To the Fore Once More!

Here it is surfacing again, another debate on the pros and cons of circumcision. From a situation where health professionals were once in general agreement that male circumcision was a health and personal hygiene practicality, and most baby boys underwent the procedure shortly after birth as an accepted practise, we turned full circle where the general population began to denounce the practise as unnecessary and even a brutal imposition on helpless babes.

So fewer and fewer baby boys underwent circumcision as their parents for one reason or another accepted the idea of circumcision was no longer a necessity to future good health and hygiene ease. In fact there was a restive and most definite backlash, with public opinion weighing in on both sides, along with health professionals siding with one opinion or the other. The prevailing opinion, however, was that the procedure was unnecessary. Along with a condemnation of its past popularity.

Cosmetic surgeons began doing a booming business in foreskin restoration, as men swallowed the idea that they had been somehow made lesser by the removal of their foreskins, had suffered a cruel punishment for having been born male. People can be so very silly. The fact was that intact foreskins were always acknowledged to be a safe and moist harbour for all manner of bacterial infections.

Men with foreskins intact had a far higher incidence of penile cancer. The transmission of disease from partner to partner is facilitated handily by an intact foreskin. Now another dimension has been added to the debate with the World Health Organization weighing in by recommending that countries promote male circumcision as an effective preventive measure against HIV/AIDS. Yes indeed; why would that be surprising, after all?

"Absolutely, parents should consider it," advised Dr. Kevin De Cock (oh, isn't that too utterly serendipitous?!) WHO's HIV/AIDS department director. "Male circumcision should now be recognized as an efficacious intervention for HIV prevention" concludes the trials review to which Canada provided some funding, along with the U.S. and France. The conclusion is that a causal association exists between HIV/AIDS infection and intact foreskins.

The foreskin is susceptible to tearing, and also contains certain cells considered to act as a "doorway" to infection. "Scaling up male circumcision will result in immediate benefit to individuals." It is estimated that 30% of men worldwide are circumcised. In Canada the percentage of infant circumcisions fell by 36% over 30 years to 14% in 2003. Recent Statistics Canada data suggest the downward trend continues, but the WHO declaration could turn the trend around.

In any even, case closed.