If you take a look at the latest pro-circumcision propaganda spin, the two main themes are around "Parents make the best decisions for their children", and "Circumcision has proven health benefits". It appears they either have employed a clever PR consultant or are just clever at applying political spin to the subject of circumcision.
Firstly with the "Motherhood" statement that "parents always know whats best for their children", I mean superficially who the hell would ever want to disagree with that? Only deviants? Its Great PR spin!!! But, it doesnt take much closer examination, and a look at some basic facts to see that this statement is not all what it seeems to be. Take the area of child protection as one example, The main offenders of child abuse, including, neglect, emotional abuse, physical abuse, and sexual abuse are the Parents of the children. So here is some factual evidence that demonstrates parents dont always know or do whats best for their children. Another point to make is you can only know whats best when you know all the facts. If Most American parents are told and believe that the foreskin is a useless piece of skin, instead of the truth that it is a functional sex organ in its own right, then the circumcision decision is made by uninformed parents. If parents knew the truth would they make the same decision for their children. American parents are also told that circumcision is painless & risk free. Would these parents make the same decision if they knew how much pain their baby would endure, and the risks of complications? So how can parents make the best decision when they dont know all the facts??
The "Proven health benefits claim" comes from a selection of research which is usually poorly designed, with methodological flaws and is never contrasted to the research that has opposite or different findings. The most important data in health/medicine is usually epidemiological data, which is actual population data of health outcomes i real life. Not data from poorly designed and methodolically flawed studies. Its what actually occurs in the real world. Epidemiology finds = The healthiest longest lived people with the lowest STI's/HIV, with lowest infant mortality are from non-circumcision cultures of EU & Japan. This epidemiological evidence actually finds that intact people are the healthiest in the world. Of course American Parents are never told this.
Although procirc spin is very very clever it just doesnt stand up to closer scrutiny.
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