Circumcision

Circumcision

Introduction

Circumcision is the most common surgical procedure performed in male infants in the newborn period. It originated over 5000 years ago and has become an important ritual in several cultures worldwide. Circumcision has been promoted for its health benefits including protection against urinary tract infection (UTI) in infancy, penile cancer, and HIV infection. However, it may cause numerous complications, including pain, bleeding, infection, phimosis, meatitis, and other adverse effects. Nonritual circumcisions are not routinely recommended by medical associations except in very select situations. For infants undergoing circumcision, established analgesic interventions should be used to minimize pain. These include inject able and topical local anesthesia, sucrose solutions, and acetaminophen.

History of Circumcision

Male newborn infant circumcision is the most common planned surgical procedure, estimated to be practiced by 15% of the world's male population. It is the subject, however, of continual controversy. It has been debated as a matter of hygiene, religious ritual, and infant mutilation. Although the origin of the procedure is unknown, one of the first records of circumcision dates back to Egyptian times, over 5000 years ago. The reason for circumcision may have involved a hygienic measure to combat either dry, dusty, and hot environments or disease. However, it may also have been performed for punitive reasons (attenuation of castration, as castration was often a mortal injury), as a pubertal or premarital rite, as an absolution against vaginal blood, or as a mark of slavery. For certain religious and cultural groups, circumcision is an important ritual. These groups include members of the Jewish religion as well as Muslims, black Africans, Australian aborigines, and other groups around the world. There is a sociological component of circumcision as well. Circumcision provides a rite of passage for socialization and kinship. (Lerman 1539)

Written documentation of circumcision appears in the Bible, where the ritual was elevated to a religious act by the Jews. In the biblical Covenant of God with Abraham, the 'father of the Hebrew nation', circumcision is described as a sacrifice of the foreskin to be performed in male newborn infants on the eighth day of life. The act of circumcision, however, has been continuously debated. In the early Christian era, Christians debated the need to be circumcised in order to be 'saved' and circumcision was cast as a mutilation, which led to a revolt of Jews against Rome. (Holman 511)

The health benefits of circumcision became prominent in the nineteenth century. One of the theories promoted at that time was that circumcision prevented masturbation, which was the source of a variety of illnesses. Circumcision was believed to cure or prevent alcoholism, seizure disorders, asthma, gout, rheumatism, and many other conditions.

In addition, circumcision was believed to act as a moderator of excessive sexual activity, making the practice consistent with mid-Victorian attitudes that sex was sinful. Circumcision became widespread in English-speaking countries around the turn of the century and was reinforced in the US in World War II due to hygiene-related urogenital disorders in no circumcised soldiers. It began to be questioned by the medical ...