About Me

Maybe if I stop changing my mind on what I want to be when I "grow up" I'll end up with a degree and a job! Right now, I'm about to start a new school... I have a wonderful son and awesome hubby. I am a flutist and bassoonist, music is my first love.

Friday, August 26, 2011

A Link a Day: 100 Deaths Caused Annually by Circumcision

Infant circumcision causes 100 deaths each year in US
"To put this in perspective, about 44 neonatal boys die each year from suffocation, and 8 from auto accidents. About 115 neonatal boys die annually from SIDS, nearly the same as from circumcision.
According to this article, the study hints that these deaths are often kept hush-hush. It is strange to me that as a society, we feel that we, as Americans, are a modern, just, ethical culture. We balk at such atrocities as genocide in Sudan and terrorism. I have a feeling that if I asked most Americans if they would condone the mutilation of the genitals of their babies, most would say absolutely not. But, when you hide behind the euphemism, "circumcision," suddenly it's perfectly acceptable.

We as Americans hide this problem because our culture often takes on the view that we are morally superior to other nations. We have freedom of speech and a democratic government and so on. We feel we are morally superior because we condemn (and outlaw) female genital mutilation (FGM).

We are NOT superior. We constantly mutilate, cause harm to, and kill infant boys over something that has absolutely no net benefit. (Except to the medical industry, and those who buy and sell foreskins for medical or cosmetic uses.)

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