Parents face so many difficult decisions when it comes to having a child: decisions about nursing, sleep patterns, discipline, teaching methods and, in the case of boys, whether or not to circumcise. In addition to being the most common surgery for males in the U.S., circumcision has been practiced in various cultures for centuries. Yet when it comes to the health and best interest of your newborn, is circumcision the way to go?
Clinical Professor of Pediatrics
The foreskin does have an important function, but this occurs in the fetus during the first 3 months of gestation. The foreskin is important embryologically in the formation of the end of the penis and the urethra. If there is no foreskin the urethral opening is not at the end of the penis where it should be, but somewhere on the underside of the penis (hypospadius). By the second half of pregnancy there is no further need for the foreskin, and indeed from then on, from infancy through old age, it is a detriment. The claim is made that the foreskin is “healthy tissue” and why should one remove healthy tissue? Well the foreskin is healthy tissue, just as the appendix and wisdom teeth are healthy tissues with nerves, arteries, veins and different types of living cells. But just as with the appendix and the wisdom teeth, the foreskin happens to be healthy tissue that is bad for your health.
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