One of the first decisions facing parents who have just given birth to a boy is "Do we circumcise him or not?" This is a complex issue that most of us haven't studied too deeply before being faced with it, up close and central. Once your baby has arrived you will not have time to study it in depth. If you are interested in obtaining more objectivity to inform your decision in this regard, you may want to download the abridged 12-page e-Book giving you the key issues (a free PDF download).
It is important to make a decision as soon as possible after you know your baby is a boy, because vitamin K levels reach a high point on his eighth day (the ideal day to do a circumcision, for health reasons) and it may take you some time to make a plan for obtaining the result that you decide is best. Medical practices tend to circumcise too soon, only a day or so after birth, when vitamin K levels are inadequate for the natural blood-clotting that promotes rapid healing of the wound. Wise parents who want it done will insist on delaying it until the eighth day.
Whatever you decide, time is of essence, and to not decide, means you have decided. Deciding that the person himself should make that decision about his own body when he is of age to make that choice, means you have decided that it probably won’t happen—because circumcision at a later age is a much more challenging proposition.
Here are the issues. Historically, circumcision has been done for both religious and health reasons. The burden of our guide on this subject is that whatever your reason for doing it, if you choose to have your son circumcised it is important for you to know that what is currently being done in the name of circumcision is far more radical than what was originally done originally, when just the tip (the small portion of the foreskin that is “fore”) was nipped.
The bottom line is that modern-day circumcisers are cutting away far too much—a huge amount more than what is necessary to meet both spiritual and physical objectives of circumcision. There are about a dozen physical benefits of a male retaining the portion of his foreskin that is not extending beyond the tip. if you conclude that this lesser procedure will meet the need just as well as the radical procedure, It is important to apprise your doctor that you would prefer the less invasive route, you will need some information to help form conviction about the issue.
For a full-blown discussion about this little-known and even littler-discussed matter, order a copy of our 117-page paperback book or the downloadable URL-searchable 76-page letter-size e-Book or the Kindle version, or listen to the 3-hour audiobook with the same content. Your son may thank you some day.
