As someone who is going to enter the medical proffession as a biomedical scientist i would first like to say im glad i live in england, our healthcare might be innefficient but at least we dont have such blatent value of money over people.ReinWeisserRitter said:So if I may draw a conclusion, what you're saying is that anything done to a person without their explicit consent is a unethical.
It may surprise you, then, that a lot of what people do to others without their consent is for the sake of their well-being, or their perceived well-being; I'm going to find it hard to believe that if you got in a car accident and would have bled to death without intervention, but weren't able to state your opinion on the matter, you'd criticize the parties responsible for attempting to save your life. Not comparable in scope, of course, but comparable in essence.
This thought process is what a lot of parents go down when making a child's decisions for them, because the kid can't speak on their approval of the matter. Despite your incredible vehemence on the matter, circumcision isn't a big deal to most people, and most parents do it in a perceived best interest for their child, and nine times out of ten (if that few in cases) the person isn't affected by it one way or the other. It may have even ended up being - gasp and alarm - for their own good, whether you like it or not.
On that note, let me present a different perspective: Let's suppose some people are indeed better off for having their junk "mutilated", as so many of you are fond of saying. Let's say that some people who haven't had the procedure would also be better off if they did. Most of them aren't going to get it done anyway. Why? Because they've grown up with the thing as they know it. People tend to be reluctant to permanently change themselves, even for their own good, especially when that change involves a sharp metal object slicing their flesh. We tend to get used to the status quo, to being uncomfortable because it's what we know.
Now, I've no argument for people having their own say in what happens to themselves, but what if they would have been better off if their say on the matter was ignored? Is it wrong then? What's more, are you going to claim that the people who have been wronged by this procedure (in reality or entirely in their minds) outnumber those that benefited from it, or that the latter's opinion is inferior because it was without their consent?
I could write a book on my annoyance with how many things are done to us in a doctor's office solely to support the business model that is American medical, but that's a gripe for another discussion.
Anyway, id agree that to we accept some things we dont want for our own good, and other times we must force people to do things to keep them alive, but i would argue this arguement only holds true for things that are, objectively, 100% for their own good. And circumcision isnt really defined as 100% good. Complications can occur and pretty much every medical positive can be achieved with washing yourself efficiently. Id compare it to tattooing a babies penis if i had to. It seems like an unneccessary waste of resources to achieve something randomly shallow on someone who has no say in the matter. Despite what people linking individual studies might say im going to link some meta analysis. Id argue that unless what you are doing is doing ONLY good, arguing that doing something for someones "own good" is a pretty falacious arguement as you might end up doing them harm. Or marking them in a way they dont like, for pretty much no gain. It seems pointless to me.
Heres the meta analysis.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_analysis_of_circumcision#Costs_and_benefits
Basically no real effects either way, except those found for can be emulated with cleaning and those found against are chronic and need correcting with surgery. I think from a medical stand point its pointless.
Also penile cancer is the only thing it treats that cannot be achieve by cleaning, as well as being really rare and only treated by the fact that something you have removed cannot have cancer, id like to add male breast cancer rates are higher, is it now right to remove mens nipples when they are infants?