From: kgatling@rodan.acs.syr.EDU (Keith E Gatling)
Subject: Re: A few facts about circumcision
Organization: Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 93 08:24:43 EST

My wife, who is an RN (Registered Nurse) was talking to one of her friends
at work who is an LPN (Licensed Practical Nurse) studying to become an RN,
and found out that she was about to begin her OB training.  In looking
through one of Sue's OB books, Cheryl read the section about circumcision
and found that for some period up until 1989 the pediatric establishment
came down against circumcision as medically unnecessary, but that IN 1989
they changed their minds saying that it looked like it was probably six of
one half a dozen of the other.

Cheryl said to me that she wondered how many of the people who are coming
down so virulently against circs are working from the pre-1989 position of
the ped establishment.  *I* wonder how many of those people are not only
working from the pre-1989 position, but are reacting in a defensive manner
to those of us who don't share their opinion.  In other words, is it
possible that the most opinionated of the anti-circs are so shrill about
this because at the time that they made the decision for their own kids,
someone else was just as shrill with them about how stupid it was that they
*didn't* circ their kid?

Or...is it just that some people can't bear to live with ambiguity?  I know
a lot of people who are like that.  They can't bear to deal with shades of
grey...something has to be either right or wrong, good or evil; or as
Garrison Keillor once describe midwestern views about drinking, "There was
no social drinking, you either didn't drink or you crawled right into the
bottle and stayed there."  Perhaps it's not as black and white as you
think.  I'm willing to accept that.  I can deal with ambiguity.  Life is
full of it.

Oh...and for the people who quote how circs are very uncommon in Europe, and
they don't seem to have much of a problem, maybe we're just more hygenically
prissy here in the states.  Not that it's better, but we are just more
prissy about things like that.  I remember someone once making a comment
about how we Americans take showers or baths *every day*, and my mental
responses were (a) "Damn straight, if I don't wash myself every day I feel
disgusting" and (b) "Eeeeyuuuu...you mean you go around sweatty and
disgusting for days at a time?  Bleah!"

So maybe it *is* a hygienic thing...about something the Europeans figure is
too small a risk to worry about and that the Americans figure is a large
enough risk that circumcision is worth it.  And when you get right down to
it, it's not a whole lot different from a lot of other ways in which
parenting styles differ...the parent who won't let the 15 year old staying
at home alone during the day even open the door to get the mail vs the one
who figures that the 14 year old is responsible enough to be able come and
go as they please, providing they call and check in with them at work...the
parent who worries about their 12 year old riding her bike more than eight
blocks away from the house vs the parent who figures "stuff" happens, and an
asteroid could come down and wipe us out anyway, and you can't protect your
kids from *every* contingiency.  It all comes down to making choices in good
faith for your kids.

And as I've said before...I'm glad my parents had me done when I was too
young to remember and young enough for it to just take a couple of days to
heal instead of letting me wait until I might *have to* have it done at an
older age when the recovery period was a lot longer and uncomfortable, and
when I would've definitely had bad memories of it.

And come to think of it...about the arguments on how much the kid screams
when you do it.  I remember having to get stitches in my eyebrow as a kid
from falling face first into a bookcase.  I remember being held down on that
table and screaming bloody murder as the doctors worked on me.  But as I
think back to what I can remember, I surely wasn't screaming from the pain,
because I remember the doctors giving me a needle in the area first...very
likely a local anesthetic.  I was kicking and screaming because I didn't
want to be held down and because I was afraid of what it was going to feel
like.  I probably never even felt the stitches...and perhaps this is true of
circs too...especially those where they use a topical anesthetic.

Oh well, enough for now.


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* Keith E Gatling                                  kgatling@mailbox.syr.edu *
*          Opinions?  I've got plenty of them.  Just ask my wife!           *
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Newsgroups: misc.kids