Should We Circumcise Our Infant Boy?

Posting Date: 04/01/1999

Robert: My wife and I just adopted a three-day-old little boy. We have not circumcised him yet. I am circumcised, and it is all I have ever known for boys. What do you think?

Dr. Dean: This is easy. I'll tell you all I can in the short amount of time I have here, but you can find much more on HealthCentral.com by doing a search for "circumcision."

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First, only in America do we do this. Almost all the men in the whole world are not circumcised and they do very well. And there is no medical group in the world that routinely recommends circumcision.

I would hope that you do not do it. The one important thing is just not to retract the foreskin, don't force it back. Some parents think they have to force it back to clean it, but this is not true.

When people want to circumcise because of religious practice, I find it fun to ask, "If God put the foreskin there, why would he ask you to cut it off?"

The big question is: why are we still doing this in America?

Did you know the practice here was originally performed as part of an anti-masturbation movement in the 19th century? Kellogg, of the cereal family, was a strong proponent of this.

Fascinatingly, the latest AMA studies find that little boys who are circumcised masturbate more. So the circumcision movement has had almost the opposite effect that it hoped for.

In any case, it is a cruel and absolutely unnecessary thing to do.

I would encourage you not to feel bound to tradition, unless the tradition makes sense to you. Are you going to dye the kid's hair to be the same color as yours? Or change his nose to look like yours? Think about it.