Fashions do change with the times

Press, 11 September 1986, Page 16

Fashions do change with the times

Circumcision is possibly the world’s oldest operation. It was performed thousands of years ago by the Egyptians, and has been part of the puberty rites for boys and sometimes girls, of many cultures. It is still part of the Jewish and Muslim rituals, in both cases according to a convenant made between Abraham and God. Even where, there are no religious reasons, circumcision has become very common in Western societies in the twentieth century. According to Dr Barry at least four out of five American boys are circumcised, as are one out of two boys in Europe. In New Zealand the figure is at present about one in four. It has been higher. Old childcare manuals used to recommend circumcision on the grounds of cleanliness, and to prevent masturbation. It was even claimed it could cure or prevent epilepsy. Marks were taken off candidates in the Contests for”’ 1 Better Babies who were not circumcised. Research in the 1940 s suggested that the rate of

cervical cancer was lower in the wives of circumcised men, but it is now thought the findings revealed more about social mores than medicine. As even the influential Dr Benjamin Spock admits, fashions change, and so does medical opinion. In the fortieth anniversary edition of "Baby and Child Care” he writes. “I used to lean towards routine circumcision at birth to avoid the possibility of circumcision at two, three, four, five years of age. "Circumcision in young childhood is disturbing emotionally because it fits in with the childhood notion that the penis may be cut off as a punishment for masturbation. “Now that circumcision is not recommended to stop masturbation and now that the theory about cervical cancer has been disproved, there is no excuse for the operation — except as a religious rite. And retraction is painful and unnecessary. So I strongly recommend leaving .. the foreskin alone.”