because the foreskin concentrates negative energy
     (from the Advocating Circumcision Today website)
     
     
108. Because "[t]his paring away of the superfluous skin allows for Shechinah energy to permeate the seed of Israel."
     "Yechidah" <thehealingshelf[AT}hotmail.com> on alt.circumcision, June 12 2004 (Shechinah energy is defined by Riain Barton <riain[AT]columbus.rr.com> as "the 'essence' of the Universal Deity")
     
     
109. To "spiritually remov[e] and eliminat[e] undesirable character traits...
     
110. ...depressive tendencies and so on...
     
111. ...[To] eliminate from the body of the child, forces which might try to cultivate overindulgence in physical pleasures, etc."
     (from the Advocating Circumcision Today website)
     
     
112. Because "The blood of milah suppresses Hashem's anger"
     According to act-now.org, "... the blood shed is laid by the angels before G-d's palace. When the power of severe judgment is aroused in the world, the Holy One, blessed is He, looks at that blood and does not allow evil influences to do any harm."
     
     
113. 
     

     The book, Symbols of Judaism states, “Circumcision is a way of introducing language into the body and bringing the body of the infant into the sphere of language…[it] enables human beings to enter into the dimension of language.”

     [...which makes you wonder how women and gentiles are able to enter into it.]
     Oedipus and Circumcision
     
     
114. 
     

     I would argue that circumcision is the human form of pruning; it is designed to prevent the child (plant) from overstepping his boundaries (becoming a hybris) by means of connecting the son to the father. This ritual of symbolic pruning essentially establishes paternal authority (though it does not establish paternity) and marks the beginning of what will hopefully become a healthy relationship with the law.

     Oedipus and Circumcision [The author of this, shemote, is apparently under the impression the ancient Greeks practised circumcision.]
     
     
115. To connect him to a long cultural tradition.

     ... while I wasn't Jewish, my son, borne by [sic] a Jewish mother, was, by definition and birthright. ... Sam, of course, was oblivious to all this ... The doctor visited our room to discuss circumcision. She was Jewish, and while she expressed her respect for whatever feelings we had on the procedure, there was no mistaking her advocacy. Tracy had qualms, if not deep misgivings, hav­ing nothing to do with religion or Judaism. While her family wasn't particularly observant, she certainly had no reservations about identifying as a Jew. But as a progressive, enlightened, American woman, raised in the seventies, she had a reflexive aversion to submitting her son to what could be described as ritual mutilation. To me, it was very clear, and I surprised myself by calmly and clearly making my point. "I understand what you're saying, honey, and I'm not saying we have to do a bris and the whole floor show. [Medical circumsion without a bris - never mind the floor show - has no significance in Judaism.] But you're Jewish, so he's Jewish. He's part of a culture and a continuum that I can't even pretend to understand or fully appreciate. So let me put it this way: If the doctor does it now, here in the hospital, I'll go in the room with the two of them, and I'll hold him. And when she gets busy with the scalpel, I'll look him in the eye and give him someone to scream at. But in thirteen years, if he decides he wants to have a bar mitzvah and he isn't circumcised, [Circumcision is not a requirement for bar mitzvah.] then you are going to be in that room with him. I'm going to Vegas." Now, I understand that people have strong opinions about this, but in my first major decision as a father, I felt it was right to connect Sam to a long cultural tradition outside of my own. So I cradled my son with a pre-P[arkinson's ]D[isease] steadiness and cooed at him while the doc did the deed. No doubt, it hurt him a hell of a lot more than it hurt me. "Always Looking Up: The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist" by Michael J Fox, pp 183-4

     [Have we got this straight? She's Jewish and didn't want him circumcised, he's gentile and did?]
     
     
116. Because

     It’s kind of like a brand. ... A mark, in the flesh, to denote possession. That’s what a brand is. And it’s what circumcision was. It said, “You belong to me. I have made a covenant with you–and you belong to me. This says it in your body. In your flesh.”

     Hot Orthodoxy blog, February 1, 2009
     
     
117. For "its positive effects on the generations to come."
     Friends of Refugees of Eastern Europe (FREE) an arm of Chabad Lubavitch - a strict and somewhat controversial form of Orthodoxy
     
     
118. To grant him "extra special protection from God" and allow him to eat Passover lamb
     A father who botched his son's circumcision with a razor-blade, National Post (Canada) December 10, 2009
     
     
119. Because Jews do it and they are so clean
     a common 19th century reason
     
     
120. "So that he will be rich as a Jew"
     A Peruvian mother said it (apparently seriously ) to Ari Zigelboim <akp[AT-sign]communique.net>
     
     
121. "I think my parents thought it would save trouble later on if I wanted to be the real thing [Jewish]." - English actor Stephen Fry. (He never did.)
     Interview with Deborah Ross, The Independent, April 20, 2002
     
     
122. Because Jesus was circumcised
     Luke 2 21
     
     
123. "...because of our Biblical beliefs. We just felt it was a covenant between God and his people. We are God's people and felt it was right for us." / Just in case G-d had good reason and it wasn't someone's misinterpretation religiously...we felt we had "covered ourselves"...(we are Episcopalian, actually) / Because his father thought the Covenant applied to him somehow, though he wasn't Jewish
     Kay Henson <serenity[AT-sign]herbcare.com> /told to Patrick Draper <pdrap[AT-sign]ctp.com>/A caller to Dr Dean Edell, 6 Mar 1998, heard by Wayne Hampton <hampton[AT-sign]netcom.com>
     
     
124. Because of Acts 15 1: "And certain men came down from Judea and taught the brethren, "Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved."
     Yet the chapter goes on to repudiate circumcision for Christians.

included on a painting called "Circumcision" by Samoan naïve artist Tony Schuster, April 2003


125. Because it is a good Christian thing to do

(said by a Lutheran) to Duane Voskuil <dvoskuil[AT-sign]tic.bisman.com>


126. Because we're Pentecostal
     (Circumcision is not among the "Gifts of the Spirit")
     told to Patrick Draper <pdrap[AT-sign]ctp.com>
     
     
127. Because he's to be ordained as a Pentecostal Deacon
     "at least one Pentecostal Church in the county insists that its Deacons be circumcised. Yes- if someone is elected to serve as a deacon, said person must either have been circumcised at birth or undergo the procedure before [being] ordained." - Dr Jim West, February 14, 2009
     
     Because we're Episcopalian
     A couple to nurse Mary Conant <wholebaby2[AT-sign]juno.com>
     
     
128. Because we're Orthodox Albanians
     "the priest does come and it is considered a rite of passage into our faith" - a poster on a list for midwives and doulas, reported by "cam" <cmay[AT-sign]flash.net>
     
     
129. Because it's a tradition of the Orthodox in Northern Greece
     Markos, personal communication
     
     
130. Because "I am a Lutheran, uncircumcision is considered a "Jewish" thing." (?!)
     poster on That Kid
     
     
131. Because he (a Navajo) was placed during the school term with Mormons
     
     
132. Because a baboon the Egyptians considered sacred is "born circumcised"
     
     
133. Because Mohammed was "born circumcised"
     
     
134. Because his mother's boyfriend is a Muslim
     the father of David Williams, <21davidwilliams[AT-sign]supanet.com>
     
     
135. Because impurities collect in the foreskin and by removing it we are purer and closer to God.
     Said to Dan Bollinger<danbollinger[AT-sign]home.com> by a Lebanese Moslem man. He replied, "Exactly what impurities would these be?" The man said nothing and changed the subject.
     
     
136. Because it is required by Islam
     (But it's not in the Qur'an)
     
     
137. Because it is required by the Catholic church / For religious reasons...my parents were Catholics
     / personal communication
     
     
138. Because it is required by his stepfather's insurance policy
     Don Morgan
     
     
139. Because women's magazines advise it
     Canadian Medical Association Journal, Vol 95 (Sept 10, 1966), pages 576-581
     
     
140. To please his grandfather
     "the only reason" for circumcising his son given by actor Warren Mitchell in an interview
     
     CHILDHOOD
     
     
141. Because his mother was having another baby, so they could go in together
     (He was 18 months old, and became an elective mute)
     Grandson of a workmate of Erick L. Gustavson <egustav435[AT-sign]erols.com>
     
     
142. One child was circumcised for umbilical hernia without obstruction or gangrene,
143. and three circumcised for a unilateral undescended testicle.
     from a list of circumcision diagnoses from the University Hospital of South Manchester, 2010
     
     
144. "To advertise sociopolitical relief organisations in Turkey"
     (?)
     E. Ozdemir, Significantly increased complication risks with mass circumcision, British Journal of Urology (1997) 80, 136-9
     
     
145. To celebrate a newspaper's 36th anniversary / To commemorate Jakarta's 482nd anniversary / To enliven the celebration of the 54th anniversary of Indonesian Film Artist Association (PARFI)
     "Relax, it's good for our circulation" [picture] "A BOY grimaces in pain at a mass circumcision at the offices of Kompas, Indonesia's largest daily newspaper, in Jakarta yesterday. In an Islamic rite of passage, 171 Indonesian boys were circumcised in celebration of the newspaper's 36th birthday." - The Australian, July 6, 2001, p30 (Marketplace) / The Jakarta Post, June 30, 2009 / PARFI Anniversary Celebration Marked With Healthy Cycling and Tree Planting, Berita Jakarta, March 22, 2010
     
     
146. To woo Muslim voters to a political party
     DAP to host circumcision ceremony to win over Muslims The Malaysian Insider, December 5, 2009
     
     
147. As a tourist attraction
     (Malaysia, Indonesia)
     
     
148. Because it is a routine procedure in his parents' country of origin
     Reported in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, Vol 95 (Sept 10, 1966), pages 576-581
     
     
149. Because everybody else is doing it
     
     
150. Because his mother's friends kept asking why he wasn't
     (He was, but didn't look it, so it was done again)
     Told to George Hill
     
     
151. To make his friend seem normal again

     I remember when I was a kid and my circumcised friend asked his mother why my penis was different from his. She told him circumcision had to be done and he questioned her logic because of me. It was very clear to me that his mother was angry with me after that. She was upset that I had a foreskin and that their bubble of ignorance was disrupted. She had made her decision assuming that "everyone" was doing it and her son would be surrounded by cut children and never know the difference. She gave my mother som pro-circ literature and tried to convince her to mutilate me. Even then it was clear to me that her desire to take my foreskin away had nothing to do with me and everything to do with making her son "normal". There is no way to make a cut child whole again so the only option parents like her have is to try to cut the kids around him so he never questions it. Guilt leads to denial and the deeper the guilt the more adament the denial. Posted by Steve Bates on change.org12/31/2008 @ 12:08PM PST

152. Because only the Mexicans don't do it (in San Diego)
     Told by Kent_and_Liz[AT-sign]msn.com (Liz deForest)
     
     
153. Because it is a status symbol: "If you ain't circumcised, you ain't shit."
     
     
154. Because it is an act of the civilized world
     
     
155. Because "It's one more thing that sets us apart from the apes."
     
     
156. Because he is a nervous little boy
     Father of Carla <Carmilarms[AT-sign]aol.com>
     
     
157. To make him better-tempered
     R N Jones, 1965
     
     
158. To show the child "We love you, but we must rid you of your infantilisms"
     Theodor Reik, cited in The Universality of Incest
     
     
159. To prepare him to receive tribal secrets / priestly secrets
     (Australia) / (ancient Egypt)
     
     
160. To make him immortal, like a snake gaining a new life when it sheds its skin
     (Egypt)
     
     
161. To enable him to reincarnate
     (Australia)
     
     
162. To enable him to communicate with the spirits of his ancestors
     (Xhosa)
     
     
163. As a "blood sacrifice to the ancestors"
     Supreme Mfalapitsa, South Africa, Africa Science News, August 15, 2008
     
     
164. To separate him from his mother
     (Xhosa)
     
     
165. To break an excessively strong dependence upon the mother
     John Whiting, cited in The Universality of Incest
     
     
166. To ward off evil
     (Xhosa - and who else?)
     
     
167. To cement mutual respect among those circumcised
     (Herero of Namibia)
     
     
168. To make him an Olympic runner
     (Kenya) "...a pet idea of [John] Manners, that the male circumcision ritual, in which boys are shamed if they react to pain, uniquely prepares Kalenjin men for the pressure of an Olympic final" (but "female circumcision" is "often debilitating"): "Fast Forward: The rise of Kenya's women runners" by Lori Shontz, Post-Gazette, Pittsburgh, PA, May 5, 2002
     
     
169. Because he belongs to the Spanish royal family
     
     
170. Because he belongs to the upper class
     TIM HUISAMEN <AKTH[AT-sign]warthog.ru.ac.za> and widely reported
     
     
171. Because he's an orphan
     
     
172. Because he's to be adopted
     
     
173. Because he's been adopted
     Rosie O'Donnell's adopted son Parker was circumcised at 18 months in a pseudo-bris.
     
     
174. Because he's disabled
     
     
175. Because "I kind of think it is 'American'... in the early years of this great nation, we took pride in BEING DIFFERENT thon ether nations"
     Offered by Sean <JSQB03B[AT-sign]prodigy.com> - sent by George HIll
     
     
176. Because "it's the American thing to do" / it's patriotic.
     Medical advisor Dr Cohen on AHN TV - posted on alt.circumcision by Chele <rickw409[AT-sign]aol.com> (RickW409) 26 July 1998 / Dr Edgar Schoen to a seminar at Berkeley, 2008. The students laughed at him.
     
     
177. Because the Americans do it. / Because the Arikwao (white men) do it.
     Peter Frazer (Roy Cohn's lover), Arnold Schwarznegger / (Solomon Islands) personal communication
     
     
178. "Because they beleived that getting one automatically made you a legal citizen of the USA."
     "I read an article in the eighties wherein a doctor, who "specialized" in circumcisions, stated that he had many immigrants come to him looking for circucisions ... Sadly, he didn't discourage this inaccuracy." Mr. Enemabag Jones at queerty, July 30, 2010
     
     
179. Because "a boy should look like his brother" / Because if only one brother is cut, "neither will know which one is normal"
     (and which one is?)
     Mark H, who was cut at the last minute for this reason, and has never seen his brothers' penises / Surgeon-General Everett B. Coop, 1993
     
     
180. "For good measure" because his older brother was being c.
     Told by the (French) older brother to Martin Novoa <acroposthion[AT-sign]hotmail.com>
     
     
181. For variety (leaving brother/s intact)
     "Steven Daniel"
     
     
182. To make him look different from his twin brother
     
     
183. "We don't want him to look and ask why... 'why do you look like that, daddy... and I look like this?' ...
     
184. ...We wanted him to fit in...
     
185. ... to feel that he's part of the family...
     
186. ... that there's nothing wrong with him... (!)
     
187. ... and he's just the same as daddy!" / Because "a boy should look like his father" / 'Like father like son' / "Because his father is and it is better for them to be alike."
     /"bahoda" in the LA Times, March 29, 2008/(said by a woman who had broken off contact with the father before she knew she was pregnant)
     John [Masseli], in NBC Today Show, Nov 9, 1998/Joe Crummey, KABC Radio, Los Angeles/ letter to Suzanne Cook <nocircofmaine[AT-sign]juno.com> / from Darilynn Starr <sstar[AT-sign]vii.com>
     
     
188. Because his mother feared his father wouldn't bond with him if they didn't look the same.
     (This may have some basis - though not justification - in biology)
     
     
189. Because fathers and sons are natural enemies / To channel a father's natural anger and jealousy into one controlled cut
     "The day I cut off my son's foreskin" by Daniel Silberman Brenner/Rabbi Joshua Hammerman in Good Weekend, May 28, 1994
     
     
190. Because "what happens if we don't circumcise him and he sees daddy is different than he is and he takes scissors to his tally-whacker so he can be just like dad?"
     poster on That Kid
     
     
191. Because "In the primeval way of things procreative, we decided to pass on a tradition from father to son."/ Because I wanted to share the circumcision bond with my sons
     Parents Magazine, February 1999/Dr Alan Greene, www.parenthoodweb.com
     
     
192. Because everyone in our family is circumsised
     Reported by John M Foley MD (in FACT magazine, July - August 1966)
     
     
193. Because the mother missed her dead husband's penis [ ! ]
     (posted on an email list for stay-at-home attachment parents: the first husband died before the birth of his son, and the mother posted "I took comfort that if I couldn't have my husband, at least I could have a penis I was comfortable with." )
     The same woman let her second son be cut to save her marriage. Sent by remdog <remdog[AT-sign]earthlink.net>
     
     
194. To make him look like his mother's father
     
     
195. Because of an inborn "vagina envy"
     Bruno Bettleheim cited in The Universality of Incest
     
     
196. To make him look like his peers / To make him feel "regular"
     
     
197. Because "until more people start objecting to this procedure, it's easier on the kid to get him circumsised"
     (i.e. Somebody else go first.)
     Bill <Wes676767[AT-sign]aol.com> on the Superconsciousness (?) list
     
     
198. To protect him from being teased / called "cheese dick" / "To prevent "locker-room syndrome" / Because his mother heard of an intact boy in a locker-room being called "flappy".
     
     
199. Because if we ever live in Egypt [my husband is Egyptian] my son won't feel different from other boys
     Lisa <ljahmed[AT-sign]mailcity.com>
     
     
200. Because his foreskin had been (but was no longer) swollen after a dog bite.
     http://www.medscape.com/HomeExamRoom/spotlight/05.97-spotlight.html
     
     
201. "Trim the twig to strengthen the limb" / Because plants require pruning for growth
     Foreskin, p121 / Gwen A Orel <gaost3+[AT-sign]pitt.edu> 3 Dec 1996
     
     
202. Because it does him a favour / Because circumcision is "the KINDEST CUT OF ALL" in a man's life."
     / James Yello <jamesyello[AT-sign]aol.com>
     
     
203. To provide skin for growing for grafts
     
     
204. To provide collagen for cosmetic surgery on lips and cheeks
     "Herd on the Street", Maureen Dowd, New York Times, April 11, 2001
     
     
205. To provide fibroblasts for tissue research.
206. To provide human dermal fibroblasts (HDFs) for injection into the skin to produce collagen and remove wrinkles. (Trademark Vavelta®)
     
     
207. To use his foreskin to make TNS Recovery Complex^(TM), an anti-wrinkle cream.

     Skinmedica Tns Recovery Complex - ...The biotechnology of the skin's natural healing process has arrived with the first tissue repairing complex containing growth factors found in normal, healthy skin. The TNS (Tissue Nutrient Solution) Recovery Complex System with NouriCel-MD®, a research based cosmetic ingredient only found in TNS, is comprised of natural growth factors, antioxidants, matrix proteins, and soluble collagens, to help restore what time takes away. SkinCareShop

     Did someone mention soap?
     As seen on Oprah!
     
     
208. To use his foreskin for testing cosmetics for irritation
     
     
209. To use for research into arsenical cancers (Bowen's disease)
     Scientists at National Taiwan University called for volunteers, November 2004
     
     
210. To use his foreskin as a culture medium
     Dr Gerald N. Weiss <gnweiss[AT-sign]frii.com>
     
     
211. To graft on to mice to experimentally induce skin cancer
     HealthSCOUT, quoting "a recent issue of the American Journal of Pathology
     
     
212. To make his penis cleaner / "For hygienic purposes" / Because "no son of mine is gonna have a doggy dick."
     / / steve-o <smcarus[AT-sign]syr.edu>
     
     
213. Because it's too much trouble for his mother to clean / Because we sometimes go to Africa where hygiene is impossible
     / told to Pat A Miller <patm.tapsac.nocircoh[AT-sign]juno.com>
     
     
214. "Because I was afraid I would not know how to clean it...
215. "...I am embarrassed to admit I do not know how to clean it...
216. "...I would be humiliated to take him to the doctor with an infection...
217. "...If he got an infection, I would be considered a dirty incompetent mom."
     All four told to Eileen Wayne <EileenWayne[AT-sign]aol.com> by the same woman
     
     
218. Because the cleaning instructions for intact boys are contradictory
     Dr Gerald N. Weiss <gnweiss[AT-sign]frii.com>
     
     
219. Because he lacked co-ordination and his mother couldn't imagine him being able to retract his own foreskin
     A friend of Anne LaMotte, quoted in her book "Operating Instructions"
     
     
220. Because men prefer a maintainence-free penis
     Dr William Sears on ParentTime
     
     
221. Because "“We will save many litres of water if more men were circumcised because there would be less fiddling in the shower to keep it clean.”
     Dr Paul Cowie in The Border Watch Adelaide, March 16, 2009
     
     
222. Because his mother thought that cleaning him was too much like masturbating him / Because cleaning him could be misinterpreted as masturbating him / Because parents might be uncomfortable discussing penile hygiene with him
     /Steve Scott at the 6ISGI/ Dr Marianne Neifert in "Dr Mom"
     
     
223. To make his genitals odourless
     
     
224. Because the body of an uncircumcised person smells like an un-castrated male goat
     Believed in West Timor
     
     
225. ...male circumcision is a beautiful thing and not a barbaric thing or mutilation. That is why we circumcise..because it is beautiful.
     Candybags <candybags[AT-sign]shaw.ca> on the circumcision_pro_or_con group, Aug 5, 2003
     
     
226. To make his penis look nicer / cuter / sexy
     / / <vuckovic[AT-sign]interaccess.com> (G. Vuckovic)
     
     
227. Because it exposes the most beautiful part / Because it's an "aesthetic enhancement"
     The Hite Report on Male Sexuality, pp. 397-398 / <wadi4885[AT-sign]my-dejanews.com>
     
     
228. Because "A foreskin does nothing to the appearance of the penis; it's kind of like a permanent hood. I like seeing people's faces!"
     poster on That Kid
     
     
229. Because "There is no sight more beautiful that the permanently exposed glans, looking up at you, so helpless, vulnerable, and totally exposed."
     poster on That Kid
     
     
230. Because "My girlfriend's husband isn't and she makes fun of it and calls it a mushroom for heavens sake!"
     (What does she think a circumcised one looks like?)
     poster on That Kid
     
     
231. Because "circumcision provides the perfect penis".
     A urologist to an adult man who told John D. Dalton <cole[AT-sign]dentfell.demon.co.uk>
     
     
232. Because an uncircumcised penis looks funny /"repulsive"/... like a piece of meat / "...sort of marsupial, or like [a] little rodent[] stuck in [a] garden hose[]."/ "Because if your not cut.....you look like a freak!!"
     The Hite Report on Male Sexuality, pp. 397-398 /Mohel Manenahem Fleishman in "Circumcision" a film by Ari Libsker (0'36")/ Anne LaMott, "Operating Instructions" / Bradley Wells <QHRQ11B[AT-sign]prodigy.com>
     
     
233. Because it makes it uniformly pink
     (It doesn't, of course - on the contrary.)
     The Hite Report on Male Sexuality, pp. 397-398
     
     
234. Because our son ended up being born with a really tight foreskin, so much so that it was discolored and our OB said it really had to be done.
     Lisa <ljahmed[AT-sign]mailcity.co>
     
     
235. Because he was "presenting with a megaprepuce that had both physical and mental effects, eg in his relations with his peers and in emotional anxiety for his parents" / Because his foreskin is "excessively long"
     Gomez, British Journal of Urology 1997; 80:357-361 / Gomez et al, British Journal of Urology (1996), 78, 959-960
     
     
236. Because the doctors said his urethra was too long
     (This is nonsense. The state of the foreskin has no effect on the urethra. They probably meant his foreskin was too long - for their comfort.)
     I. H. personal communication
     
     
237. "Because [my sister's] doctor said having his glans exposed would help calm him down a little (he's terribly hyper)." (The writer goes on "It's certainly more natural than using drugs like Ritalin")
     Posted Feb 24, 2000, on ParentSpace by chelle_ken
     
     
238. To improve his appetite: "His poor appetite was caused by his foreskin".
     Told by a doctor to a maid in Brasilia to latinlonestar, reported on the Intactivism yahoo group July 9, 2009
     
     
239. To prevent excessive crying / Because "If you don't have him circumcised and he gets an infection, he'll cry and cry and cry and you'll never be able to get him to stop."
     Reported in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, Vol 95 (Sept 10, 1966), pages 576-581 /
     
     
240. Because "it improves his health"
     Beth on www.parenthoodweb.com
     
     
241. To prevent/cure yeast infections
     
     
242. "because it reduces the incidence of skin infections like fungi."
     [Athlete's foot is also a fungus - should we cut off babies' little toes too?]
     Niila Keshava on World Focus, June 9, 2009
     
     
243. To eliminate infection from scratched mite bites
     
     

     When I was 18 and in the Army, during infantry training after Basic, we were out in a swamp area and in a lot of grass. I got chiggers in my foreskin ... After one episode of scratching, the area was hugely swollen and the scratches were bleeding. It soon was infected. The Army doctor said they could treat the infection but the problem would be eliminated if I was circumcised. jumper-269373 on Newsvine, April 2, 2009

244. To prevent/cure balanitis
     
     
245. To prevent/cure phimosis / "tight skin" / Because it wouldn't retract at birth
     / Canadian Medical Association Journal, Vol 95 (Sept 10, 1966), pages 576-581 / The Hite Report on Male Sexuality, pp. 397-398
     
     
246. Because "it defiantely reduces chances of ... painful stretching of muscle during coitus."
     Patrick Muigai in the LA Times, March 30, 2008
     
     
247. "I had him circumcized because the foreskin kept getting tighter and tighter as he got older to the point where he could no longer retract it and if he did not get it circumcized the chances of his developing gangrene were not even a question."
     www.pregnancy.org
     
     
248. Because "apparently there is something in the Korean genotype [hereditary makeup] that causes problems with penile phimosis"
     (Only the South Korean genotype, it seems)
     A teacher in South Korea to Matthew L <mjl[AT-sign]f1.net.au>
     
     
249. Because he was (one of 16) in the control group for an experiment that showed that topical steriods succesfully treated phimosis
     Br J Urol 1996 Nov; 78(5): 786-788
     
     
250. To prevent/cure paraphimosis
     
     
251. To prevent Urinary Tract Infection
     
     
252. To prevent infant epididymitis (infection of the sperm-storage tubules behind the testes)
     
     
253. Because he had an accumulation of water in his scrotum which, had he not been circumcised, would have made him sterile
     (They probably just took the opportunity to c. him when they were draining his scrotum. Maybe they lied, maybe he misunderstood.)
     A schoolfriend of John D. Dalton <cole[AT-sign]dentfell.demon.co.uk>
     
     
254. To prevent high blood pressure
     Dr Thomas Wiswell, Knight-Ridder newspapers 2/Apr/97
     
     
255. To prevent the formation of gallstones
     Dr Edgar Schoen, quoted in USA Today, July 1995
     
     
256. To cure a stomach infection
     A man at a NORM-SoCal meeting, sent by Gary Harryman <Glharryman[AT-sign]aol.com>
     
     
257. To prevent prostate cancer
     Dr. Abraham Ravich
     
     
258. Because he was born with ichthyosis
     (A rare skin condition affecting the whole body)
     A friend of Nathan Kennard <nathankennard[AT-SIGN]hotmail.com>
     
     
259. "An urologist who checked my penis suggested me to circumcise my penis because he says the little white points [around the gland] can be dangerous, meaning being transmited while sex."
     These papillae coronis are perfectly normal and common.
     A correspondent to David Stevens <davidstevens[AT-sign]sbcglobal.net>
     
     
260. To prevent rupture
     Canadian Medical Association Journal, Vol 95 (Sept 10, 1966), pages 576-581
     
     
261. To prevent boils
     
     
262. "To combat the ravages of schistosomal infectious symptomatology"
     A schistosome is a threadworm. Symptomatology is the study of symptoms.
     Gerald N. Weiss M.D. <gnweiss,frii.com>
     
     
263. To cure genital crabs
     A caller to the Howard Stern Show, September 4, 2003
     
     
264. To prevent or cure alcoholism, asthma, curvature of the spine, epilepsy, gout, hernia, headaches and rheumatism
     P C Remondino, 1891
     
     
265. To help him cope with chicken pox
     Geoffrey T. Falk
     
     
266. To prevent swine 'flu
     Proposed, in apparent seriousness, on the basis of correlation between swine 'flu and intactness in Mexico vs the USA and on a sort of "Why not? It's good for everything else!" basis, at the Universal [formerly Mandatory] Circumcision website, May 4, 2009
     
     
267. Among the adult diagnoses are apocrine miliaria,

     Aprocrine miliaria (Fox-Fordyce Disease): A rare disorder, usually of women, where sweat trapped in the sweat glands results in itching inflammation of the involved tissue. There are no sweat glands under the foreskin.

268. calculus [stone] in bladder,
269. and sterilization [probably on a "Would you like a circumcision with that?" basis]
     from a list of circumcision diagnoses from the University Hospital of South Manchester, 2010
     
     
270. Because he hadn't urinated hours after birth
     (He had.)
     MBLNovoa <chuff[AT-sign]pacbell.net:>
     
     
271. So that the tip of the penis (glans) and the opening of the urethra, through which the baby urinates, are exposed to air
     The foreskin is the tip of the penis
     Supplied by Pat a. Miller <patm.tapsac.nocircoh[AT-sign]juno.com>
     
     
272. Because "a small piece of skin that covered my urethra had to be removed so I could urinate."
     Posted by Jim to fathermag.com, Nov 5, 2007
     
     
273. Because doctors botched correcting an imperforate foreskin.
     

     My partner was born with no opening in his foreskin, there was like a scar where it should have been. ... when they tried to fix his foreskin they started by just creating an opening but they didn't use his natural one and it split leaving him with two openings so they had to do a circumcision. ... So when I say it was real medical reasons, I don't mean American medical reasons!

     
     
     
274. Because a foreskin that completely covers the glans is abnormal
     On this basis, the same study found 49% of intact men to be "abnormal"
     Osmond TE. Is routine circumcision advisable? J Royal Army Med Corps. 1953; 99:254.
     
     
275. To stop him dribbling when he pees / sprinkling on the toilet seat / To prevent difficulty with micturation in childhood
     Jason Ashley//
     
     
276. Because "One benefit of circumcision - you get a finer stream. He'll be writing his name on the wall before you know it! "
     A narrower stream is a consequence of meatal stenosis caused by meatal ulcers, and is not a benefit
     Skyring (Peter) on Twitter, March 8, 2009
     
     
277. Because "My son, now 4, continues to put all kinds of things into his foreskin (coins, for example), which I presume would not happen if he were circumsized."
     poster on That Kid
     
     
278. Because "If you don't do that they get a rupture.... The urine will get all backed up and won't come out properly." / To allow him to urinate
     A nursing graduate to Coontail <coontail[AT-sign]my-deja.com> /
     
     
279. "We did it for potty training. It's just easier that way."
     In "a local daily paper" submitted by <gdavis[AT-sign]griffin.emba.uvm.edu> (Gary Davis)
     
     
280. To confer "societal health benefits"
     
     
281. Because scar tissue had formed at the end of his foreskin making it hard to urinate (the doctor had ordered the mother to retract his foreskin forcibly from four months onward)
     From Darillyn Starr <Sstar[AT-sign]vii.com>
     
     
282. Because "my cousin's penis, started growing shut, and if he wouldn't have had it cut, he could have died. (if it was let closed shut completely)
     An anonymous poster on misc.kids.pregnancy
     
     
283. Because "there wouldn't have had any place for my penis to grow"
     [Name removed at writer's request]
     
     
284. Because he had a large glans
     Peter Patterson, Toronto, Canada, personal communication.
     
     
285. Because "the foreskin and the frenulum stop the growth of the penis and in some cases circumcision is necessary to protect the boy or man from the psychological trauma of an abnormally small penis."
     a respected gynecologist, doctor's union official, and a political power in the Institute Mexicano Seguro Social (Social Security) to Dr Sergio Aguilar
     
     
286. To prevent stunted growth of his whole body
     In the Philippines, where boys are circumcised before adolescence.
     
     
287. Because "It makes a boy mature faster"
     And that is a good thing because...? Said by a friend of Quark, posting at Foreskin-Restoration.net
     
     
288. Because "his father tried to tell him that the procedure would make him taller"
     Janma, writing in Indonesia Matters on March 18th, 2008. She goes on: "we all looked at him somewhat blankly before collapsing into laughter. He never mentioned it again." - a fitting reaction to many (if not all) of these reasons.
     
     
289. Because he is under anaesthetic already for another operation
     Combined tonsillectomy and circumcision became so common it was called "T & C"
     One mother told Suzanne Cooke <Scookie5[AT-sign]aol.com> how she'd fought in 1977 to keep her son intact, but they got him when they were bringing down a testicle.
     dvoskuil[AT-sign]tic.bisman.com (Duane Voskuil Ph.D.)
     
     
290. So that he will do better at school
     Recommended by Dr Manuel Neto of North Dakota to Mona Goheen, who wrote to the National Post, October 27, 1999
     
     
291. Because the nurse misheard "excision" (of an abcess in his mouth) as "circumcision"
     The Nation (Thailand), January 28, 2009
     
     
292. Because he strayed near an initiation site
     Five Zimbabwean boys in South Africa, the Herald (Harare), July 14, 2009
     
     ADOLESCENT
     
     
293. To protect him from getting stuck in a zipper
     
     
294. To extract him from a zipper
     
     
295. Because "it reduces a boy's excessive fascination with his penis"
     Beth on www.parenthoodweb.com
     
     
296. To prevent masturbation - and prevent or treat about 100 allegedly consequent ailments, including arthritic hips*, blindness, headaches, hydrocephaly, insanity, kidney disease, kleptomaina, leprosy, moral depravity, rectal prolapse, plague and tuberculosis
     John Kellog, 1888
     *Lewis A. Sayre, 1870s (vehemently opposed to routine c., though)
     
     
297. To punish him for masturbating
     
     
298. So that he will be easier to control as a teenager
     
     
299. To "create a rosebud that will bloom when he's 18."
     An angry man to nurse Mary Conant <wholebaby2[AT-sign]juno.com>
     
     
300. Because "Apparently it is easier to put a condom on a circumcised penis."
     VelvenJinxx at Chicago Now, August 23, 2010 (She was not convinced by this reason.)
     
     ADULT
     
     
301. To punish him for homosexuality/cure his homosexuality
     D-----, friend of B------, was 26, and it was done at his parents' behest in Colombia while he was under general anaesthetic for another operation. Personal communication./Dear Abby, June 9, 2006
     
     
302. To punish him for going AWOL / trying to escape from prison
     / Bud Berkeley, "Foreskin", p 153
     
     
303. To punish him for bestiality
     Dr Charles E. Briggs was surgeon of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, a unit of black soldiers. Private James Riley was accused of bestiality with a mare, but acquitted. Nevertheless Dr Briggs had the soldier bound and gagged, then performed a punitive circumcision and mutilated the soldier's penis with a hot iron, all without anesthetics. (For this malpractice, torture, assault, and battery, Briggs was court-martialled.) - Tarnished Scalpels: The Court-Martials of Fifty Union Surgeons by Thomas P. Lowry and Jack D. Welsh, Stackpole Books. (Read reviews and order from Amazon.com)
     
     
304. To punish him for stealing a Circumstraint (tm)
     "Babyboy", New York,
     
     
305. To punish him for anti-Semitism
     On the ABC programme "The View", comedienne Joy Behar suggested this for actor Mel Gibson after his drunken anti-Semitic tirade on July 21, 2006
     
     
306. To punish him for seducing other people’s wives.
     Reported as the origin of the custom among the Bagishu of Uganda, July 21, 2010
     
     
307. To prevent STDs
     (syphilis) Jonathan Hutchinson, 1856
     
     
308. Because he had had an STD and "otherwise it would have resulted in a sterile future"
     told by a Navy medic to the father of a correspondent with Ken Avery <kenny318east3rd[AT-sign]hotmail.com>, 1950s
     
     
309. To cure an STD
     "Frank Capra ... contracted a venereal disease and went to this doctor to be circumcised because that was a cure at the time." - Robert Schnakenberg, author of "Secret Lives of the Great Filmmakers" (Quirk)
     
     
310. To punish him for catching an STD
     
     
311. To prevent HIV
     • because the foreskin is deficient in Langerhans cells (Weiss, 1993)
     • because the foreskin is rich in Langerhans cells (Szabo and Short, 2000)
     
     
312. Because his foreskin was growing back (after his first circumcision)
     Friends of Gabrielle Rhodes' husband <rhodes38[AT-sign]home.com>
     
     
313. To initiate him when crossing the Equator
     
     
314. Because "circumcised (Samoan and Tongan) men are better Rugby League players."
     Metro (NZ) September 1999
     
     
315. Because he will be prevented from speaking in public if his (Samoan) father is intact.
     Pacific Star (NZ) February/March 1999
     
     
316. Because it was a requirement before you could see the doctor
     Told to Tom H. <workhard[AT-sign]home.com> of Oshawa, Southern Ontario in 1954 by his family
     
     
317. Because [the Jews] lived in the desert, and the dust and dirt would get in there in young boys and cause infections
     (This belief is widespread, and has no foundation.)
     An anonymous poster on misc.kids.pregnancy
     
     
318. To protect him from irritation when fighting in the desert / Because his mother had heard that Americans in the trenches in World War I got infections under their foreskins / "An old family friend, who was a ww2 nurse in New Guinea, told us that the snip was a very good thing if you ever have to spend an extended period fighting in a tropical jungle."
     [No submarines yet!]
     Tried on HY's mother in 1942, and by Kim Saffron's mother in 1964 / Darillyn Starr <Sstar[AT-sign]vii.com> / christo on In mala fide, June 8, 2010
     
     
319. Because he was going to serve in Vietnam and "might have to walk through swamps" / Because men in Vietnam got crotch rot.
     (As the man himself said, wouldn't his foreksin protect him in that case?) / According to emedicine, crotch rot (Tinea cruris) typically spares the penis and scrotum.
     Brother of G--- J---; personal communication. / Posted on YouTube by JoeBobOneHalf
     
     
320. To be allowed to work in a US Army kitchen (in Korea)
     Prof. DaiSik Kim
     
     
321. To make him fit for military service
     
     
322. To promote military discipline
     
     
323. Because it is "a requirement for admission to the armed forces / the US Marines / As a requirement of joining the Coast Guard, because the foreskin is a "health problem"
     Canadian Medical Association Journal, Vol 95 (Sept 10, 1966), pages 576-581 / Helen Bryce <bryce[AT-sign]cruzio.com> quoting Dodie Hall on fgm-l citing Marvin Zindler of LeGrange, TX / Randy Reinhart >randyr[AT-sign]connect.net<
     
     
324. Because "My grandpa told me then when he was in the navy in WWII that any dude who had a foreskin was required to get it cut off. i remember him telling me how they would put a barber chair in the middle of the deck and line up any uncut kids to get circd on deck while other sailors watched. he said it was kinda like entertainment cuz there was lots of down time even out in the pacific. anyways, grandpa was cut so he never had to go through that but he said it like convinced 100% of dudes to make sure their kids were cut. thats why my dad, uncles, and all us kids were cut as soon as we popped out. LOL.
     Told by "jmgcoonhunter" on circumsexual.com on Nov 6, 2007 Notice that nowhere is any actual reason given.
     
     
325. Because you get two days off military service to recover (Taiwanese army/UK troops in Singapore)
     D.J. Toman <milesian[AT-sign]asiaonline.net.tw> / "The Virgin Soldiers" (film, 1969, UK)
     
     
326. Because a friend of the adoption social worker was circumcised in the Navy, and he was a mess
     Darillyn Starr <Sstar[AT-sign]vii.com>
     
     
327. Because he is a police recruit in Zambia
     "Zambia Police to circumcise all male recruits" Lusaka Times, June 18, 2009
     
     
328. To use his foreskin to make a magical lotion, protective against enemies:

     “In one incident an Inkatha member was captured on his way to work and was brought to the self-defence units, who handed him to a sangoma. The man’s hands were tied behind his back and he was circumcised on the spot. “It is said the foreskin of his penis was mixed with other herbs to make intelezi , which we were ordered to smear our bodies with to be invincible against Inkatha members. - Former ANC cadre Donald Stephen Makhura, reported in City Press (South Africa) February 7, 2010

     
     
329. To make him look like his master / Because his master ordered it
     Advice column, Friction magazine, August 1989 (advised against allowing it) / Tom Hodgson ordered it for his "lover"/slave, Robert McEwan in Perth, Australia, in the 1980s. McEwan stabbed Hodgson 42 times in 1994. express newspaper, Auckland NZ, February 8, 1997 and Outrage, Sydney
     
     
330. Because he's in prison
     
     
331. Because he's a Prisoner Of War
     A friend of B--- M---; personal communication
     
     
332. To prevent him from concealing/transporting drugs under his foreskin
     Tim Huisamen <AKTH[AT-sign]warthog.ru.ac.za>
     
     
333. To encourage your children to become more creative when they are adults.
     Dr Dave Mirkin. It turns out he means "much more creative in lovemaking" based on the Laumanns' finding that circumcised men of some ethnicities masturbate more and have more oral sex than intact men. Creative?
     
     
334. To enable him to become not just a very fine, but a great actor
     Noël Coward to Derek Jacobi, told in the Daily Telegraph, July 16, 2002
     
     
335. To prevent him becoming a presidential assassin.
     These two together make one wonder about John Wilkes Booth....
     
     
336. Because it was "too long" and would get tangled when he was rowing (ordered by the doctor of his rowing club)
     A friend of Ari Zigelboim <ariz[AT-sign]communique.net>
     
     
337. Because I am heartily sick of it rolling forward and trapping my hairs!
     "John Hobson"<johnhobson[AT-sign]ntlworld.com> on alt.circumcision. He didn't take the option of trimming the hair seriously, suggesting this was not the real reason.
     
     
338. To frighten his enemies
     
     
339. To give him the appearance of permanent arousal / Because a circumcised penis always looks ready to go.
     / Gene McGough <genem[AT-sign]caveman.net>
     
     
340. To weaken him ready for slaughter
     Genesis 34:14-25
     
     
341. In exchange for a grant of land from the Temple in ancient Israel
     Ari Zigelboim <ariz[AT-sign]communique.net>
     
     
342. To make a / real / American / man of him
     In 1996 in Queensland, an Aboriginal woman identified as "Gladys" told Ambrose John Neal to "make a man of" Irwin Brookdale, which he did with a broken bottle. Brookdale got $A10,000 in damages. AFP Oct 8, 1997. / /
     
     
343. As a proud mark that one was not French
     An Algerian man describing life under colonial French rule in the film "Circoncision"
     
     
344. To pass as a Muslim
     Sir Richard Burton - the explorer, not the actor
     
     
345. Because he's a slave in a Muslim brothel, so he has to be a Muslim
     Reported in Gay News (UK) April 2005
     
     
346. Because he is a Promise Keeper
     

     Jack Hayford, another charismatic Baptist preacher, ... is a frequent speaker at Promise Keepers seminars ... One of the other beliefs that Jack Hayford promotes stems from ... a vision of [Jesus] seated in heaven, ... Jesus told Hayford why God required circumcision in the Old Testament. "God wants to touch your very identity as a man," Hayford explained to the group, in an effort to encourage adult circumcision on those men who had not yet experienced the ritual. "He wants to reach out and touch your secret and private parts. This enables Him to better perform surgery on the heart. God wants to touch man¹s creative parts." (from a speech made by Hayford to the Promise Keepers during their regional conference in Anaheim, California, 14 May 1994.) Barbara Victor, "The Last Crusade, Religion and the Politics of Misdirection" Constable & Robinson Ltd, London, 2005, ISBN 1-84119-955-9, p 178.

     
     
     
347. To pass as a Jew (in kibbutzim)
     Article by Herb Keinon in The Jerusalem Post, Oct 18, 1991
     
     
348. To pass as a member of the English upper class
     The father of mervyn <mcripps[AT-sign]mergetel.com>
     
     
349. Because he has been captured by Muslims
     
     
350. In case he is captured by Muslims (the British surgeon would take more care, 1661)
     Bud Berkeley, "Foreskin", p 31
     
     
351. In order to be allowed to live in Saudi Arabia
     
     
352. In order to be considered worthy to be elected President of South Africa / Kenya
     (Xhosa said they would not vote for an intact man, April 1999) / Kikuyu tribe members forcibly circumcised Luo in riots after the election of a Luo, January 2008
     
     
353. Because "They say that those who are circumcised are wiser than the uncircumcised ones. They do it [forcibly circumcise] ... so that we can be wise like them."
     John Lallo, 62, of Kibera, Kenya, January 2008
     
     
354. To stop "problems that had afflicted their family"
     According to the son of an elderly man forcibly circumcised in Uganda, June 25, 2008
     
     
355. Because his penis was "too big, to make it more comfortable"
     R--, personal communication (26 May 2002), circumcised in his fifties without him having presented any symptoms
     
     
356. "As a way of reinforcing his African heritage"
     White South African performance artist Peet Pienaar, October 2000
     
357. As "a symbol of me broadening my identity"
     Pienaar again when African cultural objections were raised to the first proposal
     
358. As a work of performance art
     Pienaar again in the final event. The exhibit included close-up video of the circumcision and the foreskin itself in formaldehyde
     
     
360. In case he becomes quadriplegic and needs a catheter / "Because it's impossible to catherize a man with a foreskin."
     (False. Men in non-circumcising countries are routinely catheterised while intact)
     According to Dr Gerald N. Weiss <gnweiss[AT-sign]frii.com> / "I've heard at least five versions of this event from various corners of the country. A formerly intact man in the US awakens after severe trauma has left him unconscious. Some ER physician has circumcised him 'because it's impossible to catherize a man with a foreskin.'" - Richard Russell <richard12w97r[AT-sign]yahoo.com>
     
     
361. Because he was diabetic, so he was "bound to have problems with it sooner later" [details suppressed for confidentiality]
     
     
362. To demonstrate the circumcisor's prowess as a warrior
     Bud Berkeley, "Foreskin", p 31
     
     
363. So that other members of the circumcision club can watch and masturbate
     
     
364. Because the foreskin's purpose is to facilitate rape
     
     
365. To remove the female element from him: "A boy is female from his foreskin; a girl is male from her clitoris"
     According to the Dogon of West Africa
     
     
366. As an "equalizer for the inconvenience, sometimes pain, that the female of the species suffers month after month"
     Adrian E. Cristobal in Manilla News Online, July 20, 2003
     
     
367. So that men can have the same blood-bond as women: "Our mothers, sisters, wives, and daughters experience the awesome spiritual bonding power of blood every month. Men have this opportunity only during circumcision."
     Rabbi David Zaslow, "Circumcision and Brit: They're Not the Same Thing" Tikkun May/June 2001
     
     MARRIAGE AND SEX
     
     
368. To prepare him for marriage
     
     
369. to prepare the young man for physiological roles of fatherhood and
370. to define his sexual role regarding marriage.
     A CULTURAL APPROACH TO HIV/AIDS PREVENTION AND CARE, by Dr. Maria Antónia Castelo Dr. Miguel Gaspan and Dr. Balbina Ventura Félix
     
     
371. As "a physical sign that he was adopting a new life with his wife." / Because "I wanted to feel as if I was starting over sexually" with a wife after a promiscuous past.
     Tattooing her name one could understand, but ...
     told by Glenden Brown in OneUtah.org / , September 9, 2009 / Hugo Schwyzer in New York Magazine, October 18, 2009
     
     
372. To impart a sense of sacredness to the act of conjugal union / ...so that in the most intimate moments of life, the man would remember that he belonged to God. And if he decided to sin with a foreign woman, he would have to do it with that part of his body that had been set apart as holy to the Lord. Circumcision reminded a man in a way that he could never forget that he belonged to God
     Rabbi Reuven Bulka of the congregation Machzikei Hadas, Ottawa (Ottawa Citizen, Oct 21, 1997) / Pastor Ray's Circumcision Talk, February 9, 2010
     
     
373. To protect him against genital injuries (!) during sex.
     cited by several commentators following publication of this study
     
     
374. Because "it helps with the love connection."
     Father of Carl Schutt, author of "I want my Foreskin for Giftmas"
     
     
375. Because "I would enjoy sex more had I been circumcised.""
     poster on That Kid
     
     
376. To increase sex drive
     the East Java secretary of the MUI (Majelis Ulama Indonesia), Prof Dr Hj Istibjaroh, March 3, 2008
     
     
377. To enhance his sexual performance / prevent premature ejaculation
     
     
378. Because "his early sexual experiences are likely to be enjoyable and enhance his self-esteem[.] Clumsy experimentation may be reduced or eliminated."
     John Pritchard <jpritcha[AT-sign]escape.ca> alt.circumcision Nov 17, 1998
     
     
379. Because it enhances sensitivity
     The Hite Report on Male Sexuality, pp. 397-398
     
     
380. Because it reduces sensitivity / (at 11-13) To remove the foreskin before the boy starts to gain sexual stimulation from it at puberty.
     / http://www.circlist.org/cconsider.html
     
     
381. To reduce his sexual performance
     Maimonides, Guide for the Perplexed, p.378 of the Dover edition, 1956
     
     
382. Because it cuts down excessive libido, which leads to adultery
     
     
383. For "the subversion of sexual energy into productive societal endeavours in a supportive environment."
     "pantera" <nick_msk[AT-sign]hotmail.com> on alt.circumcision on 20 Mar 2003
     
     
384. Because

     Among the many factors I considered was the extent to which my own personal life decisions had been influenced by sex, despite my apparent diminished enjoyment of the act because of my mutilated condition. It appeared to me that the argument was that I should choose that my son should be even more influenced by that particular pleasure because of its greater intensity?

     
     By this logic, castration would free his son completey from that tyranny. It could equally be argued that with an intact penis, his son could enjoy sex more completely (the context is pleasure vs satisfation and the death of David Carradine - who was circumcised - by auto-erotic-strangulation) and be less driven by it.
     AMC on The Agonist blog, June 6, 2009
     
     
385. Because his girlfriend will leave him if he doesn't
     "Mr Kennedy Onyango, found on the queue at Lumumba health centre said his girlfriend had given him a condition to face the knife or they split."
     The Standard (Kenya), September 24, 2008
     
     
386. To prevent infertility / ensure fertility
     Canadian Medical Association Journal, Vol 95 (Sept 10, 1966), pages 576-581
     
     
387. Because his sperm were abnormal in a test for in vitro fertilization, and balanitis could be the cause
     BMJ, (1998;316:1438-1441 9 May)
     
     
388. Because the child born from an uncircumcised father will often get sick.
     Believed in West Timor
     
     
389. To prevent cervical cancer in his partner/s
     
     
390. Because "It is possible that women with circumcised partners are less likely to develop breast cancer."
     [Sure it's possible, but neither he nor anyone else has offered any evidence for this claim.] Alex Renton, "So, would you have your son circumcised?" the Guardian, July 5, 2009
     
     
391. Because "if you circumcise a boy, then a girl won't get HPV in the future."
     (Notice how a measurable correlation has become a 100% cause-effect. That statement is simply not true.)
     A nurse to E. S. Restore-L, September 29, 2008
     
     
392. Because he was giving his wife yeast infections
     (and she was giving them to him...)
     Told to <dvoskuil[AT-sign]tic.bisman.com> (Duane Voskuil Ph.D.)
     
     
393. Because his partner demands it / To make him attractive to his partner / "Because no woman wants to look at a doggy dick!!"
     Jason Ashley // Bradley Wells <QHRQ11B[AT-sign]prodigy.com>
     
     
394. To "make him 'respectable' to the female of the species."
     Adrian E. Cristobal in Manilla News Online, July 20, 2003
     
     
395. Because his mother and her friends prefer circumcised men for sexual pleasure
     Letter to Suzanne Cook <nocircofmaine[AT-sign]juno.com>
     
     
396. Because his mother had sex with an intact man once and it was "dirty"
     
     
397. Because women don't like performing oral sex on intact men / Because prostitutes prefer circumcised penises
     / Attributed to an Australian medical journal
     
     
398. Because women think it looks "more natural"
     (!)
     Said by Edgar Schoen, Today Show, 11/11/98 apprently in refernce to Williamson & Williamson's survey of Iowa women
     
     
399. Because "Uncircumsized does not feel normal"
     posted by pinkhatp on Urban Baby News, August 15, 2009, apparently on the basis of a sample of one. ("instead of his pointing up when erected, it pointed down. It was very uncomfortable.")
     
     
400. To use his foreskin for a dowry
     (1 Sam 18 25-7)
     
     
401. To make his penis bigger / To allow the penis to become more erect and hence 'bigger'. / Because the Tip of the Penis will surely be diminished in size due to the presence of the foreskin./ To make it look bigger / Because it ... seems to elongate the penis.
     Reported in "NZ Truth" / A father to nurse Mary Conant <wholebaby2[AT-sign]juno.com> / told to <BFKOUBA[AT-sign]aol.com> by a Japanese youth who failed at self-c. / "South Park" May 20, 1998 / "Holy Macaroni!" posting on Urban Baby News, August 15th, 2009
     
     
402. Because "the foreskin and the frenulum stop the growth of the penis and in some cases circumcision is necessary to protect the boy or man from the psychological trauma of an abnormally small penis"
     Told by a respected gynecologist, doctors' union official, and political power in the Institute Mexicano Seguro Social (Social Security), to Dr Sergio Aquilar, who told Gary Harriman<Glharryman[AT-sign]aol.com>
     
     
403. To make his erection shorter [tight circumcision is specified] and so protect future partners from painful bumping on the far end of their vaginas
     Chris "sianick1994" <sianick1994@yahoo.co.uk> in the Yahoo group circumcision_pro_and_con, Oct 1, 2003
     
     
404. To avoid tearing in tight situations / Because it is better for overall comfort when you have a stiff erection
     The Hite Report on Male Sexuality, pp. 397-398
     
     
405. To prevent pain in intercourse
     (Herero of Namibia)
     
     
406. Purely by chance / to take sexual pressure off his wife after childbirth
     
     

     Bheki was circumcised purely by chance. When his wife went to hospital to give birth to their second son, Bheki was jokingly advised by his doctor to get circumcised so he and his wife could 'recover' together. "He told me that while my wife was healing from the process, I should also get circumcised and we could heal together without any sexual expectations from either party. Being a guy who needs regular sex, I took up his suggestion ... "Sex, circumcision" in the Times of Swaziland, September 11, 2009

     
     OLD AGE
     
     
407. Because an uncircumised person will get older quickly
     Believed in West Timor
     
     
408. To prevent penile cancer
     Abraham Wolbarst, 1914
     
     
409. To prevent urinary obstruction in his old age
     Canadian Medical Association Journal, Vol 95 (Sept 10, 1966), pages 576-581
     
     
410. Because "If he gets ill and cannot manage his personal hygiene himself he will have to put up with some stranger (whoever) attending to this problem of pulling back the foreskin weekly [!] to clean the area. This would be most disgusting and belittling for him." / "The procedure of being cleaned is emotionally difficult for the older uncircumcised patient."
     Shirley Murray on the Australian "60 Minutes" discussion board / Ruth Frank, RN, CS, VA Medical Center, Durham, NC, in PEDIATRICS Vol. 106 No. 4 October 2000, pp. 954
     
     
411. Because if "a guy has a car accident and is incapable of [cleaning under his foreskin] for himself[, h]e will now need this service regularly to be done by some strange (probably a nurse) person for term of his remaining life."
     Shirley Murray on the Australian "60 Minutes" discussion board
     
     
412. In case he needs a catheter when he is senile
     Dr Gerald N. Weiss <gnweiss[AT-sign]frii.com>
     
     
413. Because a rabbi decided that he hadn't really been "born circumcised" 87 years before at all.
     In fact his penis may have withdrawn in old age and his shaft skin moved forward.
     Ouch! Brit mila at 87, Jerusalem Post, April 13, 2009
     
     POSTHUMOUS
     
     
414. So that his children will not be embarrassed when they perform the ritual bath after his death
     (Korea) Kukmin Ilbo, Sep. 24, 1996, cited by DaiSik Kim in "Male circumcision: a South Korean perspective", British Journal of Urology, Vol 83 Jan 1999
     
     
415. To prepare his corpse for the study of male anatomy
     
     
416. Because the foreskin "is a disgrace to him"
     (why a Jewish baby who dies before his Bris must be circumcised at the graveside)
     Code of Jewish Law, ... by Rabbi Solomon Ganzfried (NY, Hebrew Publishing Co, 1961) vol 4, p 44
     
     
417. To admit sinful Jews to Gehinnom (Hell): Abraham sits at the gate of Gehinnon and takes the foreskins off Jewish babies who died uncircumcised (and missed out on a graveside Bris) and puts them on bad Jews
     A Cohen, Everyman's Talmud, (New York, Schocken, 1975) p 381
     
     ...BUT:
     
     
418. "The bodily pain caused to that member is the real purpose of circumcision."
     - Maimonides
     
     

And this doesn't include the underlying reasons - to show him who's in charge and what they think about his sexuality.

Good reasons for post-neonatal circumcision

(There is nothing a baby can be born with that makes immediate (neonatal) circumcision necessary.)

That was quick, wasn't it! Now back to the top.

May be republished freely in the cause of ending infant circumcision, but please let me know.

Related pages:

• >30 kinds of circumstition
• Female circumstitions

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