Podcasts Technology Astral Codex Ten Podcast [ACC Entry] What Are the Benefits, Harms, and Ethics of Infant Circumcision?

[ACC Entry] What Are the Benefits, Harms, and Ethics of Infant Circumcision?

Published: Dec. 11, 2019, 8:53 p.m.

b'

Link: https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/12/10/acc-is-infant-circumcision-ethical/

\\xa0

[This is an entry to the\\xa02019 Adversarial Collaboration Contest\\xa0by Joel P and Missingno]

\\u201cThey practise circumcision for cleanliness\\u2019 sake; for they would rather be clean than more becoming.\\u201d\\xa0\\u2013 Herodotus, The Histories \\u2013 2.37\\xa0

The debate over circumcision in the Western world today is surprisingly similar to the conflict that Greeks and Egyptians faced 2500 years ago.\\xa0 Supporters tend to emphasize its hygiene and health benefits; opponents tend to call it cruel or to emphasize its deviation from the natural human form.\\xa0 In this adversarial collaboration we address medical aspects, sensitivity and pleasure, and ethical aspects of infant circumcision.\\xa0

Effect on penile cancer

Circumcision greatly reduces the relative rate of penile cancer, a relatively uncommon malignancy in developed nations which kills\\xa0a little over 400 American men\\xa0each year. Denmark, while it has one of the lowest rates of penile cancer for a non-circumcising country, nevertheless has 10x the rate of penile cancer as Israel \\u2013 where almost all men are circumcised.\\xa0 Likewise,\\xa0a Kaiser Permanente study\\xa0of patients with penile cancer found that 16% of patients with carcinoma in situ had been circumcised; only 2% of patients with invasive penile cancer had been circumcised.\\xa0 Since the circumcision rate of Kaiser patients of the appropriate age was ~50%, this is in line with the 90% reduction.

'