Congrats to DwnWthVwls for doing some research. The link he posted makes a strong argument in favour of circumcision although in the end I found it to be suspiciously biased. Evidence of their bias is here, in the way that they demonize people who consider circumcision unnecessary:-
Not investigating very far, I found another site which seemed less biased. It notably prefixes the medical benefits of circumcision with the word “may”, indicating that the pro and con argument is still open to discussion:-
Circumcision: Learn the Pros and Cons of This Common Surgery
While there is some undeniable statistical correlation between better hygiene and circumcision, imo it´s not sufficiently strong to outweigh the downside of infant circumcision: –
> it´s not essential
> it´s done without the victim´s consent (which WhateverDude rightly condemns)
> it´s irreversible
> it may lead to various problems in later life:
Chula says it´s a no brainer and that newborns don´t feel sh*t. TBH I would refute both these statements. Firstly, there´s plenty to be discussed on both sides, as this thread indicates. On the second point, regarding newborn sensitivity, newborns are actually infamous for crying at the least discomfort (too hot, too cold, etc). Yes, the operation is less painful for newborns, but even though they won´t remember the trauma of circumcision, they will have to live with
whatever the consequences may be for the rest of their lives - as mentioned in the statistics above.
My bottom line is that there is sufficient uncertainty over the issue that forcing an irreversible nonconsensual operation on a newborn is a mistake. Better to wait and see if health problems arise in later life; after all, not every uncircumcised male runs into the kind of problems that Chula´s and mordwry´s brothers-in-law had. The options come down to this:-
..........Infant circumcision - may cause problems in later life; can´t be undone
..........No circumcision - may cause problems in later life; circumcision with patient´s approval remains an option
To me, if the issue really were a no brainer, the no brainer would be there, between the words "can´t be undone" and "remains an option".