Male Circumcision - my response to CD

Today in The Age, Catherine Deveny had this to say about male circumcision.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/its-child-abuse-and-its-time-it-was-cut-out/2007/10/23/1192941062383.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1

Apart from being her usual insulting (but funny) self, she was scarily irresponsible.

When deciding whether or not to circumcise my son ten years ago I had 5 months to read the extensive scientific literature on the subject, I had a biological science degree to back up my understanding and I still did not get through it all. My interest reignited when I first heard of the studies claiming that circumcision helped prevent transmision of HIV in Uganda. (What if the decision not to circumcise was wrong?)

If Catherine Deveny had truly read all of the studies, which I truly doubt she has, she would know that the jury is still out on the subject of circumcision and HIV transmission and that better studies need to be done that control for the involvement of muslim males. To say that there are sutdies that “disprove” the efficacy of circumcision is downright irresponsible given the epidemics in third world regions.

That said, I agree completely with her criticism of the usual arguments people trot out for circumcising their boys. In this country there is every good reason to let your son make up his own mind when he has one to make up.

To those of you comparing the foreskin to the tonsils or appendix as examples of useless organs, your knowledge base is way out of date. The tonsils are now known to be important for the immune system, and the appendix a valuable store of gut flora. The foreskin also has a purpose - to protect the sensitive glans and harbour protective bacteria.

Things go wrong occasionaly with all the human organs, this is not a good reason to rip them out willy nilly at birth. Time to catch up with the medical profession folks.

Sorry about the "cut and paste" links people. At some stage I'll figure out what's what in my template and add enclosure links...