Second part of the 20/20 segment on intersex surgery. (Part 1)
kirstib: circumcision
Female genital mutilation is a completely different matter, and one I won’t talk about because I get too disgusted with the world I live in.
But I guess I don’t really know how I feel about circumcision. Personally, I have never experienced an un-circumcised penis, or even met someone who isn’t…
It seems to me that you have a well-reasoned perspective on the question of circumcision. I also think that if you are curious enough to dig deeper on the topic, you’ll find infant circumcision even more problematic. For instance, watching a video of a live circumcision is something that I don’t think I’ll ever put myself through again.
Your labiaplasty comparison is also meaningful, although as far as I know, the male prepuce is significantly more developed and innervated (here’s a link to a landmark study that found intact penises to be a lot more sensitive to light touch).
With that in mind, I’d like to ask you - if the tables were reversed, and labiaplasty was performed on infants in the same way that circumcision is performed today, would you be in favor of a law that protected female minors from the non-therapeutic surgery? Why, or why not?
