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Notes -
Let's talk about infant male circumcision. Common in the United States, considered beastly in most European countries. But they don't spend much time criticizing the United States about it, perhaps due to fear of being called anti-semitic.
Reasons not to do it:
The foreskin has functions
Bad for the infant's brain due to inadequate aenesthesia
Complications ranging from meatal stenosis to more grisly and life-changing outcomes
Etc etc
Anyway, besides just introducing a topic I believe is underdiscussed both on the Motte and in general, my questions are this:
How do you rate the importance of this issue relative to commonly discussed culture war stuff? If it is true that circumcision is a serious violation akin to rape, then it seems very very important.
and
Does anyone on this board support routine infant circumcision, or is this thread just going to be full of a lot of devil's advocate stuff?
I think of all the decisions a parent has over their child's life, circumcision is a relatively small one. Parents have the power to completely fuck over their children without it remotely qualifying as anything illegal or even justifiable to have the child taken away. The only way for the world to function is for society to assume parents have their biological children's best interests at heart, which they do 99% of the time. If parents think, "I predict my child would want to be circumcised as an adult", I think they should be allowed to go through with it, because the evidence is strong that adult circumcision greatly reduces sexually pleasure, where as the evidence that circumcision as a baby reduces sexual pleasure is weak.
There are other benefits to foreskin removal as well, like hygiene and having effects on preventing STD spread. Enough that I don't think not being circumcised is overwhelmingly better, even if on net it's probably better.
In conclusion, I think hospitals should tell parents "Are you sure you want circumcision? Here are a lot of the negative effects", and if the parents say yes anyways, it happens.
Not that circumcision is that important, but - say we took this approach with 'lead paint', or unregulated medicine for serious medical conditions, or, when polio was widespread, polio vaccines. It doesn't really make sense.
I'm circumcised. On balance, I would rather not have been, so let's say I was "harmed" by the practice. In what way was that harm analogous to the harm inflicted by lead paint or unregulated medicine for serious medical conditions, or polio?
I appreciate that the term "harm" can be applied to both. Why is doing so useful?
I'm disagreeing with the principle OP stated, while agreeing with circumcision being bad, and also agreeing it's low priority for legislation or banning relative to things like lead paint or unregulated medicine.
Society functions in places where homeschooling is illegal i.e. some form of regulated schooling is mandatory, and mandatory schooling seems to be not assuming that parents have their childrens' best interests at heart. Now, this is bad in particular, in large part because schooling is bad, but it shows that the world can 'function' despite that - and, even if most parents did have their childrens' "best interests" at heart, they may disagree on what those interests are (cheap, but "it's in my child's interests to transition!") or be too incompetent to promote said interests effectively.
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