What I Want My Sisters to Know About Circumcision

There are some topics that I actually try to stay away from in conversations with people.  Circumcision is definitely one of them- luckily it doesn't come up often.  However, this blog isn't for people, it is for my sisters- and I don't want to avoid any important topics with them.  In fact, I want to make sure I cover all the important topics with them- and that is why I have decided to write this post.

Circumcision is a tough subject though. A really tough subject. It is so very personal and, at least when we were faced with the question of whether we would circumcise or not, it felt so pressing.  The problem was, as much as those against it would say that if you didn't do it, you could always change your mind later, that didn't really ring true for us... for my husband in particular. Yes, you could circumcise your 2, or 4, or 8 year-old, but it would be a memorable traumatic experience.  As far as my husband was concerned, if it was going to happen it had to happen early- very early. And I can't blame him for being very grateful that he doesn't remember his.

But we found that there is a great deal of conflicting information out there- much of it in angry and alarmist tones- on both sides. Both sides 'debunk' the 'myths' perpetuated by the other side.  They can't seem to concede a single assertion- babies do get adequate pain blockers (or any other argument for or against)- they don't- they do, back and forth all day long. You will find that most mainstream publications from the US lean in favor of the procedure to varying degrees, and most 'studies' about the procedure are either outdated or performed under questionable conditions.  Which makes all the (often redundant) information even harder to sift through.  Things may not have actually been worded that strongly, but it felt like if we didn't do it our son would get cancer after a never-ending series of UTIs and HIV susceptibility and if we did do it he would bear emotional scars, never enjoy sex, and discover through primal therapy that he could remember the experience! It felt like a lose-lose (and made having a girl seem so much simpler).

And yet, we were able to come to a decision. Since we had a girl it is a decision we have not yet implemented, but at least it is settled for when the time comes.

So, let me start with my strongest feelings about circumcision. I am a strong believer in parental rights (those of you to whom I am not related who are joining this conversation: don't be obtuse- I am not advocating the idea that parents should be able to do anything with or to their children- just hold on to your hats).  I do consider circumcision to be a parental decision (ie; not a government decision); however, like all parental decisions, circumcision is not a decision to make based on convenience or ignorance. I also believe parents have a responsibility to make informed decisions, which should reduce the likelihood of regretting that decision later.  

I will share the information that had the most influence on my decision and perhaps in subsequent posts I will share some additional relevant info.

Of course I first considered circumcision from my religious perspective. I was familiar with the fact that circumcision was commanded by God in the old testament, and that, as the Bible Dictionary explains "The Church under direction of Peter and the Twelve, and acting under the guidance of the Spirit, declared that circumcision was not obligatory for gentile converts. However, it apparently did not settle the matter of whether or not Jewish members of the Church should have their children circumcised." I appreciate that it also adds "As one reads the scriptures on the matter, it becomes evident that the real issue was not circumcision only but also the larger question as to continued observance of the law of Moses by members of the Church. The word circumcision seems to have been representative of the law in these instances." However, this did not make it clear to me what the best course of action was for my baby. Clearly new converts are under no obligation to be circumcised- but is it still preferable? It can't be a requirement for exaltation (or else it would be required for converts), but are there benefits to having it done anyway? I appreciated these scriptures, but still felt unsure.

Ultimately, the piece of information that had the biggest influence on me personally was learning that biblical circumcision and modern circumcision are NOT the same thing. When I first started learning about this, all I knew about circumcision was that it was a surgical procedure done to the foreskin, which is part of a baby boy's penis- which is about as much as a lot of baby-books tell you. In some health class I remember hearing about some medical benefit(s) of circumcision (which may or may not be 'debunked'), and thinking "oh, well that must be why God commanded the Jews to practice circumcision." But, because I don't believe God intended our bodies, which are made in His image, to have useless parts (which we have already found about most of those 'useless' organs we used to surgically remove without much thought, such as the appendix), this did seem to be a rather unusual case to me.  As it turns out, the circumcisions practiced by Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, were more of a cut (Zipporah was able to circumcise her son with a stone in Exodas 4:25) that was intended to supply some drops of blood for a covenant and leave a scar to mark the person with the covenant. I really like the way this this blog explains it. The circumcisions practiced in modern hospitals are more like amputations which remove hundreds of feet of nerves, and tens of thousands of nerve-endings.  Fatal hemorrhaging is a risk of the procedure even today. All of this information had a profound effect on the way I thought about the possibility of having my son circumcised.  

So, I told my husband that I was comfortable with two options: leaving our son intact or circumcising him the biblical way. This settled the discussion since he answered that he was comfortable with two options as well: circumcising or not circumcising- but he was not okay with our son having something done to him that nobody does anymore.

If you would like additional circumcision information from an LDS perspective THIS is a neat pamphlet of info. Please note that the pamphlet was not created, nor is it distributed by, the leaders of the church.