The supposed “simplicity” of the procedure, the long term benefits
(though these have long been debunked), the fact that people have been doing it
for ages, that it’s “tradition” in some cultures, all seem to over shadow
any speculative medical reasons; they should be enough to legitimize the
inhumane practice of circumcision on individuals that have yet to speak for
themselves. Unimportant are any “medical benefits.” Unimportant are the
assertions that circumcision will prevent HIV, even though we have one of the
highest rates here in America, where “80% of males,” boast circumcision
proponents, “are circumcised.” Out the window goes the “hygiene” theory.
The cancer of the penis excuse has but faded away. More important is the fact
that Jr. will look like daddy, that he won’t be made fun of in the locker
room, and that he will lay more girls this way.
Though it is clear that
circumcison is a cultural and not a medical procedure, and though culture alone should not be enough
to endorse such a practice, routine infant circumcision is performed in
supposedly “advanced” medical facilities. If they practice this cultural
rite in the medical field, why don’t they practice tattoos, scars and body piercing? What is a cultural rite of no medical relevance whatsoever doing
lodged in our medical system? If consenting and conscious adults want to alter
their body image, it is their prerogative, but why do it to defenseless babies
who can’t say what they would want for themselves?
The worst and most offensive justification that I have heard thus far is
Dr. Edgar Schoen’s “reason” that it’s “the American way.” The
American way indeed! Even though the practice he vehemently advocates has gone
down 50% in the US, he discredits this rate because “there is an extremely
high population of Latin Americans, Asians, and other races that do not
circumcise.” According to him, most if not all white families circumcise,
unless they are immigrants or of immigrant decent. The “real” rate of
circumcision is about 80% if we discount all the other groups.
Just what is this
doctor trying to say? That Latin Americans, Asians, and other ethnic groups
simply don’t count as American because they don’t circumcise their children?
That people that move here from Europe (even though most “white” people
descend from there) can’t be called American unless they circumcise themselves
and their children? When did America become Jewish? When did the term
“American” begin to mean “white,” or “circumcised?” Who ever said
that you must circumcise to be American, save the pathetic Dr. Schoen? Is the only
way to truly melt in the melting pot to sever part of your body and your
children’s bodies?
Once everyone
is circumcised, what next? Will Asians have to operate to get that extra fold of
eyelid skin removed so that their eyes will look rounder, like all Americans?
Will African Americans have to bleach their skin and the skin of their children
to look white, or “American?” Will they have to straighten their curly hair?
How much does Dr. Schoen care about American assimilation? Or does his concern
only extend as far as his foreskin?
What kind of democracy requires its citizens to be marked in their flesh?
Marking in the flesh is what you do to cattle, to slaves, and to prisoners of
concentration camps. If being American means I have to cut part of my body cut
off, or cutting part of my children’s bodies off, then I want out. If that is
what it means to be an American, to hurt our children in their very first days
of life, then I am ashamed to be called an American. It is not a free nation
where a man has no choice over what happens to his own body, or the bodies of
his children. Dr. Schoen has a sick vision of what it means to be an American. I
think he is insane and should be locked up in an asylum where he cannot hurt
children or lobby to hurt little children anymore.
What are the real motives
behind Dr. Schoen's
insane drive to promote circumcision in America? Circumcision is a procedure
that was most likely imposed on him as an infant, and it is a procedure that
he has imposed on other children. Is he is a tree trying to hide in a forest? To
admit the brutality of circumcision would be to admit that he has mutilated
thousands of children. To admit the normality of the foreskin would be to admit
that he was involved in the involuntary disfigurement of the genitals of
thousands of Americans. Is he is afraid to admit that circumcision is the
exception, not the rule, and this is the real reason he vehemently promotes the
practice of routine infant circumcision? It is outrageous to demand that such a
barbaric procedure be imposed on American citizens, when America is supposed to
be the land of freedom. We’re all supposed to be Americans here, despite the
state of our genitals.
Postscript:
I just wanted to comment on Schoen's stupid poem as
posted on his website:
It's a great work of art like the statue of Venus
if you're wearing a hat on the head of your penis.
When you gaze through a looking glass, don't think of Alice;
don't rue that you suffered a rape of your phallus.
First of all, his appeal is subjective. Who else but an apotemnophiliac
would compare a circumcised penis to "a work of art like the statue of
Venus?" And note the last two lines; a deliberate request to ignore what was
done to your body. Note the choice of words. A cruel irony. Is he
inadvertently admitting that a circumcised male has suffered "a rape of
[his] phallus?" Is he blatantly asking circumcised males to overlook
circumcision, calling it what he knows in his heart to be what it truly
is?
COMMENT POSTED ON "The Tampaby.com" web site
Re: "The incision decision" article by Knight Ridder Newspapers.
10/31/05 7:18 AM
by Jonathan from New Orleans, Louisiana
Dr. Schoen's extreme views are not accepted by the medical community as this
letter in the Archives of Disease in childhood reveals. http://adc.bmjjournals.com/cgi/eletters/90/8/772#1630
COMMENT POSTED ON ""The Journal
Times.com" (WI) Re: "Mommy Talk"
By Another Former Racinian
This Dr. Schoen, is it the same Dr. Schoen who let that poor Californian kid
die of AIDS-related-pneumonia because her mother didn't believe in AIDS
testing or treatment?
Sounds like Dr. Schoen doesn't believe in treating ANYTHING; why should I
listen to him when it comes to the preventative medical treatment associated
with circumcision when he wouldn't treat something as serious as AIDS?
Sounds like Dr. Schoen doesn't believe in treating ANYTHING; why should I listen to him when it comes to the preventative medical treatment associated with circumcision when he wouldn't treat something as serious as AIDS?