Dear Sir/Ms.:
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
In telling parents to “flip a coin” on circumcision, he ignores both the fact that circumcision is intensely painful and the position of the American Academy of Pediatrics, which says circumcision is not essential. As for the much discussed risk of urinary tract infections (UTIs), few male babies, circumcised or not, get UTIs, and these normally respond well to antibiotics. His statistics alleging low risks from circumcision reflect studies that examined records only until babies were discharged from the hospital. Studies that followed babies for months after birth and included actual examinations revealed many times as many side effects.
Adams admits that circumcision can diminish sexual pleasure for a substantial percentage of men but missed the main point: What right have parents to inflict frivolous surgery that may diminish their son’s future sex life? This is clearly a decision for him to make as a man. If he wants circumcision, he can always have it, but he can’t get his foreskin back once it’s gone.
