The Foreskin is Necessary

The Foreskin is Necessary

Paul M. Fleiss, M.D.
Published as "The Case Against Circumcision" in Mothering, p. 36-45, Winter
1997

"Routine circumcision of babies in the United States did not begin until the
Cold War era. Circumcision is almost unheard of in Europe, Southern America,
and non-Muslim Asia. In fact, only 10 to 15 percent of men throughout the
world are circumcised."
"The natural penis requires no special care. A child's foreskin, like his
eyelids, is self-cleansing. Forcibly retracting a baby's foreskin can lead
to irritation and infection. The best way to care for a child's intact penis
is to leave it alone."
Western countries have no tradition of circumcision. In antiquity, the
expansion of the Greek and Roman Empires brought Westerners into contact
with the peoples of the Middle East, some of whom marked their children with
circumcision and other sexual mutilations. To protect these children, the
Greeks and Romans passed laws forbidding circumcision. Over the centuries,
the Catholic Church has passed many similar laws. The traditional Western
response to circumcision has been revulsion and indignation. Circumcision
started in America during the masturbation hysteria of the Victorian Era,
when a few American doctors circumcised boys to punish them for
masturbating. Victorian doctors knew very well that circumcision denudes,
desensitizes, and disables the penis. Nevertheless, they were soon claiming
that circumcision cured epilepsy, convulsions, paralysis, elephantiasis,
tuberculosis, eczema, bed-wetting, hip-joint disease, fecal incontinence,
rectal prolapse, wet dreams, hernia, headaches, nervousness, hysteria, poor
eyesight, idiocy, mental retardation, and insanity. In fact, no procedure in
the history of medicine has been claimed to cure and prevent more diseases
than circumcision. As late as the 1970s, leading American medical textbooks
still advocated routine circumcision as a way to prevent masturbation. The
anti-sexual motivations behind an operation that entails cutting off part of
the penis are obvious. The radical practice of routinely circumcising babies
did not begin until the Cold War era. This institutionalization of what
amounted to compulsory circumcision was part of the same movement that
pathologized and medicalized birth and actively discouraged breastfeeding.
Private-sector, corporate-run hospitals institutionalized routine
circumcision without ever consulting the American people. There was no
public debate or referendum. It was only in the 1970s that a series of
lawsuits forced hospitals to obtain parental consent to perform this
contraindicated but highly profitable surgery. Circumcisers responded by
inventing new "medical" reasons for circumcision in an attempt to scare
parents into consenting. Today the reasons given for circumcision have been
updated to play on contemporary fears and anxieties; but one day they, too,
will be considered irrational.
Now that such current excuses as the claim that this procedure prevents
cancer and sexually transmitted diseases have been thoroughly discredited,
circumcisers will undoubtedly invent new ones. But if circumcisers were
really motivated by purely medical considerations, the procedure would have
died out long ago, along with leeching, skull-drilling, and castration. The
fact that it has not suggests that the compulsion to circumcise came first,
the "reasons," later. Millions of years of evolution have fashioned the
human body into a model of refinement, elegance, and efficiency, with every
part having a function and purpose. Evolution has determined that mammals'
genitals should be sheathed in a protective, responsive, multipurpose
foreskin. Every normal human being is born with a foreskin. In females, it
protects the glans of the clitoris; in males, it protects the glans of the
penis. Thus, the foreskin is an essential part of human sexual anatomy.
Parents should enjoy the arrival of a new child with as few worries as
possible. The birth of a son in the US, however, is often fraught with
anxiety and confusion. Most parents are pressured to hand their baby sons
over to a stranger, who, behind closed doors, straps babies down and cuts
their foreskins off. The billion-dollar- a-year circumcision industry has
bombarded Americans with confusing rhetoric and calculated scare tactics.
Information about the foreskin itself is almost always missing from
discussions about circumcision. The mass circumcision campaigns of the past
few decades have resulted in pandemic ignorance about this remarkable
structure and its versatile role in human sexuality. Ignorance and false
information about the foreskin are the rule in American medical literature,
education, and practice. Most American medical textbooks depict the human
penis, without explanation, as circumcised, as if it were so by nature.

What Is the Foreskin?
The foreskin is a uniquely specialized, sensitive, functional organ of
touch. No other part of the body serves the same purpose. As a modified
extension of the penile shaft skin, the foreskin covers and usually extends
beyond the glans before folding under itself and finding its circumferential
point of attachment just behind the corona (the rim of the glans). The
foreskin is, therefore, a double-layered organ. Its true length is twice the
length of its external fold and comprises as much as 80 percent or more of
the penile skin covering. The foreskin contains a rich concentration of
blood vessels and nerve endings. It is lined with the peripenic muscle
sheet, a smooth muscle layer with longitudinal fibers. These muscle fibers
are whirled, forming a kind of sphincter that ensures optimum protection of
the urinary tract from contaminants of all kinds. Like the undersurface of
the eyelids or the inside of the cheek, the undersurface of the foreskin
consists of mucous membrane. It is divided into two distinct zones: the soft
mucosa and the ridged mucosa. The soft mucosa lies against the glans penis
and contains ectopic sebaceous glands that secrete emollients, lubricants,
and protective antibodies. Similar glands are found in the eyelids and
mouth.
Adjacent to the soft mucosa and just behind the lips of the foreskin is the
ridged mucosa. This exquisitely sensitive structure consists of tightly
pleated concentric bands, like the elastic bands at the top of a sock. These
expandable pleats allow the foreskin lips to open and roll back, exposing
the glans. The ridged mucosa gives the foreskin its characteristic taper.
On the underside of the glans, the foreskin's point of attachment is
advanced toward the meatus (urethral opening) and forms a band like ligament
called the frenulum. It is identical to the frenulum that secures the tongue
to the floor of the mouth. The foreskin's frenulum holds it in place over
the glans, and, in conjunction with the smooth muscle fibers, helps return
the retracted foreskin to its usual forward position over the glans.
Retraction of the Foreskin
At birth, the foreskin is usually attached to the glans, very much as a
fingernail is attached to a finger. By puberty, the penis will usually have
completed its development, and the foreskin will have separated from the
glans. This separation occurs in its own time; there is no set age by which
the foreskin and glans must be separated. One wise doctor described the
process thus, "The foreskin therefore can be likened to a rosebud which
remains closed and muzzled. Like a rosebud, it will only blossom when the
time is right. No one opens a rosebud to make it blossom."
Even if the glans and foreskin separate naturally in infancy, the foreskin
lips can normally dilate only enough to allow the passage of urine. This
ideal feature protects the glans from premature exposure to the external
environment.
The penis develops naturally throughout childhood. Eventually, the child
will, on his own, make the wondrous discovery that his foreskin will
retract. There is no reason for parents, physicians, or other caregivers to
manipulate a child's penis. The only person to retract a child's foreskin
should be the child himself, when he has discovered that his foreskin is
ready to retract.
Parents should be wary of anyone who tries to retract their child's
foreskin, and especially wary of anyone who wants to cut it off. Human
foreskins are in great demand for any number of commercial enterprises, and
the marketing of purloined baby foreskins is a multimillion-dollar- a-year
industry. Pharmaceutical and cosmetic companies use human foreskins as
research material. Corporations such as Advanced Tissue Sciences,
Organogenesis, and BioSurface Technology use human foreskins as the raw
materials for a type of breathable bandage.
What Are the Foreskin's Functions?
The foreskin has numerous protective, sensory, and sexual functions.
Protection: Just as the eyelids protect the eyes, the foreskin protects the
glans and keeps its surface soft, moist, and sensitive. It also maintains
optimal warmth, pH balance, and cleanliness. The glans itself contains no
sebaceous glands-glands that produce the sebum, or oil, that moisturizes our
skin. The foreskin produces the sebum that maintains proper health of the
surface of the glans.
Immunological Defense: The mucous membranes that line all body orifices are
the body's first line of immunological defense. Glands in the foreskin
produce antibacterial and antiviral proteins such as lysozyme. Lysozyme is
also found in tears and mother's milk. Specialized epithelial Langerhans
cells, an immune system component, abound in the foreskin's outer surface.
Plasma cells in the foreskin's mucosal lining secrete immunoglobulins,
antibodies that defend against infection.
Erogenous Sensitivity: The foreskin is as sensitive as the fingertips or the
lips of the mouth. It contains a richer variety and greater concentration of
specialized nerve receptors than any other part of the penis. These
specialized nerve endings can discern motion, subtle changes in temperature,
and fine gradations of texture.
Coverage During Erection: As it becomes erect, the penile shaft becomes
thicker and longer. The double-layered foreskin provides the skin necessary
to accommodate the expanded organ and to allow the penile skin to glide
freely, smoothly, and pleasurably over the shaft and glans.
Self-Stimulating Sexual Functions: The foreskin's double-layered sheath
enables the penile shaft skin to glide back and forth over the penile shaft.
The foreskin can normally be slipped all the way, or almost all the way,
back to the base of the penis, and also slipped forward beyond the glans.
This wide range of motion is the mechanism by which the penis and the
orgasmic triggers in the foreskin, frenulum, and glans are stimulated.
Sexual Functions in Intercourse: One of the foreskin's functions is to
facilitate smooth, gentle movement between the mucosal surfaces of the two
partners during intercourse. The foreskin enables the penis to slip in and
out of the vagina nonabrasively inside its own slick sheath of
self-lubricating, movable skin. The female is thus stimulated by moving
pressure rather than by friction only, as when the male's foreskin is
missing.
The foreskin fosters intimacy between the two partners by enveloping the
glans and maintaining it as an internal organ. The sexual experience is
enhanced when the foreskin slips back to allow the male's internal organ,
the glans, to meet the female's internal organ, the cervix-a moment of
supreme intimacy and beauty.
The foreskin may have functions not yet recognized or understood. Scientists
in Europe recently detected estrogen receptors in its basal epidermal cells.
Researchers at the University of Manchester found that the human foreskin
has apocrine glands. hese specialized glands produce pheromones, nature's
chemical messengers. Further studies are needed to fully understand these
features of the foreskin and the role they play.

Care of the Foreskin
The natural penis requires no special care. A child's foreskin, like his
eyelids, is self-cleansing. For the same reason it is inadvisable to lift
the eyelids and wash the eyeballs, it is inadvisable to retract a child's
foreskin and wash the glans. Immersion in plain water during the bath is all
that is needed to keep the intact penis clean.
The white emollient under the child's foreskin is called smegma. Smegma is
probably the most misunderstood, most unjustifiably maligned substance in
nature. Smegma is clean, not dirty, and is beneficial and necessary. It
moisturizes the glans and keeps it smooth, soft, and supple. Its
antibacterial and antiviral properties keep the penis clean and healthy. All
mammals produce smegma. Thomas J. Ritter, MD, underscored its importance
when he commented, "The animal kingdom would probably cease to exist without
smegma."
Studies suggest that it is best not to use soap on the glans or foreskin's
inner. Forcibly retracting and washing a baby's foreskin destroys the
beneficial bacterial flora that protect the penis from harmful germs and can
lead to irritation and infection. The best way to care for a child's intact
penis is to leave it alone. After puberty, males can gently rinse their
glans and foreskin with warm water, according to their own self-determined
needs.

How Common Is Circumcision?
Circumcision is almost unheard of in Europe, South America, and non-Muslim
Asia. In fact, only 10 to 15 percent of men throughout the world are
circumcised, the vast majority of whom are Muslim. The neonatal circumcision
rate in the western US has now fallen to 34.2 percent. This relatively
diminished rate may surprise American men born during the era when nearly 90
percent of baby boys were circumcised automatically, with or without their
parents' consent.
How Does Circumcision Harm?
The "medical" debate about the "potential health benefits" of circumcision
rarely addresses its real effects.
Circumcision denudes: Depending on the amount of skin cut off, circumcision
robs a male of as much as 80 percent or more of his penile skin. Depending
on the foreskin's length, cutting it off makes the penis as much as 25
percent or more shorter. Careful anatomical investigations have shown that
circumcision cuts off more than 3 feet of veins, arteries, and capillaries,
240 feet of nerves, and more than 20,000 nerve endings. The foreskin's
muscles, glands, mucous membrane, and epithelial tissue are destroyed, as
well.
Circumcision desensitizes: Circumcision desensitizes the penis radically.
Foreskin amputation means severing the rich nerve network and all the nerve
receptors in the foreskin itself. Circumcision almost always damages or
destroys the frenulum. The loss of the protective foreskin desensitizes the
glans. Because the membrane covering the permanently externalized glans is
now subjected to constant abrasion and irritation, it keratinizes, becoming
dry and tough. The nerve endings in the glans, which in the intact penis are
just beneath the surface of the mucous membrane, are now buried by
successive layers of keratinization. The denuded glans takes on a dull,
grayish, sclerotic appearance.
Circumcision disables: The amputation of so much penile skin permanently
immobilizes whatever skin remains, preventing it from gliding freely over
the shaft and glans. This loss of mobility destroys the mechanism by which
the glans is normally stimulated. When the circumcised penis becomes erect,
the immobilized remaining skin is stretched, sometimes so tightly that not
enough skin is left to cover the erect shaft. Hair-bearing skin from the
groin and scrotum is often pulled onto the shaft, where hair is not normally
found. The surgically externalized mucous membrane of the glans has no
sebaceous glands. Without the protection and emollients of the foreskin, it
dries out, making it susceptible to cracking and bleeding.
Circumcision disfigures: Circumcision alters the appearance of the penis
drastically. It permanently externalizes the glans, normally an internal
organ.
Circumcision leaves a large circumferential surgical scar on the penile
shaft. Because circumcision usually necessitates tearing the foreskin from
the glans, pieces of the glans may be torn off, too, leaving it pitted and
scarred. Shreds of foreskin may adhere to the raw glans, forming tags and
bridges of dangling, displaced skin. Depending on the amount of skin cut off
and how the scar forms, the circumcised penis may be permanently twisted, or
curve or bow during erection. The contraction of the scar tissue may pull
the shaft into the abdomen, in effect shortening the penis or burying it
completely.
Circumcision disrupts circulation: Circumcision interrupts the normal
circulation of blood throughout the penile skin system and glans. The blood
flowing into major penile arteries is obstructed by the line of scar tissue
at the point of incision, creating backflow instead of feeding the branches
and capillary networks beyond the scar. Deprived of blood, the meatus may
contract and scarify, obstructing the flow of urine. This condition, known
as meatal stenosis, often requires corrective surgery. Meatal stenosis is
found almost exclusively among boys who have been circumcised.
Circumcision also severs the lymph vessels, interrupting the circulation of
lymph and sometimes causing lymphedema, a painful, disfiguring condition in
which the remaining skin of the penis swells with trapped lymph fluid.
Circumcision harms the developing brain: Recent studies published in leading
medical journals have reported that circumcision has long-lasting
detrimental effects on the developing brain, adversely altering the brain's
perception centers. Circumcised boys have a lower pain threshold than girls
or intact boys.
Developmental neuropsychologist Dr. James Prescott suggests that
circumcision can cause deeper and more disturbing levels of neurological
damage, as well.
Circumcision is unhygienic and unhealthy: One of the most common myths about
circumcision is that it makes the penis cleaner and easier to take care of.
This is not true. Eyes without eyelids would not be cleaner; neither would a
penis without its foreskin. The artificially externalized glans and meatus
of the circumcised penis are constantly exposed to abrasion and dirt, making
the circumcised penis, in fact, more unclean. The loss of the protective
foreskin leaves the urinary tract vulnerable to invasion by bacterial and
viral pathogens. The circumcision wound is larger than most people imagine.
It is not just the circular point of union between the outer and inner
layers of the remaining skin. Before a baby is circumcised, his foreskin
must be torn from his glans, literally skinning it alive. This creates a
large open area of raw, bleeding flesh, covered at best with a layer of
undeveloped proto-mucosa. Germs can easily enter the damaged tissue and
bloodstream through the raw glans and, even more easily, through the
incision itself.
Even after the wound has healed, the externalized glans and meatus are still
forced into constant unnatural contact with urine, feces, chemically treated
diapers, and other contaminants.
Female partners of circumcised men do not report a lower rate of cervical
cancer, nor does circumcision prevent penile cancer. A recent study shows
that the penile cancer rate is higher in the US than in Denmark, where
circumcision, except among Middle-Eastern immigrant workers, is almost
unheard of. Indeed, researchers should investigate the possibility that
circumcision has actually increased the rate of these diseases.
Circumcision does not prevent acquisition or transmission of sexually
transmitted diseases (STDs). In fact, the US has both the highest percentage
of sexually active circumcised males in the Western world and the highest
rates of sexually transmitted diseases, including AIDS. Rigorously
controlled prospective studies show that circumcised American men are at a
greater risk for bacterial and viral STDs, especially gonorrhea, nongonoccal
urethritis, human papilloma virus, herpes simplex virus type 2 and
chlamydia.
Circumcision is always risky: Circumcision always carries the risk of
serious, even tragic, consequences. Its surgical complication rate is one in
500.
These complications include uncontrollable bleeding and fatal infections.
There are many published case reports of gangrene following circumcision.
Pathogenic bacteria such as staphylococcus, Proteus, Pseudomonas, other
coliforms, and even tuberculosis can cause infections leading to death.
These organisms enter the wound because it provides easy entry, not because
the child is predisposed to infection.
Medical journals have published numerous accounts of babies who have had
part or all of their glans cut off while they were being circumcised. Other
fully conscious, anaesthetized babies have had their entire penis burned off
with an electrocautery gun. The September 1989 Journal of Urology published
an account of four such cases. The article described the sex-change
operation as "feminizing genitoplasty," performed on these babies in an
attempt to change them into girls. The March 1997 Archives of Pediatrics and
Adolescent Medicine described one young person's horror on learning that
"she" had been born a normal male, but that a circumciser had burned his
penis off when he was a baby. Many other similar cases have been documented.
Infant circumcision has a reported death rate of one in 500,000.
Circumcision harms mothers: Scientific studies have consistently shown that
circumcision disrupts a child's behavioral development. Studies performed at
the University of Colorado School of Medicine showed that circumcision is
followed by prolonged, unrestful non-REM (rapid-eye-movement) sleep. In
response to the lengthy bombardment of their neural pathways with unbearable
pain, the circumcised babies withdrew into a kind of semi coma that lasted
days or even weeks.
Numerous other studies have proven that circumcision disrupts the
mother-infant bond during the crucial period after birth. Research has also
shown that circumcision disrupts feeding patterns. In a study at the
Washington University School of Medicine, most babies would not nurse right
after they were circumcised, and those who did would not look into their
mothers' eyes.
Circumcision violates patients' and human rights: No one has the right to
cut off any part of someone else's genitals without that person's competent,
fully informed consent. Since it is the infant who must bear the
consequences, circumcision violates his legal rights both to refuse
treatment and to seek alternative treatment. In 1995, the American Academy
of Pediatrics Committee on Bioethics stated that only a competent patient
can give patient consent or informed consent. An infant is obviously too
young to consent to anything. He must be protected from anyone who would
take advantage of his defenselessness. The concept of informed parental
permission allows for medical interventions in situations of clear and
immediate medical necessity only, such as disease, trauma, or deformity. The
human penis in its normal, uncircumcised state satisfies none of these
requirements.
Physicians have a duty to refuse to perform circumcision. They also must
educate parents who, out of ignorance or misguidance, request this surgery
for their sons. The healthcare professional's obligation is to protect the
interests of the child. It is unethical in the extreme to force upon a child
an amputation he almost certainly would never have chosen for himself.
Common Sense
To be intact, as nature intended, is best. The vast majority of males who
are given the choice value their wholeness and keep their foreskins, for the
same reason they keep their other organs of perception. Parents in Europe
and non-Muslim Asia never have forced their boys to be circumcised. It would
no more occur to them to cut off part of their boys' penises than it would
to cut off part of their ears. Respecting a child's right to keep his
genitals intact is normal and natural. It is conservative in the best sense
of the word.
A circumcised father who has mixed feelings about his intact newborn son may
require gentle, compassionate psychological counseling to help him come to
terms with his loss and to overcome his anxieties about normal male
genitalia. In such cases, the mother should steadfastly protect her child,
inviting her husband to share this protective role and helping him diffuse
his negative feelings. Most parents want what is best for their baby. Wise
parents listen to their hearts and trust their instinct to protect their
baby from harm. The experience of the ages has shown that babies thrive best
in a trusting atmosphere of love, gentleness, respect, acceptance,
nurturing, and intimacy. Cutting off a baby's foreskin shatters this trust.
Circumcision wounds and harms the baby and the person the baby will become.
Parents who respect their son's wholeness are bequeathing to him his
birthright-his body, perfect and beautiful in its entirety.
Paul M. Fleiss, MD, MPH, is assistant clinical professor of pediatrics at
the University of Southern California Medical Center. He is the author of
numerous scientific articles published in leading national and international
medical journals.

For More Information Organizations
Doctors Opposing Circumcision (DOC)
2442 N.W. Market Street, Suite 42 Seattle, WA 98107 206-368-8358
weber.u.washington.edu/~gcd/DOC/
The National Organization of Circumcision Information Resource Centers
(NOCIRC)
PO Box 2512 San Anselmo, CA 94979-2512 415-488-9883 www.nocirc.org
The National Organization to Halt the Abuse and Routine Mutilation of Males
(NOHARMM)
PO Box 460795 San Francisco, CA 94146-0795 415-826-9351 www.noharmm.org
369 Montezuma, Suite 354 Santa Fe, NM 87501 505-989-7377 www.cirp.org/nrc/


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Circumcision:

We strive to give our children the most gentle, untraumatized birth as
possible. We look for good attendants, loving friends and a peaceful
environment. We work towards a conscious birth. But still there are those
who still believe that circumcision is important. Consider these things and
open your mind to another possibility.

On the second or third day after birth the male child is taken alone to a
treatment room in the hospital or clinic. He is undressed waist down and
placed on a circumcision restraint board, spread-eagle and tied down,
without anesthesia or painkillers of any kind.

The surgical procedure involves the removal of the foreskin of the penis.
It is usually adherent, or attached at birth (and even during the first few
years). The doctor must separate it from the glans (or head) of the penis
with probes. See Fig. A. He then makes a small incision to open it
further. Fig. B. The opening of the foreskin is then stretched and
retracted to allow a bell shaped device to be placed over the glans and the
foreskin is pulled over the bell. Fig. C.

Next a clamp is placed on the base of the foreskin and allowed to remain
there for several minutes in order to crush and seal the skin, mucous
membrane and blood vessels in the area. Fig. D. In one technique the clamp
and bell remain on until the foreskin falls off (due to lack of circulation)
a few days later. But in the routine form of the surgery the foreskin is
cut off at the base of the bell.





There is no need for stitches in the postnatal time and there is practically
no blood shed. Simple surgery!

But this simple act takes away an area of skin whose underside, which faces
the head of the penis, is a mucous membrane, as is the head of the penis.
After circumcision the skin of the glans loses its mucous quality, becoming
more like outer skin. This desensitizes some of the nerve endings of the
head. Also, with the loss of the foreskin the penis loses a natural gliding
mechanism that is helpful for insertion during intercourse.

One of the arguments for circumcision is that the uncircumcised head
naturally collects smegma (old mucous secretion, etc.) If allowed to build
up may be an ideal breeding ground for germs. But if a boy can be taught to
brush his teeth, clean his ears and wipe his anus he can also be taught to
retract his foreskin and wash the head of his penis!

As a baby the foreskin is tight over the head and has a membrane attached
which closes the area (sort of like a hymen) so it is a sterile place where
no smegma will develop until the foreskin is retracted and the membrane is
broken. There is no need to worry about cleaning it. As the baby gets
older gradually it can be pulled back further and further and further, plus
small children have a tendency to play with themselves and will help to
retract it completely after a few years. If there is no progress by the
time your boy reaches three years old, maybe advice from a friendly doctor
could be sought, but it still is not a problem.

There are risks to circumcision, as with anything that the human interferes.
The hole to urinate through (meatus) may tighten and harden and will need
further surgery to repair it.

The reasons to get a circumcision done on a new baby boy must be carefully
considered. If he is going to be different than his dad he can be shown
that he really isn't, he just has more. Plus a lot of other kids his age
will probably have foreskins too because the trend now is to leave it
intact. Unless there is a religious ritual that demands the procedure, then
he will be accepted into that culture. As your child gets older you must
explain all issues in truth when questions arise.

A penis with a foreskin is normal. It grew that way inside the womb.
Surgery never improves on a healthy structure and man cannot improve on
nature

Moses Lippschitz, M.D. wrote:

The Foreskin is Necessary

Paul M. Fleiss, M.D.
Published as "The Case Against Circumcision" in Mothering, p. 36-45, Winter
1997



heh heh heh ... Paul Fleiss convicted felon and father of whore madam
Heidi Fleiss. And you believe anything he says?

On Sep 23, 11:17 pm, "Wadi (the original)" wrote:
Moses Lippschitz, M.D. wrote:
The Foreskin is Necessary

Paul M. Fleiss, M.D.
Published as "The Case Against Circumcision" in Mothering, p. 36-45, Winter
1997

heh heh heh ... Paul Fleiss convicted felon and father of whore madam
Heidi Fleiss. And you believe anything he says?

Well, you know this is Avenger, he believes everything that supports
his prejudices.

Andrew Usher

"Andrew Usher" wrote in message
oups.com...
On Sep 23, 11:17 pm, "Wadi (the original)" wrote:
Moses Lippschitz, M.D. wrote:
The Foreskin is Necessary

Paul M. Fleiss, M.D.
Published as "The Case Against Circumcision" in Mothering, p. 36-45,
Winter
1997

heh heh heh ... Paul Fleiss convicted felon and father of whore madam
Heidi Fleiss. And you believe anything he says?

It was for alleged money laundering and he was sentenced to 1 day in jail
which means he checked in to have his mugshot taken and then released. It
had nothing to do with his credentials as a physician. You are a moron if
you can't see that. The piece he wrote is still valid.


The Foreskin is Necessary

Paul M. Fleiss, M.D.
Published as "The Case Against Circumcision" in Mothering, p. 36-45, Winter
1997

"Routine circumcision of babies in the United States did not begin until the
Cold War era. Circumcision is almost unheard of in Europe, Southern America,
and non-Muslim Asia. In fact, only 10 to 15 percent of men throughout the
world are circumcised."
"The natural penis requires no special care. A child's foreskin, like his
eyelids, is self-cleansing. Forcibly retracting a baby's foreskin can lead
to irritation and infection. The best way to care for a child's intact penis
is to leave it alone."
Western countries have no tradition of circumcision. In antiquity, the
expansion of the Greek and Roman Empires brought Westerners into contact
with the peoples of the Middle East, some of whom marked their children with
circumcision and other sexual mutilations. To protect these children, the
Greeks and Romans passed laws forbidding circumcision. Over the centuries,
the Catholic Church has passed many similar laws. The traditional Western
response to circumcision has been revulsion and indignation. Circumcision
started in America during the masturbation hysteria of the Victorian Era,
when a few American doctors circumcised boys to punish them for
masturbating. Victorian doctors knew very well that circumcision denudes,
desensitizes, and disables the penis. Nevertheless, they were soon claiming
that circumcision cured epilepsy, convulsions, paralysis, elephantiasis,
tuberculosis, eczema, bed-wetting, hip-joint disease, fecal incontinence,
rectal prolapse, wet dreams, hernia, headaches, nervousness, hysteria, poor
eyesight, idiocy, mental retardation, and insanity. In fact, no procedure in
the history of medicine has been claimed to cure and prevent more diseases
than circumcision. As late as the 1970s, leading American medical textbooks
still advocated routine circumcision as a way to prevent masturbation. The
anti-sexual motivations behind an operation that entails cutting off part of
the penis are obvious. The radical practice of routinely circumcising babies
did not begin until the Cold War era. This institutionalization of what
amounted to compulsory circumcision was part of the same movement that
pathologized and medicalized birth and actively discouraged breastfeeding.
Private-sector, corporate-run hospitals institutionalized routine
circumcision without ever consulting the American people. There was no
public debate or referendum. It was only in the 1970s that a series of
lawsuits forced hospitals to obtain parental consent to perform this
contraindicated but highly profitable surgery. Circumcisers responded by
inventing new "medical" reasons for circumcision in an attempt to scare
parents into consenting. Today the reasons given for circumcision have been
updated to play on contemporary fears and anxieties; but one day they, too,
will be considered irrational.
Now that such current excuses as the claim that this procedure prevents
cancer and sexually transmitted diseases have been thoroughly discredited,
circumcisers will undoubtedly invent new ones. But if circumcisers were
really motivated by purely medical considerations, the procedure would have
died out long ago, along with leeching, skull-drilling, and castration. The
fact that it has not suggests that the compulsion to circumcise came first,
the "reasons," later. Millions of years of evolution have fashioned the
human body into a model of refinement, elegance, and efficiency, with every
part having a function and purpose. Evolution has determined that mammals'
genitals should be sheathed in a protective, responsive, multipurpose
foreskin. Every normal human being is born with a foreskin. In females, it
protects the glans of the clitoris; in males, it protects the glans of the
penis. Thus, the foreskin is an essential part of human sexual anatomy.
Parents should enjoy the arrival of a new child with as few worries as
possible. The birth of a son in the US, however, is often fraught with
anxiety and confusion. Most parents are pressured to hand their baby sons
over to a stranger, who, behind closed doors, straps babies down and cuts
their foreskins off. The billion-dollar- a-year circumcision industry has
bombarded Americans with confusing rhetoric and calculated scare tactics.
Information about the foreskin itself is almost always missing from
discussions about circumcision. The mass circumcision campaigns of the past
few decades have resulted in pandemic ignorance about this remarkable
structure and its versatile role in human sexuality. Ignorance and false
information about the foreskin are the rule in American medical literature,
education, and practice. Most American medical textbooks depict the human
penis, without explanation, as circumcised, as if it were so by nature.

What Is the Foreskin?
The foreskin is a uniquely specialized, sensitive, functional organ of
touch. No other part of the body serves the same purpose. As a modified
extension of the penile shaft skin, the foreskin covers and usually extends
beyond the glans before folding under itself and finding its circumferential
point of attachment just behind the corona (the rim of the glans). The
foreskin is, therefore, a double-layered organ. Its true length is twice the
length of its external fold and comprises as much as 80 percent or more of
the penile skin covering. The foreskin contains a rich concentration of
blood vessels and nerve endings. It is lined with the peripenic muscle
sheet, a smooth muscle layer with longitudinal fibers. These muscle fibers
are whirled, forming a kind of sphincter that ensures optimum protection of
the urinary tract from contaminants of all kinds. Like the undersurface of
the eyelids or the inside of the cheek, the undersurface of the foreskin
consists of mucous membrane. It is divided into two distinct zones: the soft
mucosa and the ridged mucosa. The soft mucosa lies against the glans penis
and contains ectopic sebaceous glands that secrete emollients, lubricants,
and protective antibodies. Similar glands are found in the eyelids and
mouth.
Adjacent to the soft mucosa and just behind the lips of the foreskin is the
ridged mucosa. This exquisitely sensitive structure consists of tightly
pleated concentric bands, like the elastic bands at the top of a sock. These
expandable pleats allow the foreskin lips to open and roll back, exposing
the glans. The ridged mucosa gives the foreskin its characteristic taper.
On the underside of the glans, the foreskin's point of attachment is
advanced toward the meatus (urethral opening) and forms a band like ligament
called the frenulum. It is identical to the frenulum that secures the tongue
to the floor of the mouth. The foreskin's frenulum holds it in place over
the glans, and, in conjunction with the smooth muscle fibers, helps return
the retracted foreskin to its usual forward position over the glans.
Retraction of the Foreskin
At birth, the foreskin is usually attached to the glans, very much as a
fingernail is attached to a finger. By puberty, the penis will usually have
completed its development, and the foreskin will have separated from the
glans. This separation occurs in its own time; there is no set age by which
the foreskin and glans must be separated. One wise doctor described the
process thus, "The foreskin therefore can be likened to a rosebud which
remains closed and muzzled. Like a rosebud, it will only blossom when the
time is right. No one opens a rosebud to make it blossom."
Even if the glans and foreskin separate naturally in infancy, the foreskin
lips can normally dilate only enough to allow the passage of urine. This
ideal feature protects the glans from premature exposure to the external
environment.
The penis develops naturally throughout childhood. Eventually, the child
will, on his own, make the wondrous discovery that his foreskin will
retract. There is no reason for parents, physicians, or other caregivers to
manipulate a child's penis. The only person to retract a child's foreskin
should be the child himself, when he has discovered that his foreskin is
ready to retract.
Parents should be wary of anyone who tries to retract their child's
foreskin, and especially wary of anyone who wants to cut it off. Human
foreskins are in great demand for any number of commercial enterprises, and
the marketing of purloined baby foreskins is a multimillion-dollar- a-year
industry. Pharmaceutical and cosmetic companies use human foreskins as
research material. Corporations such as Advanced Tissue Sciences,
Organogenesis, and BioSurface Technology use human foreskins as the raw
materials for a type of breathable bandage.
What Are the Foreskin's Functions?
The foreskin has numerous protective, sensory, and sexual functions.
Protection: Just as the eyelids protect the eyes, the foreskin protects the
glans and keeps its surface soft, moist, and sensitive. It also maintains
optimal warmth, pH balance, and cleanliness. The glans itself contains no
sebaceous glands-glands that produce the sebum, or oil, that moisturizes our
skin. The foreskin produces the sebum that maintains proper health of the
surface of the glans.
Immunological Defense: The mucous membranes that line all body orifices are
the body's first line of immunological defense. Glands in the foreskin
produce antibacterial and antiviral proteins such as lysozyme. Lysozyme is
also found in tears and mother's milk. Specialized epithelial Langerhans
cells, an immune system component, abound in the foreskin's outer surface.
Plasma cells in the foreskin's mucosal lining secrete immunoglobulins,
antibodies that defend against infection.
Erogenous Sensitivity: The foreskin is as sensitive as the fingertips or the
lips of the mouth. It contains a richer variety and greater concentration of
specialized nerve receptors than any other part of the penis. These
specialized nerve endings can discern motion, subtle changes in temperature,
and fine gradations of texture.
Coverage During Erection: As it becomes erect, the penile shaft becomes
thicker and longer. The double-layered foreskin provides the skin necessary
to accommodate the expanded organ and to allow the penile skin to glide
freely, smoothly, and pleasurably over the shaft and glans.
Self-Stimulating Sexual Functions: The foreskin's double-layered sheath
enables the penile shaft skin to glide back and forth over the penile shaft.
The foreskin can normally be slipped all the way, or almost all the way,
back to the base of the penis, and also slipped forward beyond the glans.
This wide range of motion is the mechanism by which the penis and the
orgasmic triggers in the foreskin, frenulum, and glans are stimulated.
Sexual Functions in Intercourse: One of the foreskin's functions is to
facilitate smooth, gentle movement between the mucosal surfaces of the two
partners during intercourse. The foreskin enables the penis to slip in and
out of the vagina nonabrasively inside its own slick sheath of
self-lubricating, movable skin. The female is thus stimulated by moving
pressure rather than by friction only, as when the male's foreskin is
missing.
The foreskin fosters intimacy between the two partners by enveloping the
glans and maintaining it as an internal organ. The sexual experience is
enhanced when the foreskin slips back to allow the male's internal organ,
the glans, to meet the female's internal organ, the cervix-a moment of
supreme intimacy and beauty.
The foreskin may have functions not yet recognized or understood. Scientists
in Europe recently detected estrogen receptors in its basal epidermal cells.
Researchers at the University of Manchester found that the human foreskin
has apocrine glands. hese specialized glands produce pheromones, nature's
chemical messengers. Further studies are needed to fully understand these
features of the foreskin and the role they play.

Care of the Foreskin
The natural penis requires no special care. A child's foreskin, like his
eyelids, is self-cleansing. For the same reason it is inadvisable to lift
the eyelids and wash the eyeballs, it is inadvisable to retract a child's
foreskin and wash the glans. Immersion in plain water during the bath is all
that is needed to keep the intact penis clean.
The white emollient under the child's foreskin is called smegma. Smegma is
probably the most misunderstood, most unjustifiably maligned substance in
nature. Smegma is clean, not dirty, and is beneficial and necessary. It
moisturizes the glans and keeps it smooth, soft, and supple. Its
antibacterial and antiviral properties keep the penis clean and healthy. All
mammals produce smegma. Thomas J. Ritter, MD, underscored its importance
when he commented, "The animal kingdom would probably cease to exist without
smegma."
Studies suggest that it is best not to use soap on the glans or foreskin's
inner. Forcibly retracting and washing a baby's foreskin destroys the
beneficial bacterial flora that protect the penis from harmful germs and can
lead to irritation and infection. The best way to care for a child's intact
penis is to leave it alone. After puberty, males can gently rinse their
glans and foreskin with warm water, according to their own self-determined
needs.

How Common Is Circumcision?
Circumcision is almost unheard of in Europe, South America, and non-Muslim
Asia. In fact, only 10 to 15 percent of men throughout the world are
circumcised, the vast majority of whom are Muslim. The neonatal circumcision
rate in the western US has now fallen to 34.2 percent. This relatively
diminished rate may surprise American men born during the era when nearly 90
percent of baby boys were circumcised automatically, with or without their
parents' consent.
How Does Circumcision Harm?
The "medical" debate about the "potential health benefits" of circumcision
rarely addresses its real effects.
Circumcision denudes: Depending on the amount of skin cut off, circumcision
robs a male of as much as 80 percent or more of his penile skin. Depending
on the foreskin's length, cutting it off makes the penis as much as 25
percent or more shorter. Careful anatomical investigations have shown that
circumcision cuts off more than 3 feet of veins, arteries, and capillaries,
240 feet of nerves, and more than 20,000 nerve endings. The foreskin's
muscles, glands, mucous membrane, and epithelial tissue are destroyed, as
well.
Circumcision desensitizes: Circumcision desensitizes the penis radically.
Foreskin amputation means severing the rich nerve network and all the nerve
receptors in the foreskin itself. Circumcision almost always damages or
destroys the frenulum. The loss of the protective foreskin desensitizes the
glans. Because the membrane covering the permanently externalized glans is
now subjected to constant abrasion and irritation, it keratinizes, becoming
dry and tough. The nerve endings in the glans, which in the intact penis are
just beneath the surface of the mucous membrane, are now buried by
successive layers of keratinization. The denuded glans takes on a dull,
grayish, sclerotic appearance.
Circumcision disables: The amputation of so much penile skin permanently
immobilizes whatever skin remains, preventing it from gliding freely over
the shaft and glans. This loss of mobility destroys the mechanism by which
the glans is normally stimulated. When the circumcised penis becomes erect,
the immobilized remaining skin is stretched, sometimes so tightly that not
enough skin is left to cover the erect shaft. Hair-bearing skin from the
groin and scrotum is often pulled onto the shaft, where hair is not normally
found. The surgically externalized mucous membrane of the glans has no
sebaceous glands. Without the protection and emollients of the foreskin, it
dries out, making it susceptible to cracking and bleeding.
Circumcision disfigures: Circumcision alters the appearance of the penis
drastically. It permanently externalizes the glans, normally an internal
organ.
Circumcision leaves a large circumferential surgical scar on the penile
shaft. Because circumcision usually necessitates tearing the foreskin from
the glans, pieces of the glans may be torn off, too, leaving it pitted and
scarred. Shreds of foreskin may adhere to the raw glans, forming tags and
bridges of dangling, displaced skin. Depending on the amount of skin cut off
and how the scar forms, the circumcised penis may be permanently twisted, or
curve or bow during erection. The contraction of the scar tissue may pull
the shaft into the abdomen, in effect shortening the penis or burying it
completely.
Circumcision disrupts circulation: Circumcision interrupts the normal
circulation of blood throughout the penile skin system and glans. The blood
flowing into major penile arteries is obstructed by the line of scar tissue
at the point of incision, creating backflow instead of feeding the branches
and capillary networks beyond the scar. Deprived of blood, the meatus may
contract and scarify, obstructing the flow of urine. This condition, known
as meatal stenosis, often requires corrective surgery. Meatal stenosis is
found almost exclusively among boys who have been circumcised.
Circumcision also severs the lymph vessels, interrupting the circulation of
lymph and sometimes causing lymphedema, a painful, disfiguring condition in
which the remaining skin of the penis swells with trapped lymph fluid.
Circumcision harms the developing brain: Recent studies published in leading
medical journals have reported that circumcision has long-lasting
detrimental effects on the developing brain, adversely altering the brain's
perception centers. Circumcised boys have a lower pain threshold than girls
or intact boys.
Developmental neuropsychologist Dr. James Prescott suggests that
circumcision can cause deeper and more disturbing levels of neurological
damage, as well.
Circumcision is unhygienic and unhealthy: One of the most common myths about
circumcision is that it makes the penis cleaner and easier to take care of.
This is not true. Eyes without eyelids would not be cleaner; neither would a
penis without its foreskin. The artificially externalized glans and meatus
of the circumcised penis are constantly exposed to abrasion and dirt, making
the circumcised penis, in fact, more unclean. The loss of the protective
foreskin leaves the urinary tract vulnerable to invasion by bacterial and
viral pathogens. The circumcision wound is larger than most people imagine.
It is not just the circular point of union between the outer and inner
layers of the remaining skin. Before a baby is circumcised, his foreskin
must be torn from his glans, literally skinning it alive. This creates a
large open area of raw, bleeding flesh, covered at best with a layer of
undeveloped proto-mucosa. Germs can easily enter the damaged tissue and
bloodstream through the raw glans and, even more easily, through the
incision itself.
Even after the wound has healed, the externalized glans and meatus are still
forced into constant unnatural contact with urine, feces, chemically treated
diapers, and other contaminants.
Female partners of circumcised men do not report a lower rate of cervical
cancer, nor does circumcision prevent penile cancer. A recent study shows
that the penile cancer rate is higher in the US than in Denmark, where
circumcision, except among Middle-Eastern immigrant workers, is almost
unheard of. Indeed, researchers should investigate the possibility that
circumcision has actually increased the rate of these diseases.
Circumcision does not prevent acquisition or transmission of sexually
transmitted diseases (STDs). In fact, the US has both the highest percentage
of sexually active circumcised males in the Western world and the highest
rates of sexually transmitted diseases, including AIDS. Rigorously
controlled prospective studies show that circumcised American men are at a
greater risk for bacterial and viral STDs, especially gonorrhea, nongonoccal
urethritis, human papilloma virus, herpes simplex virus type 2 and
chlamydia.
Circumcision is always risky: Circumcision always carries the risk of
serious, even tragic, consequences. Its surgical complication rate is one in
500.
These complications include uncontrollable bleeding and fatal infections.
There are many published case reports of gangrene following circumcision.
Pathogenic bacteria such as staphylococcus, Proteus, Pseudomonas, other
coliforms, and even tuberculosis can cause infections leading to death.
These organisms enter the wound because it provides easy entry, not because
the child is predisposed to infection.
Medical journals have published numerous accounts of babies who have had
part or all of their glans cut off while they were being circumcised. Other
fully conscious, anaesthetized babies have had their entire penis burned off
with an electrocautery gun. The September 1989 Journal of Urology published
an account of four such cases. The article described the sex-change
operation as "feminizing genitoplasty," performed on these babies in an
attempt to change them into girls. The March 1997 Archives of Pediatrics and
Adolescent Medicine described one young person's horror on learning that
"she" had been born a normal male, but that a circumciser had burned his
penis off when he was a baby. Many other similar cases have been documented.
Infant circumcision has a reported death rate of one in 500,000.
Circumcision harms mothers: Scientific studies have consistently shown that
circumcision disrupts a child's behavioral development. Studies performed at
the University of Colorado School of Medicine showed that circumcision is
followed by prolonged, unrestful non-REM (rapid-eye-movement) sleep. In
response to the lengthy bombardment of their neural pathways with unbearable
pain, the circumcised babies withdrew into a kind of semi coma that lasted
days or even weeks.
Numerous other studies have proven that circumcision disrupts the
mother-infant bond during the crucial period after birth. Research has also
shown that circumcision disrupts feeding patterns. In a study at the
Washington University School of Medicine, most babies would not nurse right
after they were circumcised, and those who did would not look into their
mothers' eyes.
Circumcision violates patients' and human rights: No one has the right to
cut off any part of someone else's genitals without that person's competent,
fully informed consent. Since it is the infant who must bear the
consequences, circumcision violates his legal rights both to refuse
treatment and to seek alternative treatment. In 1995, the American Academy
of Pediatrics Committee on Bioethics stated that only a competent patient
can give patient consent or informed consent. An infant is obviously too
young to consent to anything. He must be protected from anyone who would
take advantage of his defenselessness. The concept of informed parental
permission allows for medical interventions in situations of clear and
immediate medical necessity only, such as disease, trauma, or deformity. The
human penis in its normal, uncircumcised state satisfies none of these
requirements.
Physicians have a duty to refuse to perform circumcision. They also must
educate parents who, out of ignorance or misguidance, request this surgery
for their sons. The healthcare professional's obligation is to protect the
interests of the child. It is unethical in the extreme to force upon a child
an amputation he almost certainly would never have chosen for himself.
Common Sense
To be intact, as nature intended, is best. The vast majority of males who
are given the choice value their wholeness and keep their foreskins, for the
same reason they keep their other organs of perception. Parents in Europe
and non-Muslim Asia never have forced their boys to be circumcised. It would
no more occur to them to cut off part of their boys' penises than it would
to cut off part of their ears. Respecting a child's right to keep his
genitals intact is normal and natural. It is conservative in the best sense
of the word.
A circumcised father who has mixed feelings about his intact newborn son may
require gentle, compassionate psychological counseling to help him come to
terms with his loss and to overcome his anxieties about normal male
genitalia. In such cases, the mother should steadfastly protect her child,
inviting her husband to share this protective role and helping him diffuse
his negative feelings. Most parents want what is best for their baby. Wise
parents listen to their hearts and trust their instinct to protect their
baby from harm. The experience of the ages has shown that babies thrive best
in a trusting atmosphere of love, gentleness, respect, acceptance,
nurturing, and intimacy. Cutting off a baby's foreskin shatters this trust.
Circumcision wounds and harms the baby and the person the baby will become.
Parents who respect their son's wholeness are bequeathing to him his
birthright-his body, perfect and beautiful in its entirety.
Paul M. Fleiss, MD, MPH, is assistant clinical professor of pediatrics at
the University of Southern California Medical Center. He is the author of
numerous scientific articles published in leading national and international
medical journals.

For More Information Organizations
Doctors Opposing Circumcision (DOC)
2442 N.W. Market Street, Suite 42 Seattle, WA 98107 206-368-8358
weber.u.washington.edu/~gcd/DOC/
The National Organization of Circumcision Information Resource Centers
(NOCIRC)
PO Box 2512 San Anselmo, CA 94979-2512 415-488-9883 www.nocirc.org
The National Organization to Halt the Abuse and Routine Mutilation of Males
(NOHARMM)
PO Box 460795 San Francisco, CA 94146-0795 415-826-9351 www.noharmm.org
369 Montezuma, Suite 354 Santa Fe, NM 87501 505-989-7377 www.cirp.org/nrc/


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Circumcision:

We strive to give our children the most gentle, untraumatized birth as
possible. We look for good attendants, loving friends and a peaceful
environment. We work towards a conscious birth. But still there are those
who still believe that circumcision is important. Consider these things and
open your mind to another possibility.

On the second or third day after birth the male child is taken alone to a
treatment room in the hospital or clinic. He is undressed waist down and
placed on a circumcision restraint board, spread-eagle and tied down,
without anesthesia or painkillers of any kind.

The surgical procedure involves the removal of the foreskin of the penis.
It is usually adherent, or attached at birth (and even during the first few
years). The doctor must separate it from the glans (or head) of the penis
with probes. See Fig. A. He then makes a small incision to open it
further. Fig. B. The opening of the foreskin is then stretched and
retracted to allow a bell shaped device to be placed over the glans and the
foreskin is pulled over the bell. Fig. C.

Next a clamp is placed on the base of the foreskin and allowed to remain
there for several minutes in order to crush and seal the skin, mucous
membrane and blood vessels in the area. Fig. D. In one technique the clamp
and bell remain on until the foreskin falls off (due to lack of circulation)
a few days later. But in the routine form of the surgery the foreskin is
cut off at the base of the bell.





There is no need for stitches in the postnatal time and there is practically
no blood shed. Simple surgery!

But this simple act takes away an area of skin whose underside, which faces
the head of the penis, is a mucous membrane, as is the head of the penis.
After circumcision the skin of the glans loses its mucous quality, becoming
more like outer skin. This desensitizes some of the nerve endings of the
head. Also, with the loss of the foreskin the penis loses a natural gliding
mechanism that is helpful for insertion during intercourse.

One of the arguments for circumcision is that the uncircumcised head
naturally collects smegma (old mucous secretion, etc.) If allowed to build
up may be an ideal breeding ground for germs. But if a boy can be taught to
brush his teeth, clean his ears and wipe his anus he can also be taught to
retract his foreskin and wash the head of his penis!

As a baby the foreskin is tight over the head and has a membrane attached
which closes the area (sort of like a hymen) so it is a sterile place where
no smegma will develop until the foreskin is retracted and the membrane is
broken. There is no need to worry about cleaning it. As the baby gets
older gradually it can be pulled back further and further and further, plus
small children have a tendency to play with themselves and will help to
retract it completely after a few years. If there is no progress by the
time your boy reaches three years old, maybe advice from a friendly doctor
could be sought, but it still is not a problem.

There are risks to circumcision, as with anything that the human interferes.
The hole to urinate through (meatus) may tighten and harden and will need
further surgery to repair it.

The reasons to get a circumcision done on a new baby boy must be carefully
considered. If he is going to be different than his dad he can be shown
that he really isn't, he just has more. Plus a lot of other kids his age
will probably have foreskins too because the trend now is to leave it
intact. Unless there is a religious ritual that demands the procedure, then
he will be accepted into that culture. As your child gets older you must
explain all issues in truth when questions arise.

A penis with a foreskin is normal. It grew that way inside the womb.
Surgery never improves on a healthy structure and man cannot improve on
nature

On Mon, 24 Sep 2007 09:30:39 +0000, Avenger wrote:


"Andrew Usher" wrote in message
oups.com...
On Sep 23, 11:17 pm, "Wadi (the original)" wrote:
Moses Lippschitz, M.D. wrote:
The Foreskin is Necessary

Paul M. Fleiss, M.D.
Published as "The Case Against Circumcision" in Mothering, p. 36-45,
Winter
1997

heh heh heh ... Paul Fleiss convicted felon and father of whore madam
Heidi Fleiss. And you believe anything he says?

It was for alleged money laundering and he was sentenced to 1 day in jail
which means he checked in to have his mugshot taken and then released. It
had nothing to do with his credentials as a physician. You are a moron if
you can't see that. The piece he wrote is still valid.

A questionable claim.

On Mon, 24 Sep 2007 09:30:39 GMT, Avenger , of soc.men, expulsed ...

"Andrew Usher" wrote in message
oups.com...
On Sep 23, 11:17 pm, "Wadi (the original)" wrote:
Moses Lippschitz, M.D. wrote:
The Foreskin is Necessary

Paul M. Fleiss, M.D.
Published as "The Case Against Circumcision" in Mothering, p. 36-45,
Winter
1997

heh heh heh ... Paul Fleiss convicted felon and father of whore madam
Heidi Fleiss. And you believe anything he says?

It was for alleged money laundering and he was sentenced to 1 day in jail
which means he checked in to have his mugshot taken and then released. It
had nothing to do with his credentials as a physician. You are a moron if
you can't see that. The piece he wrote is still valid.


The Foreskin is Necessary

Paul M. Fleiss, M.D.
Published as "The Case Against Circumcision" in Mothering, p. 36-45, Winter
1997

"Routine circumcision of babies in the United States did not begin until the
Cold War era. Circumcision is almost unheard of in Europe, Southern America,
and non-Muslim Asia. In fact, only 10 to 15 percent of men throughout the
world are circumcised."
"The natural penis requires no special care. A child's foreskin, like his
eyelids, is self-cleansing. Forcibly retracting a baby's foreskin can lead
to irritation and infection. The best way to care for a child's intact penis
is to leave it alone."
Western countries have no tradition of circumcision. In antiquity, the
expansion of the Greek and Roman Empires brought Westerners into contact
with the peoples of the Middle East, some of whom marked their children with
circumcision and other sexual mutilations. To protect these children, the
Greeks and Romans passed laws forbidding circumcision. Over the centuries,
the Catholic Church has passed many similar laws. The traditional Western
response to circumcision has been revulsion and indignation. Circumcision
started in America during the masturbation hysteria of the Victorian Era,
when a few American doctors circumcised boys to punish them for
masturbating. Victorian doctors knew very well that circumcision denudes,
desensitizes, and disables the penis. Nevertheless, they were soon claiming
that circumcision cured epilepsy, convulsions, paralysis, elephantiasis,
tuberculosis, eczema, bed-wetting, hip-joint disease, fecal incontinence,
rectal prolapse, wet dreams, hernia, headaches, nervousness, hysteria, poor
eyesight, idiocy, mental retardation, and insanity. In fact, no procedure in
the history of medicine has been claimed to cure and prevent more diseases
than circumcision. As late as the 1970s, leading American medical textbooks
still advocated routine circumcision as a way to prevent masturbation. The
anti-sexual motivations behind an operation that entails cutting off part of
the penis are obvious. The radical practice of routinely circumcising babies
did not begin until the Cold War era. This institutionalization of what
amounted to compulsory circumcision was part of the same movement that
pathologized and medicalized birth and actively discouraged breastfeeding.
Private-sector, corporate-run hospitals institutionalized routine
circumcision without ever consulting the American people. There was no
public debate or referendum. It was only in the 1970s that a series of
lawsuits forced hospitals to obtain parental consent to perform this
contraindicated but highly profitable surgery. Circumcisers responded by
inventing new "medical" reasons for circumcision in an attempt to scare
parents into consenting. Today the reasons given for circumcision have been
updated to play on contemporary fears and anxieties; but one day they, too,
will be considered irrational.
Now that such current excuses as the claim that this procedure prevents
cancer and sexually transmitted diseases have been thoroughly discredited,
circumcisers will undoubtedly invent new ones. But if circumcisers were
really motivated by purely medical considerations, the procedure would have
died out long ago, along with leeching, skull-drilling, and castration. The
fact that it has not suggests that the compulsion to circumcise came first,
the "reasons," later. Millions of years of evolution have fashioned the
human body into a model of refinement, elegance, and efficiency, with every
part having a function and purpose. Evolution has determined that mammals'
genitals should be sheathed in a protective, responsive, multipurpose
foreskin. Every normal human being is born with a foreskin. In females, it
protects the glans of the clitoris; in males, it protects the glans of the
penis. Thus, the foreskin is an essential part of human sexual anatomy.
Parents should enjoy the arrival of a new child with as few worries as
possible. The birth of a son in the US, however, is often fraught with
anxiety and confusion. Most parents are pressured to hand their baby sons
over to a stranger, who, behind closed doors, straps babies down and cuts
their foreskins off. The billion-dollar- a-year circumcision industry has
bombarded Americans with confusing rhetoric and calculated scare tactics.
Information about the foreskin itself is almost always missing from
discussions about circumcision. The mass circumcision campaigns of the past
few decades have resulted in pandemic ignorance about this remarkable
structure and its versatile role in human sexuality. Ignorance and false
information about the foreskin are the rule in American medical literature,
education, and practice. Most American medical textbooks depict the human
penis, without explanation, as circumcised, as if it were so by nature.

What Is the Foreskin?
The foreskin is a uniquely specialized, sensitive, functional organ of
touch. No other part of the body serves the same purpose. As a modified
extension of the penile shaft skin, the foreskin covers and usually extends
beyond the glans before folding under itself and finding its circumferential
point of attachment just behind the corona (the rim of the glans). The
foreskin is, therefore, a double-layered organ. Its true length is twice the
length of its external fold and comprises as much as 80 percent or more of
the penile skin covering. The foreskin contains a rich concentration of
blood vessels and nerve endings. It is lined with the peripenic muscle
sheet, a smooth muscle layer with longitudinal fibers. These muscle fibers
are whirled, forming a kind of sphincter that ensures optimum protection of
the urinary tract from contaminants of all kinds. Like the undersurface of
the eyelids or the inside of the cheek, the undersurface of the foreskin
consists of mucous membrane. It is divided into two distinct zones: the soft
mucosa and the ridged mucosa. The soft mucosa lies against the glans penis
and contains ectopic sebaceous glands that secrete emollients, lubricants,
and protective antibodies. Similar glands are found in the eyelids and
mouth.
Adjacent to the soft mucosa and just behind the lips of the foreskin is the
ridged mucosa. This exquisitely sensitive structure consists of tightly
pleated concentric bands, like the elastic bands at the top of a sock. These
expandable pleats allow the foreskin lips to open and roll back, exposing
the glans. The ridged mucosa gives the foreskin its characteristic taper.
On the underside of the glans, the foreskin's point of attachment is
advanced toward the meatus (urethral opening) and forms a band like ligament
called the frenulum. It is identical to the frenulum that secures the tongue
to the floor of the mouth. The foreskin's frenulum holds it in place over
the glans, and, in conjunction with the smooth muscle fibers, helps return
the retracted foreskin to its usual forward position over the glans.
Retraction of the Foreskin
At birth, the foreskin is usually attached to the glans, very much as a
fingernail is attached to a finger. By puberty, the penis will usually have
completed its development, and the foreskin will have separated from the
glans. This separation occurs in its own time; there is no set age by which
the foreskin and glans must be separated. One wise doctor described the
process thus, "The foreskin therefore can be likened to a rosebud which
remains closed and muzzled. Like a rosebud, it will only blossom when the
time is right. No one opens a rosebud to make it blossom."
Even if the glans and foreskin separate naturally in infancy, the foreskin
lips can normally dilate only enough to allow the passage of urine. This
ideal feature protects the glans from premature exposure to the external
environment.
The penis develops naturally throughout childhood. Eventually, the child
will, on his own, make the wondrous discovery that his foreskin will
retract. There is no reason for parents, physicians, or other caregivers to
manipulate a child's penis. The only person to retract a child's foreskin
should be the child himself, when he has discovered that his foreskin is
ready to retract.
Parents should be wary of anyone who tries to retract their child's
foreskin, and especially wary of anyone who wants to cut it off. Human
foreskins are in great demand for any number of commercial enterprises, and
the marketing of purloined baby foreskins is a multimillion-dollar- a-year
industry. Pharmaceutical and cosmetic companies use human foreskins as
research material. Corporations such as Advanced Tissue Sciences,
Organogenesis, and BioSurface Technology use human foreskins as the raw
materials for a type of breathable bandage.
What Are the Foreskin's Functions?
The foreskin has numerous protective, sensory, and sexual functions.
Protection: Just as the eyelids protect the eyes, the foreskin protects the
glans and keeps its surface soft, moist, and sensitive. It also maintains
optimal warmth, pH balance, and cleanliness. The glans itself contains no
sebaceous glands-glands that produce the sebum, or oil, that moisturizes our
skin. The foreskin produces the sebum that maintains proper health of the
surface of the glans.
Immunological Defense: The mucous membranes that line all body orifices are
the body's first line of immunological defense. Glands in the foreskin
produce antibacterial and antiviral proteins such as lysozyme. Lysozyme is
also found in tears and mother's milk. Specialized epithelial Langerhans
cells, an immune system component, abound in the foreskin's outer surface.
Plasma cells in the foreskin's mucosal lining secrete immunoglobulins,
antibodies that defend against infection.
Erogenous Sensitivity: The foreskin is as sensitive as the fingertips or the
lips of the mouth. It contains a richer variety and greater concentration of
specialized nerve receptors than any other part of the penis. These
specialized nerve endings can discern motion, subtle changes in temperature,
and fine gradations of texture.
Coverage During Erection: As it becomes erect, the penile shaft becomes
thicker and longer. The double-layered foreskin provides the skin necessary
to accommodate the expanded organ and to allow the penile skin to glide
freely, smoothly, and pleasurably over the shaft and glans.
Self-Stimulating Sexual Functions: The foreskin's double-layered sheath
enables the penile shaft skin to glide back and forth over the penile shaft.
The foreskin can normally be slipped all the way, or almost all the way,
back to the base of the penis, and also slipped forward beyond the glans.
This wide range of motion is the mechanism by which the penis and the
orgasmic triggers in the foreskin, frenulum, and glans are stimulated.
Sexual Functions in Intercourse: One of the foreskin's functions is to
facilitate smooth, gentle movement between the mucosal surfaces of the two
partners during intercourse. The foreskin enables the penis to slip in and
out of the vagina nonabrasively inside its own slick sheath of
self-lubricating, movable skin. The female is thus stimulated by moving
pressure rather than by friction only, as when the male's foreskin is
missing.
The foreskin fosters intimacy between the two partners by enveloping the
glans and maintaining it as an internal organ. The sexual experience is
enhanced when the foreskin slips back to allow the male's internal organ,
the glans, to meet the female's internal organ, the cervix-a moment of
supreme intimacy and beauty.
The foreskin may have functions not yet recognized or understood. Scientists
in Europe recently detected estrogen receptors in its basal epidermal cells.
Researchers at the University of Manchester found that the human foreskin
has apocrine glands. hese specialized glands produce pheromones, nature's
chemical messengers. Further studies are needed to fully understand these
features of the foreskin and the role they play.

Care of the Foreskin
The natural penis requires no special care. A child's foreskin, like his
eyelids, is self-cleansing. For the same reason it is inadvisable to lift
the eyelids and wash the eyeballs, it is inadvisable to retract a child's
foreskin and wash the glans. Immersion in plain water during the bath is all
that is needed to keep the intact penis clean.
The white emollient under the child's foreskin is called smegma. Smegma is
probably the most misunderstood, most unjustifiably maligned substance in
nature. Smegma is clean, not dirty, and is beneficial and necessary. It
moisturizes the glans and keeps it smooth, soft, and supple. Its
antibacterial and antiviral properties keep the penis clean and healthy. All
mammals produce smegma. Thomas J. Ritter, MD, underscored its importance
when he commented, "The animal kingdom would probably cease to exist without
smegma."
Studies suggest that it is best not to use soap on the glans or foreskin's
inner. Forcibly retracting and washing a baby's foreskin destroys the
beneficial bacterial flora that protect the penis from harmful germs and can
lead to irritation and infection. The best way to care for a child's intact
penis is to leave it alone. After puberty, males can gently rinse their
glans and foreskin with warm water, according to their own self-determined
needs.

How Common Is Circumcision?
Circumcision is almost unheard of in Europe, South America, and non-Muslim
Asia. In fact, only 10 to 15 percent of men throughout the world are
circumcised, the vast majority of whom are Muslim. The neonatal circumcision
rate in the western US has now fallen to 34.2 percent. This relatively
diminished rate may surprise American men born during the era when nearly 90
percent of baby boys were circumcised automatically, with or without their
parents' consent.
How Does Circumcision Harm?
The "medical" debate about the "potential health benefits" of circumcision
rarely addresses its real effects.
Circumcision denudes: Depending on the amount of skin cut off, circumcision
robs a male of as much as 80 percent or more of his penile skin. Depending
on the foreskin's length, cutting it off makes the penis as much as 25
percent or more shorter. Careful anatomical investigations have shown that
circumcision cuts off more than 3 feet of veins, arteries, and capillaries,
240 feet of nerves, and more than 20,000 nerve endings. The foreskin's
muscles, glands, mucous membrane, and epithelial tissue are destroyed, as
well.
Circumcision desensitizes: Circumcision desensitizes the penis radically.
Foreskin amputation means severing the rich nerve network and all the nerve
receptors in the foreskin itself. Circumcision almost always damages or
destroys the frenulum. The loss of the protective foreskin desensitizes the
glans. Because the membrane covering the permanently externalized glans is
now subjected to constant abrasion and irritation, it keratinizes, becoming
dry and tough. The nerve endings in the glans, which in the intact penis are
just beneath the surface of the mucous membrane, are now buried by
successive layers of keratinization. The denuded glans takes on a dull,
grayish, sclerotic appearance.
Circumcision disables: The amputation of so much penile skin permanently
immobilizes whatever skin remains, preventing it from gliding freely over
the shaft and glans. This loss of mobility destroys the mechanism by which
the glans is normally stimulated. When the circumcised penis becomes erect,
the immobilized remaining skin is stretched, sometimes so tightly that not
enough skin is left to cover the erect shaft. Hair-bearing skin from the
groin and scrotum is often pulled onto the shaft, where hair is not normally
found. The surgically externalized mucous membrane of the glans has no
sebaceous glands. Without the protection and emollients of the foreskin, it
dries out, making it susceptible to cracking and bleeding.
Circumcision disfigures: Circumcision alters the appearance of the penis
drastically. It permanently externalizes the glans, normally an internal
organ.
Circumcision leaves a large circumferential surgical scar on the penile
shaft. Because circumcision usually necessitates tearing the foreskin from
the glans, pieces of the glans may be torn off, too, leaving it pitted and
scarred. Shreds of foreskin may adhere to the raw glans, forming tags and
bridges of dangling, displaced skin. Depending on the amount of skin cut off
and how the scar forms, the circumcised penis may be permanently twisted, or
curve or bow during erection. The contraction of the scar tissue may pull
the shaft into the abdomen, in effect shortening the penis or burying it
completely.
Circumcision disrupts circulation: Circumcision interrupts the normal
circulation of blood throughout the penile skin system and glans. The blood
flowing into major penile arteries is obstructed by the line of scar tissue
at the point of incision, creating backflow instead of feeding the branches
and capillary networks beyond the scar. Deprived of blood, the meatus may
contract and scarify, obstructing the flow of urine. This condition, known
as meatal stenosis, often requires corrective surgery. Meatal stenosis is
found almost exclusively among boys who have been circumcised.
Circumcision also severs the lymph vessels, interrupting the circulation of
lymph and sometimes causing lymphedema, a painful, disfiguring condition in
which the remaining skin of the penis swells with trapped lymph fluid.
Circumcision harms the developing brain: Recent studies published in leading
medical journals have reported that circumcision has long-lasting
detrimental effects on the developing brain, adversely altering the brain's
perception centers. Circumcised boys have a lower pain threshold than girls
or intact boys.
Developmental neuropsychologist Dr. James Prescott suggests that
circumcision can cause deeper and more disturbing levels of neurological
damage, as well.
Circumcision is unhygienic and unhealthy: One of the most common myths about
circumcision is that it makes the penis cleaner and easier to take care of.
This is not true. Eyes without eyelids would not be cleaner; neither would a
penis without its foreskin. The artificially externalized glans and meatus
of the circumcised penis are constantly exposed to abrasion and dirt, making
the circumcised penis, in fact, more unclean. The loss of the protective
foreskin leaves the urinary tract vulnerable to invasion by bacterial and
viral pathogens. The circumcision wound is larger than most people imagine.
It is not just the circular point of union between the outer and inner
layers of the remaining skin. Before a baby is circumcised, his foreskin
must be torn from his glans, literally skinning it alive. This creates a
large open area of raw, bleeding flesh, covered at best with a layer of
undeveloped proto-mucosa. Germs can easily enter the damaged tissue and
bloodstream through the raw glans and, even more easily, through the
incision itself.
Even after the wound has healed, the externalized glans and meatus are still
forced into constant unnatural contact with urine, feces, chemically treated
diapers, and other contaminants.
Female partners of circumcised men do not report a lower rate of cervical
cancer, nor does circumcision prevent penile cancer. A recent study shows
that the penile cancer rate is higher in the US than in Denmark, where
circumcision, except among Middle-Eastern immigrant workers, is almost
unheard of. Indeed, researchers should investigate the possibility that
circumcision has actually increased the rate of these diseases.
Circumcision does not prevent acquisition or transmission of sexually
transmitted diseases (STDs). In fact, the US has both the highest percentage
of sexually active circumcised males in the Western world and the highest
rates of sexually transmitted diseases, including AIDS. Rigorously
controlled prospective studies show that circumcised American men are at a
greater risk for bacterial and viral STDs, especially gonorrhea, nongonoccal
urethritis, human papilloma virus, herpes simplex virus type 2 and
chlamydia.
Circumcision is always risky: Circumcision always carries the risk of
serious, even tragic, consequences. Its surgical complication rate is one in
500.
These complications include uncontrollable bleeding and fatal infections.
There are many published case reports of gangrene following circumcision.
Pathogenic bacteria such as staphylococcus, Proteus, Pseudomonas, other
coliforms, and even tuberculosis can cause infections leading to death.
These organisms enter the wound because it provides easy entry, not because
the child is predisposed to infection.
Medical journals have published numerous accounts of babies who have had
part or all of their glans cut off while they were being circumcised. Other
fully conscious, anaesthetized babies have had their entire penis burned off
with an electrocautery gun. The September 1989 Journal of Urology published
an account of four such cases. The article described the sex-change
operation as "feminizing genitoplasty," performed on these babies in an
attempt to change them into girls. The March 1997 Archives of Pediatrics and
Adolescent Medicine described one young person's horror on learning that
"she" had been born a normal male, but that a circumciser had burned his
penis off when he was a baby. Many other similar cases have been documented.
Infant circumcision has a reported death rate of one in 500,000.
Circumcision harms mothers: Scientific studies have consistently shown that
circumcision disrupts a child's behavioral development. Studies performed at
the University of Colorado School of Medicine showed that circumcision is
followed by prolonged, unrestful non-REM (rapid-eye-movement) sleep. In
response to the lengthy bombardment of their neural pathways with unbearable
pain, the circumcised babies withdrew into a kind of semi coma that lasted
days or even weeks.
Numerous other studies have proven that circumcision disrupts the
mother-infant bond during the crucial period after birth. Research has also
shown that circumcision disrupts feeding patterns. In a study at the
Washington University School of Medicine, most babies would not nurse right
after they were circumcised, and those who did would not look into their
mothers' eyes.
Circumcision violates patients' and human rights: No one has the right to
cut off any part of someone else's genitals without that person's competent,
fully informed consent. Since it is the infant who must bear the
consequences, circumcision violates his legal rights both to refuse
treatment and to seek alternative treatment. In 1995, the American Academy
of Pediatrics Committee on Bioethics stated that only a competent patient
can give patient consent or informed consent. An infant is obviously too
young to consent to anything. He must be protected from anyone who would
take advantage of his defenselessness. The concept of informed parental
permission allows for medical interventions in situations of clear and
immediate medical necessity only, such as disease, trauma, or deformity. The
human penis in its normal, uncircumcised state satisfies none of these
requirements.
Physicians have a duty to refuse to perform circumcision. They also must
educate parents who, out of ignorance or misguidance, request this surgery
for their sons. The healthcare professional's obligation is to protect the
interests of the child. It is unethical in the extreme to force upon a child
an amputation he almost certainly would never have chosen for himself.
Common Sense
To be intact, as nature intended, is best. The vast majority of males who
are given the choice value their wholeness and keep their foreskins, for the
same reason they keep their other organs of perception. Parents in Europe
and non-Muslim Asia never have forced their boys to be circumcised. It would
no more occur to them to cut off part of their boys' penises than it would
to cut off part of their ears. Respecting a child's right to keep his
genitals intact is normal and natural. It is conservative in the best sense
of the word.
A circumcised father who has mixed feelings about his intact newborn son may
require gentle, compassionate psychological counseling to help him come to
terms with his loss and to overcome his anxieties about normal male
genitalia. In such cases, the mother should steadfastly protect her child,
inviting her husband to share this protective role and helping him diffuse
his negative feelings. Most parents want what is best for their baby. Wise
parents listen to their hearts and trust their instinct to protect their
baby from harm. The experience of the ages has shown that babies thrive best
in a trusting atmosphere of love, gentleness, respect, acceptance,
nurturing, and intimacy. Cutting off a baby's foreskin shatters this trust.
Circumcision wounds and harms the baby and the person the baby will become.
Parents who respect their son's wholeness are bequeathing to him his
birthright-his body, perfect and beautiful in its entirety.
Paul M. Fleiss, MD, MPH, is assistant clinical professor of pediatrics at
the University of Southern California Medical Center. He is the author of
numerous scientific articles published in leading national and international
medical journals.

For More Information Organizations
Doctors Opposing Circumcision (DOC)
2442 N.W. Market Street, Suite 42 Seattle, WA 98107 206-368-8358
weber.u.washington.edu/~gcd/DOC/
The National Organization of Circumcision Information Resource Centers
(NOCIRC)
PO Box 2512 San Anselmo, CA 94979-2512 415-488-9883 www.nocirc.org
The National Organization to Halt the Abuse and Routine Mutilation of Males
(NOHARMM)
PO Box 460795 San Francisco, CA 94146-0795 415-826-9351 www.noharmm.org
369 Montezuma, Suite 354 Santa Fe, NM 87501 505-989-7377 www.cirp.org/nrc/


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Circumcision:

We strive to give our children the most gentle, untraumatized birth as
possible. We look for good attendants, loving friends and a peaceful
environment. We work towards a conscious birth. But still there are those
who still believe that circumcision is important. Consider these things and
open your mind to another possibility.

On the second or third day after birth the male child is taken alone to a
treatment room in the hospital or clinic. He is undressed waist down and
placed on a circumcision restraint board, spread-eagle and tied down,
without anesthesia or painkillers of any kind.

The surgical procedure involves the removal of the foreskin of the penis.
It is usually adherent, or attached at birth (and even during the first few
years). The doctor must separate it from the glans (or head) of the penis
with probes. See Fig. A. He then makes a small incision to open it
further. Fig. B. The opening of the foreskin is then stretched and
retracted to allow a bell shaped device to be placed over the glans and the
foreskin is pulled over the bell. Fig. C.

Next a clamp is placed on the base of the foreskin and allowed to remain
there for several minutes in order to crush and seal the skin, mucous
membrane and blood vessels in the area. Fig. D. In one technique the clamp
and bell remain on until the foreskin falls off (due to lack of circulation)
a few days later. But in the routine form of the surgery the foreskin is
cut off at the base of the bell.





There is no need for stitches in the postnatal time and there is practically
no blood shed. Simple surgery!

But this simple act takes away an area of skin whose underside, which faces
the head of the penis, is a mucous membrane, as is the head of the penis.
After circumcision the skin of the glans loses its mucous quality, becoming
more like outer skin. This desensitizes some of the nerve endings of the
head. Also, with the loss of the foreskin the penis loses a natural gliding
mechanism that is helpful for insertion during intercourse.

One of the arguments for circumcision is that the uncircumcised head
naturally collects smegma (old mucous secretion, etc.) If allowed to build
up may be an ideal breeding ground for germs. But if a boy can be taught to
brush his teeth, clean his ears and wipe his anus he can also be taught to
retract his foreskin and wash the head of his penis!

As a baby the foreskin is tight over the head and has a membrane attached
which closes the area (sort of like a hymen) so it is a sterile place where
no smegma will develop until the foreskin is retracted and the membrane is
broken. There is no need to worry about cleaning it. As the baby gets
older gradually it can be pulled back further and further and further, plus
small children have a tendency to play with themselves and will help to
retract it completely after a few years. If there is no progress by the
time your boy reaches three years old, maybe advice from a friendly doctor
could be sought, but it still is not a problem.

There are risks to circumcision, as with anything that the human interferes.
The hole to urinate through (meatus) may tighten and harden and will need
further surgery to repair it.

The reasons to get a circumcision done on a new baby boy must be carefully
considered. If he is going to be different than his dad he can be shown
that he really isn't, he just has more. Plus a lot of other kids his age
will probably have foreskins too because the trend now is to leave it
intact. Unless there is a religious ritual that demands the procedure, then
he will be accepted into that culture. As your child gets older you must
explain all issues in truth when questions arise.

Avenger, I think you're an insufferable moron & bigoted asswipe... but this is a great
article.

If only /all/ of your posts were of this caliber.


A penis with a foreskin is normal. It grew that way inside the womb.
Surgery never improves on a healthy structure and man cannot improve on
nature

Truer words have never been spoken.^


--
DR

Obsessed with Dave Batista

1# on Piggy's faux "k00k nominations" lits

Co-conspirator of the Censorship of Tom Smith

Arguably, the most hated Troll of soc.men

-----------------------------
Favorite Netkook quotes (A work in progress):

"I mean it's no accident that a woman's vagina is shaped like a purse.
I guess you're suppose to put money in it!" - The Starmaker


"I think the "Ho" moniker that Imus was fired for is also being fought
here. Notice after a respectable time how Petey (PJR) showed up and
started doing his counter insurgency work with Darling Regan (Ms HO).
It won't be long that any post with "Ho" in the title will get the
same message. The Big Eight will move against us eventually and the
open Usenet will be open only in so far as it doesn't offend the
Ho's. That's the power of feminism." - Tom "Masculist" Smith
. com

"Hey, guess what? That was my OPINION. I didn't present it as cold hard
objective TRUTH. An OPINION is not something you get to argue about -
I'm entitled to my OPINIONS. So **** off." - Viking


--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

It's nice when they openly admit their Jew-hatred with their
choice of spamming for this sort of crap. But I fixed it.

Susan


On 24-Sep-2007, Darling Regan wrote:

On Mon, 24 Sep 2007 09:30:39 GMT, Avenger

On Tue, 25 Sep 2007 03:25:10 GMT, , of soc.men, expulsed ...
It's nice when they openly admit their Jew-hatred with their
choice of spamming for this sort of crap. But I fixed it.

Excuse you, lying whore?

Avenger added the Jewish groups, not me. Take it up with him, dumbass.




On 24-Sep-2007, Darling Regan wrote:

On Mon, 24 Sep 2007 09:30:39 GMT, Avenger


--
DR

Obsessed with Dave Batista

1# on Piggy's faux "k00k nominations" lits

Co-conspirator of the Censorship of Tom Smith

Arguably, the most hated Troll of soc.men

-----------------------------
Favorite Netkook quotes (A work in progress):

"I mean it's no accident that a woman's vagina is shaped like a purse.
I guess you're suppose to put money in it!" - The Starmaker


"I think the "Ho" moniker that Imus was fired for is also being fought
here. Notice after a respectable time how Petey (PJR) showed up and
started doing his counter insurgency work with Darling Regan (Ms HO).
It won't be long that any post with "Ho" in the title will get the
same message. The Big Eight will move against us eventually and the
open Usenet will be open only in so far as it doesn't offend the
Ho's. That's the power of feminism." - Tom "Masculist" Smith
. com

"Hey, guess what? That was my OPINION. I didn't present it as cold hard
objective TRUTH. An OPINION is not something you get to argue about -
I'm entitled to my OPINIONS. So **** off." - Viking


--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

wrote in message news:qc%Ji.3257$Wo4.284@trnddc03...
It's nice when they openly admit their Jew-hatred with their
choice of spamming for this sort of crap. But I fixed it.

I fixed it back ) Jews actually are relevant in the West because it is
only recently that we have had to deal with moslems but we've had the jews
for what seems like forever with us. Moslems may practise circumcision as a
custom but as far as I know it's not required by their religion or in the
Koran. With jews, it is the foundation of their religion and you can't be a
jew without this mutilation of the cock. This is why it is only jews who
fight so hard to promote circumcision and come up with all sorts of pseudo
scientific mumbo jumbo as to the "health benefits" of cutting cocks. If jews
were to give up circumcision they couldn't be jews.





Susan


On 24-Sep-2007, Darling Regan wrote:

On Mon, 24 Sep 2007 09:30:39 GMT, Avenger

Avenger wrote:
wrote in message news:qc%Ji.3257$Wo4.284@trnddc03...
It's nice when they openly admit their Jew-hatred with their
choice of spamming for this sort of crap. But I fixed it.

I fixed it back ) Jews actually are relevant in the West because it is
only recently that we have had to deal with moslems but we've had the jews
for what seems like forever with us. Moslems may practise circumcision as a
custom but as far as I know it's not required by their religion or in the
Koran. With jews, it is the foundation of their religion and you can't be a
jew without this mutilation of the cock. This is why it is only jews who
fight so hard to promote circumcision and come up with all sorts of pseudo
scientific mumbo jumbo as to the "health benefits" of cutting cocks. If jews
were to give up circumcision they couldn't be jews.

Actually, Adolf, the only way a Jew ceases being a Jew is by accepting
that there has been a Messiah.

Note that I do not expect that my telling you this will affect your
thinking. You probably also believe that there are no homosexuals in New
York.