Originally from the United Kingdom where circumcision is uncommon, Taylor and his wife Margaret were initially appalled and later horrified by the procedure. Taylor's grandson, and three others born since, were left intact to grow up as natural men. Both are comparable to the sensitive tissue of eyelids, inner lining of the lips and palms of the hands. The ridged lining of the foreskin develops its specialized nerve endings after puberty. Generally the foreskin itself is attached by a membrane to the penile shaft until about age three.
Doctors now advise parents against retracting the foreskin to clean the penis.
The procedure is done without anesthetic deliberately. Circumcised men must use longer strokes than uncircumcised men because of the loss of sensation related to the absence of a foreskin. Some anti-circumcision activists wonder if circumcision is related to impotence problems later in life. Doctors now say that during intercourse, a foreskin increases pleasure to the male and decreases abrasion and loss of fluid to the female. A recent University of Washington study found that 47 out of 114 men with penile cancer were circumcised.