A family says their newborn son nearly bled to death and is fighting for his life after he was circumcised at a New York City hospital.

Tim and Gabrielle Groth said their son, Cole, underwent the circumcision at NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital in Manhattan, where he was born on March 31.

175 points
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Stop molesting mutilating children would be my advice.

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25 points

*mutilating

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13 points
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Yes of course, edited.
Thanks.

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26 points
Removed by mod
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134 points

Genital mutilation should be 100% illegal instead of only applying to girls.

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16 points

I agree with you fully but there’s a discrepancy that needs to addressed. Now, before you get the wrong idea, I’m NOT defending or excusing anybody here. The medical staff and the parents should be held responsible for nearly killing this newborn. Child genital mutilation of any kind should be banned.

Now, with that out the way, Male circumcision and female genital mutilation (or FGM, which is what I believe you’re referring to when you say ‘only applying to girls’) are not directly comparable. Male circumcision typically only removes the foreskin of the penis whereas FGM removes the both the clitoris and labia (I shudder while typing this out). It would be like castrating the entire penis and testicles.

Again, this sort of thing should be banned and no child should suffer from the decisions they had no say in.

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26 points

It would be like castrating the entire penis and testicles.

More like removing the glans and foreskin, but that doesn’t make it much better. There are definitely varying degrees of awfulness, but it’s all bad.

While there are some truly evil and horrific practices like removing the clitoris or sewing the vulva shut, some female genital mutation is “just” removing the clitoral hood, which is directly analagous to the foreskin.

Most people can agree that this practice is deeply wrong, and that it is still genital mutilation. And so I think categorizing male genital mutilation separately as “circumcision” is downplaying it.

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15 points
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I’ll just say it’s very clear you’ve never seen what a botched circumcision does to a penis. You also don’t seem to know the biology of the male genitals very well either if you think it’s “just skin”.

Why don’t we instead focus on “bodily autonomy”? No one should have unnecessary medical procedures done against their will and without their consent. It’s a pretty simple rule that applies to everyone and covers most of these issues simply.

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14 points

It would be like castrating the entire penis and testicles.

That is very much not accurate. Genital mutilation (of both genders) generally focuses on removing the ability to obtain pleasure from sex while maintaining reproductive capability.

Circumcision is roughly analogous to clitoral hood amputation (one type of FGM). The foreskin also contains a substantial number of sensory nerves (Meissnar’s corpuscles, and ~10k-20k nerve endings specialized for pleasure). Additionally, the glans (head) is subjected to the external environment in a manner which it was not adapted for, resulting in formation of thickened, layer of skin to protect it. These two things, taken together, result in greatly reduced sensory and pleasure capabilities in the penis. The reason for its commonality in the US is the historical puritanical belief that sexuality is wrong and desire to repress sexuality in little boys.

FGM is wrong. So is male genital mutilation. Inflicting either on those who can not consent is a crime against humanity that should not be accepted as commonplace.

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3 points

I agree it should not be performed on a non-consenting individual, ESPECIALLY KIDS, but please do not claim the result is guaranteed to reduce sensitivity, as it is simply not true. Source: I am living proof the opposite can actually happen!

I had phimosis and experienced paraphimosis which can result in losing the whole thing. A circumcision was one of the best decisions of my adult life. It is NOT a sexual death sentence or designed to be only that. It can in fact be a saviour.

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10 points

I’m fine with adults mutilating their foreskin, but I want the decision left up to the individual. Having the parents do it when they are a baby leaves the individual with no choice

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6 points

I’m curious: the person you replied to didn’t say they were comparable, so why did you feel the need bring it up?

In my experience, people who point that out when no one has made the comparison are usually insecure about an issue that affects men getting attention and potentially eclipsing the issue affecting women. Like people who point out that female victims of domestic violence die more often from their assaults during discussions about male victims of domestic violence.

You sure you wanna be that person? Try harder not to be, please.

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5 points

FGM removes the both the clitoris and labia

There is an entire horrifying spectrum of FGM, not just what you posted.

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1 point

While you are correct, the traditional FGM as proposed by Kellogg (the guy who made non-religious circumcision popular in the US to prevent masturbation) was burning off the clitoris using an acid.

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88 points

Stop mutilating your children.

Stupid fucking parents.

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86 points

Why do they still perform such barbaric rites in the 21st century in the first place?

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32 points

I mean look who’s sitting in the oval office. Science has progressed but most humans have not.

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6 points

Kellogg

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-17 points

As sick as it is, personal preference

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25 points

Not for the newborn it isn’t. Something as personal as your own genetals should be your own personal choice, but in this instance the owner of the penis gave no consent.

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12 points

Yeah—personal preference. As in, not the preference of the fucking parents.

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11 points

It is usually not the personal preference of the person operated on.

There are a lot of medical decisions that simply should not be left in the hands of parents, and this is one of them, if not the score leader.

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8 points

It’s not a medical decision. The procedure is completely unnecessary and unwarranted without a diagnosis.

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78 points
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Stop circumcising children. Let men decide if they want to be circumcised when they reach the age of consent at the age of 18. I guarantee circumcision will drop by 95% or more.

And if that’s the case, that circumcision only exists if you don’t give the boy the choice, then don’t fucking force this on an infant!

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7 points

Let’s replace “curcumsising” with “imposing religion” to get the same result

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3 points

Yes and no. That’s a much harder thing to argue in reality. I’m an atheist so I’m pretty anti-religion, but the reality is that all parents want to teach their child at least some of their worldview. If that worldview includes religion, who are we to say “no, you can’t teach that”? The child can always change their mind when they’re older and in theory there’s no harm. But a child can’t decide to get their foreskin back. (I know there is a surgery to try to add some back, but it’s just aesthetic, the nerves will never be recovered.)

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