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I would like you to take a moment please, and imagine you going through the following scenario. For some it may be difficult, others may not find themselves capable of completing this exercise, as it is horribly disturbing, and paints a horrific picture in your mind.
In order to do this right, you have to imagine that you are a new born baby, moreover a new born male child:
You are gently woken by that gentle soothing voice, the one that makes you feel comfortable. The one that calls herself “mommy” removes you from the car. She is saying something sweet to you, but her voice sounds a little different. You do not understand all of what she is saying, but you smell a familiar place. It is the place where that stranger and the stranger’s friends take off all of your clothes in that cold room. You are always very scared when you have to lay there while the stranger puts things that are cold on you and smiles, then sometimes that stranger makes your leg hurt, and even made your foot hurt a couple of times. But “mommy” is always right there, so it is o.k.
As usual, off come the clothes, you are sitting in your diaper and so many people are looking at you, talking funny at you and laughing. One lady just stuck her tongue out at you, and for some reason yours popped right out too. Now “mommy” gets up and takes you to a stranger, the stranger lays you down and takes off your diaper…..WOW!!! Cold, oops, you just peed. Everyone laughs, and a brand new diaper is put on...a little better, still cold though.
On in to a room, bright lights, it smells funny in there. “Mommy” sits with you on her leg for a minute, smiling and singing. The “stranger” walks in, and talks to “mommy” for a minute, and then his friends come in. You think to yourself, “oh no, this is when I get poked on the leg or on the foot.” You start to realize what is happening, and begin to get a little bit angry. Because you cannot communicate very well; you begin to cry. “Mommy”, holds you tighter, you hear her heart beat against your ear, and you feel safe and warm. You stop crying.
You are handed to one of the stranger’s friends, and the friend lays you down on a very cold, hard, thing. The stranger, smiles at you and grabs an arm, you feel something strange over it, and now you can’t move it anymore…Weird. Then the other arm, your legs follow. You are starting to get a little upset again, the stranger puts something in your mouth, and maybe it is food. Not food, but maybe it still tastes good; this makes it a little bit better.
They take off your diaper again, you are naked. You begin to get angry, and try to look around for “mommy”, you do not even hear her voice anymore. Where is she? You hear the stranger talking, and one of the stranger’s friends puts a blanket on your tummy. Ahhh, that is a little warmer. You still cannot move or see what is happening.
All of the sudden, you feel something cold, on your stuff where you get wet from. Someone is rubbing something cold on there, and now it feels funny. Everyone is talking around you, and you still cannot see anything really, and you still can’t move. Then some stranger’s big face is right in front of yours talking funny to you. You really don’t care right now, something is going on down there, and it is not right.
You feel someone touching you, and then you feel someone pulling on that thing kind of hard. You can still feel what they are doing, it is kind of painful. The stranger says, “O.K. little guy, here we go.”
The following is step by step of the procedure:
Typically at this point the mother or father has been asked to leave the room. The reason for this is two-fold. First: There is a psychological link between this traumatic experience and everyone in the room. The Doctor does not want the infant to associate pain, and trauma with his parents. Second: Parents when witnessing the procedure have been known to attempt to interrupt the procedure, or in some cases assault the Doctor or staff, when witnessing their child tied to a board, and screaming like they have never heard their child scream before.
1) The infant is strapped to a “papoose” board and completely immobilized
2) The tip of the infant’s penis is treated with lidocaine jelly (a topical anesthetic), and it is left to sit on the penis for a moment, to allow it to take effect. (there is no way to determine whether the anesthetic has actually worked, as the infant cannot communicate, he is already fussy, and crying so there is no way to gauge a change in the demeanor of the child to determine the effectiveness of the anesthesia).
3) A archaic metal clamp is opened, and a “bell”; a bell-shaped device is placed over the tip of the infant’s penis, and the foreskin is pulled over the “bell”. (the infant’s foreskin) is still attached fully to the penis, so the “bell” is slowly peeling live connective tissue away from the infant’s penis). The infant begins to cry louder, and becomes more frustrated that he cannot move his arms, legs, head, body, NOTHING.
4) Once the “bell” is applied, the “clamp” is fitted over the bell. It is then tightened down so that all of the blood flow to the foreskin is cut off, (as if the “bell” was not painful enough; remember NO ONE knows if the Lidocaine jelly worked.
5) The infant is left to sit, cry un-soothed, and strapped to a board. Some doctors are kind enough to place a sugar cube wrapped in a tepid cloth in the infant’s mouth in an attempt to sooth them, but it is not a common or required practice.
6) Once the doctor has determined that the foreskin has reduced to no blood flow, a scalpel is used to cut the foreskin at the base of the “bell” detaching the foreskin from the penis.
7) The penis is then fitted with a non-stick dressing (because it bleeds the majority of the time), and the child’s diaper is re-applied.
8) All of the instruments used in the procedure are covered up, and the mother/father is welcomed back in to the room (typically) AFTER the infant is removed from the “papoose” board, and it has been stashed out of site.
Now we return to our role play…Imagining that you are the male infant again:
The stranger hands you back to “mommy” and she holds you close, you have never cried so hard in your short life. Though you have stopped actively crying, every breath you take is interrupted with a sob; you can hardly catch your breath. You hear your mother’s heartbeat. You are safe again. It is starting to hurt down where the stranger was touching you. (Lidocaine jelly wears off fairly quickly).
You spend the next week in pain. Every time you pee, or poop, mom or dad has to wash the spot that hurts, and that hurts even more. The one thing that makes you feel good; when “mommy” puts you in that nice warm water has not happened for a couple of days, and you really like that.
You think that this is how life is supposed to be, maybe that part is supposed to hurt like that. It is going away, but two weeks later, it is still tender; but at least you can have a bath again.
This is the typical circumcision procedure, and healing. This is of course taking for granted the procedure was performed properly, there were no complications, and an infection has not developed. Infection can come from the child not being changed in time, cleaned regularly, or the open wound coming in contact with a pathogen.
I regrettably aided in the performance of this procedure for over two years. Fortunately, I worked for a physician that was careful and there were no mistakes made in the performance of the procedures. However, I cannot begin to count how many follow-up appointments occurred where the child who received the circumcision was brought back within a week with an infection on his penis. Some infections were minor, with some redness and tenderness. These cases were easily treated, and the infant was well with no further complications. Then there were the cases that brought us a child with puss, and ooze coming from the un-cared for wound. In one particular case, the mother had a yeast infection and did not wash her hands before changing her infant, and passed the infection to his open wound. And yet another with a mother that had an STD, and her unwashed hands passed the disease to her infant son. Though the latter is quite uncommon, it does happen.
Circumcision is medically an unnecessary and somewhat brutal procedure. Several studies have been conducted over the past few years regarding circumcision, that show there is no benefit to circumcising a male infant. The American Academy of Pediatrics has concluded that while circumcision is not a necessary procedure it cannot make a recommendation for or against the procedure. Thus, proving that circumcision of infant males is not something that is deemed medically necessary, by the leading and most respected organization in the Pediatric Medicine community.
Circumcision is a decision that should be left to the ADULT male. It is currently the only elective medical procedure allowed to be performed on a non-consenting human being. In no other circumstance would a parent be allowed to take an infant to a licensed physician to have an elective cosmetic procedure performed.
Imagine a world where, if a parent did not like the way an infant’s nose looked the infant could be taken to a plastic surgeon for a nose job. Better yet, it is has been determined that tonsils are not really necessary, so we allowed for them to be needlessly removed. Or maybe the parent decides their female daughter’s genitalia is “unattractive” or may become that way later in life, and they could take her in to the doctor to have her genitalia altered.
The last example does happen in 3rd world countries in the name of religion. There are taskforces, and political action organizations throughout the world decrying the alteration of female genitalia. Yet right here in America we continue to allow the same to happen to our male infants. It is time to discontinue this practice, and reserve male circumcision to medical necessity, or to be allowed electively when the child has reached the age of majority.
