http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/conte...l/321/7264/792
"If the most recent overall circumcision rate (about 12 200 procedures annually) remained unchanged, 3.8% of English boys would be circumcised by their 15th birthday. Among boys resident in the ********* and Sefton health districts the proportion would be 1.5%. "
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I've had that 30,000 figure thrown at me before, it's in one of the NHS statistical docs, BUT it isn't circumcision, it's "Operations on the prepuce" which includes all the non-circ interventions as well.
This is the post I wrote to counteract it:
No one said foreskins in Europe never develop any problems at all, only that they are not common and dealt with on a "medical needs" basis, rather than amputation of all at birth. The vast majority of men have no trouble with their penises at all. Those 30,000 procedures on the prepuce were not circumcisions btw, removal of the named part in that list is "excision". Many of them would have been treatments like a dorsal slit, or epi/hypospadius repairs. They were also across all age groups.
To get that into perspective:
There were
B27 Total excision of breast 17,161
B28 Other excision of breast 37,056
C71 Extracapsular extraction of lens 306,083
C75 Prothesis of lens 301,319
C12 Extirpation of lesion of eyelid 29,966
D15 Drainage of middle ear 47,666
E03 Operations on septum of nose 26,878
E04 Operations on turbinate of nose 22,201
E20 Operations on adenoid 24,047
E49 Diagnostic fibreoptic endoscopic examination of lower
respiratory tract 44,718
F09 Surgical removal of tooth 76,072
F10 Simple extraction of tooth 71,186
F34 Excision of tonsil 52,785
H01 Emergency excision of appendix 35,350
H20 Endoscopic extirpation of lesion of colon 31,627
J18 Excision of gall bladder 50,300
K49 Transluminal balloon angioplasty of coronary artery 49,495
L85 Ligation of varicose vein of leg 32,296
L87 Other operations on varicose vein of leg 59,904
L91 Other vein related operations 77,311
M42 Endoscopic extirpation of lesion of bladder 37,909
M45 Diagnostic endoscopic examination of bladder 255,207
M47 Urethral catheterisation of bladder 123,503
M49 Other operations on bladder 37,104
M70 Other operations on outlet of male prostate 26,296
P05 Excision of vulva 7,133 (!!)
P09 Other operations on vulva 7,073
P13 Other operations on female perineum 3,446
P23 Other repair of prolapse of vagina 23,686
Q07 Abdominal excision of uterus 32,528
Q08 Vaginal excision of uterus 14,081
Q22 Bilateral excision of adnexa of uterus 26,095
S70 Other operations on nail 3,544
V54 Other operations on spine 33,253
W37 Total prosthetic replacement of hip joint using cement 38,833
W40 Total prosthetic replacement of knee joint using
cement 45,500
It goes on and on, but you probably get the point. A foreskin is no more problematic than any other part of the body, and using your theory (cut it off before it can cause problems) then all newborns ought to have their adenoids, tonsils, appendixes, gall bladders, breasts, eyelids, colons, external leg veins removed at birth, and their hip and knee joints replaced while they can't remember it. When they come through their teeth ought to be removed. Oh and looking at the figures too, all women ought to have a hysterectomy if not at birth then after the last child has been born since so many have to have it done anyway. Looks like nails are dodgy things to have too. There seem to be a lot of problems with eyes there, especially lenses - what would you propose to do to prevent them? See anything wrong with this reasoning?
In fact if you read down the list, there are far more operations listed on womens parts than there are on male, and yet I'm sure you wouldn't want to cut off anything from your daughters.
http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/conte...l/321/7264/792
"..balanitis xerotica obliterans.4 This problem, the only absolute indication for circumcision, affects some 0.6% of boys,..."
I don't understand why boys or men shouldn't be offered treatments to cure a valid medical problem, if one develops, rather than amputation for all at birth when most of them won't ever have a problem with it (the same as most of them won't get appendicitis, or gall bladder problems etc.). Why the obsession with cutting off a part of their body that is no more likely to cause a problem than any other part?
I'll try to find out where the original paper is.