RIC (Routine Infant Circumcision)

wow, this is getting tedious. All my opponent has done this far is attempt to mitigate the benefits of circumcision. Mitigating it is not enough. She must show that the benefit of having your child uncircumcised, outweighs the benefit of getting him circumcised to win. I'm going to do what I always do, when my opponent is making silly arguments, and go point by point. STD's - Circumcised men get STD's also. STD's are prevented by practicing safe sex and using condoms. Cutting off functioning skin will not prevent that. I feel using STD's as an argument is completely ridiculous for that reason. You cannot increase nor decrease his risks of STD's by having him circumcised, if he has sex with someone who has an STD whether he is circumcised or not he will get the disease. Having sex with somebody that has an STD, does not mean you'll automatically get an STD. It is recommended that both circumcised and uncircumcised men use protection when having sex, because it will reduce everyone's chances of getting STD's, but whether you use protection or not your chances of getting an STD are increased by not having a circumcision. Multiple things can make your chances of having an STD rise or fall, presuming that wearing condoms is the only factor that contributes to somebody's chances of getting an STD, is stupid. According to Health.com, reporting on a study in the New England Journal of medicine; "This finding"published in a March, 2009 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine"adds to the evidence that there are health benefits to circumcision, the surgical removal of the penis foreskin, usually performed on newborns shortly after birth. It was already known that circumcision can reduce the risk of penile cancer, a relatively rare disease, as well as the risk of HIV infection." http://www.health.com... I have the New England Journal of Medicine backing up my claim that circumcisions reduce the risk of STD's my opponent has bare assertions which are uncited and untrustworthy Stating that wearing condoms is the only factor in determining the likelihood somebody getting an STD. That circumcision has no effect on the rate of STD's. Sorry pro, I think I'm going to believe the New England Journal of medicine over the anonymous person on the internet who makes bare assertions, and doesn't cite their facts. "UTI's can also happen one way or another, women get UTI's all the time, they are not necessarily caused by being unclean they are things that can just happen." I don't deny UTI's can happen to anybody, nor do I deny that they can happen to both circumcised or uncircumcised men. We are looking at the risk factors associated with getting a newborn circumcised vs leaving them uncircumcised. We can see that getting a newborn circumcised, reduces their risk of getting UTI's, which is one of many reasons to get them circumcised. This would be like if I argued that people should wear seat belts, because it reduces their risk of dying in a car crash, and my opponent pointed out that, people belted or unbelted can die in crashes. That type of argument is beside the point and out of left field. Obviously bad things can happen to somebody, whether they take precautions or not, but that doesn't mean that they should not take precautions. According to the American Academy of pediatrics, anyone can get a UTI, but uncircumcised males, increase their risk "12 fold". http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov... This is one of the benefits of getting your infant circumcised, and so far my opponent has failed to mention a single benefit of not getting a baby circumcised. My opponent has merely tried to mitigate my benefits. This is not enough to win, my opponent has to list some benefits as well, otherwise at the end of this debate, I'll be the only one left standing, who has a list of benefits the judges can write down. "enile cancer does not happen until very late in life, if it does even happen at all, usually around their 80's. "(If they do even live to see this age. People aged 65 and up only make up 13% of the total population.) There is no proof that having a baby circumcised will reduce his risks of penile cancer, this is another thing that may happen even if he is circumcised. With this logic we should also cut off our baby girls breast buds at birth to prevent breast cancer, which is FAR more common." People can get penile cancer at any age, though it is more likely to happen later in life. Circumcision actually almost eliminates the possibility of penile cancer. I've provided all these facts by citing web MD, and it's absurd for my opponent to say that there is no evidence that penile cancer is reduced. For one thing, circumcision reduces the amount of area on a person's body that cancer can grow, so it's just common sense, but for another I cited a very respectable and trustworthy source of all medical information. (Web MD) Here is another one. "The predicted lifetime risk of penile cancer for an uncircumcised man has been estimated as 1 in 600.......Lifetime risk in the total population of circumcised men is only 1 in 50,000" http://www.circinfo.net... That's a huge increased risk factor. My opponent is just shaking her head covering her ears and singing "la la la". "Also as I stated before not only is the foreskin completely fused to the head of the penis sealing out ALL bacteria, but it is also self cleaning. So you cannot really say that it isn't cleaner. When the foreskin is removed it leaves the inside glans which are meant to be an internal organ left exposed to the environment. It then needs to adapt by keratinizing, or developing a layer of rough skin on the head. This desensitizes it. The reason for most infections is FORCED RETRACTION of an intact baby. So yes, it is cleaner leaving a baby intact. First of all, it's ridiculous to call penises self cleaning. If your boyfriend is not washing his penis because it is "self cleaning", he's lying to you. No penis is self cleaning. While proper care and maintenance of the penis can reduce the risk of UTI, it can't completely eliminate that possibility. You still are more likely to get a UTI, if you're uncircumcised, And I hate to break it to my opponent, but a lot of men maybe even most men don't clean their penis properly. We have to take into account that a lot of people are nasty.