help me save my unborn nephew (his foreskin specifically)

[mnnice]

I have been trying unsucessfully to save my unborn nephew from cir.

A bit of history. In my DH family he and his brother are circed, my four year old is son is circed and my three year old nephew is circed. My 10 month old ds is intact. I wanted him intact, DH didn't have a strong opinion about it. Since he was born at home having ds2 circed would of required DH to take him to the hospital (DH hates all things dealing with the hospital) the discussion ended quickly.

So far I haven't been making much headway on encouraging my BIL and SIL to leave their son intacted. I was reading about the buried penis and I think (maybe) my three year old nephew has a buried penis. Should I use this as an arguement? BTW it's not their son, but the child of another BIL and SIL. Also does anybody have any link of a babe with a buried penis?

[nd_deadhead]

Hello, MNNice! I love your screen name - I'm originally from MN.

What have your said to your in-laws so far? If you could give us their reasons for wanting to circumcise, we could addres those specifically.

The points I like to make are these:

* Baby boys are born with a foreskin - it's there for a reason, and it's an imortant part of how the penis functions.

* Circumcision is SURGERY - and I can't see sending a baby off for an operation if he doesn't even need it.

* Because it's surgery, it comes with risks just like any other operation - bleeding, infection, amputation of too much skin. Babies actually DIE every year from circ complications.

* Circumcision HURTS! It's our job as parents to protect our babies from unnecessary pain, not sign them up for it.

* If your intact son decides as an adult that he wants to be circ'ed, he always has that choice. A man circ'ed as an infant has no choice at all.

* Even though circumcision is still considered the norm in the US, it makes no sense to have your son operated on just because "everyone else does it". If you won't accept that excuse from your son when he's a teenager, you can't use it yourself!


Best wishes to you, and I hope they listen. You are in a unique position to be able to say "I circ'ed my first son - but now that I understand what circumcision is all about, I'm grateful that I didn't do it to my youngest". Tell them you understand there's some "fear of the unknown" involved - you no doubt experienced it yourself (I know I did). But again, that's no reason to subject a precious baby to surgery.

[ColoradoMama]

nd deadhead - I absolutely LOVE your last reason. I am SO going to use that - a lot!

[AntoninBeGonin]

"Why should anyone remove normal, healthy, functional tissue from a normal, healthy newborn?"

"Do you even know what the foreskin is? What functions it serves in infancy and adulthood? How circumcisions are performed?" -- "You don't? Then what gives you the right to make this permanent decision for your son?"

For the so-called 'medical benefits'

"Yes, girls get UTIs too, at over twice the rate of both circumcised and intact boys put together. However, we give them medicine instead of surgery."

"Not even the American Cancer Society recommends circumcision to prevent penile cancer. "

"For one thing, AIDS is a buzz-word and a scare tactic. Well-meaning parents are supposed to hear the word AIDS and rush to do anything to protect their child. Just remember that your son will not have sex for many years, and if he decides that he wants to be circumcised for whatever reason, including protection from STDs, he can do so. Circumcising your son because you're afraid he might contact an STD doesn't say much for your confidence as a parent to teach him to respect his body, does it?"

"When is it cleaner? When it's a bloody wound in a dirty diaper? Or when the man is an adult and fully capable of taking care of it himself? That's pretty insulting to men to insist on removing part of their penis because they're too 'stupid' to clean themselves."

Etc...

~Nay

Oops! I just noticed that I didn't answer the PP's question. I was just continuing the line of thought started by poster 2. It's so late I can't even remember who posted! (Maybe it's time for bed?)