PieFedCircumcision classed as possible child abuse in draft CPS document
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www.theguardian.com/society/2026/jan/10/circumc…
Well, yeah. I mean, take a step back and forget about religious justifications and appeals to some nebulous ‘tradition’ for a moment. If I ran around and took a scalpel to the genitals of baby boys without a valid medical reason, I’d hopefully swiftly find myself locked up for a long, long time.
It’s genital mutilation. It’s been done for religious reasons, cultural reasons, social reasons, for slavery reasons, and more.
But cutting up babies’ genitals for any reason except medical intervention for relevant pathologies is genital mutilation.
I’ve had it done to me. It’s only helped me.
Having not experienced otherwise, how would you know?
How could you know either way?
I don’t know how it feels to never have my hair cut. It’s only cultural to get one’s hair cut regularly; but most people do as they feel it helps them look and feel better.
Sounds like it was medically necessary then which they’re saying is ok.
And thus you have a deep psychological need to defend the barbaric practice.
Well, of course, that’s crazy behaviour.
But if you did it in a religious ritualistic ceremony and sucked the blood off the tip of the babies dicks afterwards, well that wouldn’t be weird now, would it.
You could even call it “Metzitzah B’peh” and it would happen so regularly and kids would get herpetic infections from the mohel’s so often (and sometimes even dying) that the New York Health department would have to issue warnings about it, and it would still not be weird, even when the families of the babies affected would refuse to name the mohel’s to allow the health dept to investigate and have them banned from performing the practice on future babies.
But there is a medical reason! It’s to make masturbation bothersome. It would really upset the humors you know.
Didn’t work on me.
Have you had your humors tested by your barber?
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This is like telling people who get wisdom teeth extractions have been mutilated.
Naw. We’re okay.
I don’t think that’s a valid comparison. For people who need wisdom teeth extractions, leaving them in can end up painful and for some even leave them with unable to fully close their mouths to chew.
Nothing bad is going to happen if you leave a babies penis alone.
If you want to go the teeth route, removing the molars or canines is a better comparison. There are medical reasons why this might be necessary, but to rip out a baby’s teeth that have yet to grow in with a pair of pliers for ritualistic reasons is not the same thing at all.
Circumcision destroys nerve endings and can cause permanent scarring, potentially dramatically reducing the ability to feel sensations. The head of the penis is also a mucus membrane and the foreskin is meant to both keep it moist and protect it from damage. Have you ever had dry eyes or the inside of your nose dry out? Imagine cutting off the outside of your nostrils or part of your eyelids so that it was like that all the time.
If somebody wants to have it done, that’s fine. That’s their choice to make, just like getting a tattoo or piercings is. But forcing it on somebody without it being strictly necessary for medical reasons is cruel. It can be very traumatic. If it wasn’t, “foreskin restoration” - the act of using clamps, pulleys, and rubber bands to stretch the skin of the penis out into a fake foreskin - wouldn’t be a thing.
I still have an impacted wisdom tooth, and it’s okay. Everybody should keep theirs.
I highly doubt this will happen, unfortunately.
All it takes is certain lobbyists and press saying it’s anti-Semitic and/or islamophobic and it’ll be dropped in a heartbeat.
Religious extremists need to join the 21st century. It angers me that we did such a great job of shifting away from the church having a stranglehold on our lives and laws, only to then accept shit like this. Freedom of religion should be about believing what you want, not doing what you want.
Fingers crossed, though.
We should make gelding legal, for people who think circumcision should be legal.
‘possible’
Cutting a bit from an unconsenting baby’s body. It’s insane.
Shouldn’t cut the umbilical cord either without consent from the baby.
The umbilical cord falls off on its own after some days. It’s different.
Good. Stop mutilating babies.
This needs to go the way of foot binding. It’s such an evil practice.
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gwl@lemmy.blahaj.zone
The procedure literally deletes the most sensitive nerve endings in the penis. Best case scenario is that the boy is left with the sensitivity of an intact penis with the foreskin pulled back and 2 condoms put on, permanently. Many many guys end up with less sensitivity than that if their frenulum is removed (the banjo string; the most sensitive area).
I’m pissed off someone did this to me without my consent as a baby.
That’s such an understatement but we’re taught it’s normal
How has it harmed you? I’m also circumcised, and it’s only helped me.
You have fewer nerve endings in your penis. I’m curious how it’s helped you.
Well, if you consider his overall physical form, from a purely mathematical/ratio point of view. He is now less of a dick.
Not sure if this is Penis related, but I get the feeling he is more of a cunt.
I was going to say pussy for compirulating to some bullshit we don’t need like he is some kind of republican
There are not many positive words for female genitalia but pussy usually is (excluding the link to cowardice).
I wanted no confusion that I was being insulting.
I prefer to cut the pinky finger off of infants instead. It hasn’t hurt them at all not having a pinky finger, it’s not the whole hand just the tip. And it’s not just cosmetic because I dislike pinky fingers aesthetically, it’s healthier too, do you know how many people get pinky finger infections every year?
That makes sense, but are you also taking the girls, slicing the webbing between the fingers, and sewing their fingers together, so they don’t hold hands before marriage?
Fucking finally!
YES PLEASE!
It should be illegal, thank goodness it’s finally being considered
I don’t see how this will see the light of day given sensitivity towards Judaism at the moment. Unfortunately a lot of people think that anything which conflicts a religion has a different standard and that a little bit of abuse is then ok.
Judaism and (some of?) its daughter religions - Islam also carries out this practice, and if anything Islam is even more protected by the state.
As many know, Islam also carries out FGM, which is indisputably worse for the victim than male circumcision. Now, there is already a specific criminal offence for FGM, strengthened by the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003. This makes it illegal to perform FGM in the UK or to take a UK national or permanent resident abroad for FGM.
In over 20 years, only a handful of cases have been brought to trial. The first successful conviction for FGM in the UK did not happen until 2019, and even now there are typically less than 10 prosecutions per year. There are thousands of cases identified every year, (but it’s not often clear how many of those are recent).
My point is that while this suggested new law is welcome, it is unlikely to result in any significant reduction in religious child mutilation.
Wait wait wait… Islam is more protected by the state? Can you go into detail a bit there please?
FGM is a relatively rare practice (it’s not mainstream in Islam as a whole) and so outlawing it doesn’t a bunch of mainstream doctors and religious leaders to go “you know what, it’s not worth going to jail” whereas a circumcision ban very well could
But my point was that currently the government is very sensitive about antisemitism and less sensitive about islamophobia. Maybe this was always the case, but it certainly is right now, so for that reason a change like this isn’t going to happen at the moment
I remember seeing a TED talk about this which very much pointed to FGM being a central african problem, yes the majority of people doing it Muslim nations, but there are christian nations doing it too like Etheopia and in places like nigeria that have diverse religious backgrounds, christians practice it too. for example, google tells me 25% of nigerian catholic women have been circumcised.
When you go outside africa, yuou find the majority of cases are eithert from a country right next door in the middle east. or from somewhere further away, but by people who have emigrated from said central african or middle eastern country.
There is Indonesia, with its high fgm rates exclusively among muslims there, efforts have been made to regulate/ban/mitigate (making the act symbolic, rather than actually physical) over there and some other nations would do well to nose over their efforts.
Thing is, fgm predates both islam and christianity. And its a mistake for anyone to attatch a specific culture to a specific religion. Thats as accurate as attaching a specific proffession to a religion. Oh my car mechanic is Jewish, therefore all Jews are car mechanics, crikey, Israeli cars must run forever. No it means the manufactures get lazy because they assume everyone can fix even complex faults, ah but they won’t be able to get away with that, they are all trained mechanics so they could spot lazy design a mile off and vote with their wallet.
What a ridiculous discussion eh? well its no less ridiculous than when somebody invokes ‘muslim culture’ as a thing in their argument. Anyway, FGM is a cultural thing, not a religious thing.
Your “point” makes no sense given that Islam also carries out male circumcision. In fact, the vast majority of non-medical male circumcisions in the UK are carried out by Muslim parents.
Does this change your view? Now you know this, do you now think that the government will actually implement a male circumcision ban after all?
No? It only takes one religion that the government is sensitive to avoid pissing off for them to not do something.
How can they defend Metzitzah B’Peh though?
Just say arabs do it. /s
The UK possibly doing something good? What timeline is this.
Broken clock yadda yadda.
The UK has been doing plenty of good, just look at the workers rights bill, renter’s rights bill, expansion of free school meals, expansion of breakfast clubs, massive increase in infrastructure investment, banning single use vapes, massive increase in tree plantations, massive increase in green energy/nuclear projects, big increase in pothole-filling, nationalisation of rail, quasi-nationalisation of steel production, large increases in the minimum wage, restarting SureStart, ending the two child benefit cap, getting closer to Europe again, extensive Ukraine support, etc.
It’s just that there’s also been a handful of bad things (e.g. OSA and other bits). And we all know what the billionaire-owned press and social media who are desperate to get the Tories/Reform in will focus on.
E: apparently some people hate those things. But I think they’re pretty good.
Don’t worry, our government will somehow manage to make everyone hate the idea then U turn on it in 6 months.
I’m curious, how do Jews and Muslims feel about these laws?
I can only imagine. It’s my religious belief to kick the baby in the face.
I’ve said this to my Jewish family countless of times how unethical the practice is. After all, there was a statistic which said 30000 (or close to that number) Jewish babies die each year from urinary tract infection because of this ritualistic performance.
To me, for someone who stopped believing 3 years ago, I’ve waited for this ban to happen.
Fuck them. Christans do it too.
I wonder if there’s a way to figure that out… Maybe try reading the article?
-you, right now
I do worry this will turn out yet another case of “Right Thing, Wrong Reason” like the gov keep fucking doing, again and again
Red Tories appealing to bigotry rather than cause unnecessary mutilation is a bad thing
Sadly just anti Muslim hate more than anything else
I was unaware muslims do circumcision.
Interesting self own but ok
So where do we draw the line? Does it still make sense then to force children/infants w/ ear piercings without their consent?
We draw the line before both. Easy as.
No piercings before the child can understand the concept of piercings and agree to it.
…that’s legal? and businesses will actually do it?
Yes, I was there when mom did it for sister Before she could walk. Mom was peer pressured into doing it by her family. Best part is 2 decades sister doesn’t wear jewelry. Total waste of time just like I told mom.
ear piercings, so I’m pretty sure they are talking about earrings.
An ear piercing is fully reversible, though. Still shouldn’t be done to an infant, but it’s very much not two equivalent actions.
It’s not fully reversible. I had it done with the “gun” method as a young child, and I spent years without using earrings and the hole never completely closed.
Reversible by the parent, I admit that was pretty unclear. Cartlidge damage like that will eventually close in many cases, but it can take years if it’s been left long enough. However the good news is that the surgery to correct it is incredibly minimal, so if you’re ever looking for that…!
Thanks, in the end I returned to occasionally wearing earrings, so I’m fine with having the holes, but good to know :)
Your earlobes are still there, though.
My atheist parents had me circumcised because at the time it was recommended for “health reasons”, and was common to do so at the time.
I suppose this means I was a victim of child abuse?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not defending circumcision, and my son isn’t for what that’s worth. But, They need to be careful how they word this law.
You were but it’s not your parents’ fault
If your parents had instead started a dramatic stretched piercing, would you see it differently? What if they made a pretty scarification pattern on your back?
It is abuse, because it’s a permanent body modification with no medical purpose for which the child has not given consent. I think that for cultural reasons there does need to be protection so that estranged children who were snipped “for medical reasons” back in the day can’t go back and sue their parents, but the word “abuse” is accurate.
Religious or not.
I’m in a similar boat (circumcised, kiddos aren’t).
I do wish I wasn’t from a.. sensitivity perspective? But I can’t argue about the ease of keeping it clean, and how pretty it looks all the time!
Gonna let you in on a secret, but uncut dicks aren’t hard to clean, like at all.
And as for aesthetics, I much prefer them but that’s purely subjective. Some people like prince alberts, so I’m not gonna judge.
How many cocks are you washing for comparison?
Ease of keeping it clean? So you wash your dick? Because that doesnt change wether your are circumcised or not…
No, people who are circumcised don’t really need to wash their dick.
I’m not kidding man. Just soap the body, and you’re good.
If i soap my body i also soap my dick and balls, that’s the whole concept of washing.
Yeah, Same boat.
Let’s talk about how woman literally prefer it. No, really. Let’s talk about this.
Lemmy and Reddit are full of white knights trying to fight for people who have no qualms with this.
We should not be altering the genitals of children because we think it looks better… how the fuck are you making that a controversial take.
Women preferring it is a cultural thing, if all the dicks you know are circumcised uncircumcised will look strange and vice versa.
Some women visually prefer it for cultural reasons. This mostly goes for the US, in Europe it’s different. But most threads I can find state women prefer uncut penises because they feel nicer and self-lubricate better.
Okay, but let’s then also talk seriously about routine infant labiaplasty. A lot of women prefer the look, and it’s a common cosmetic surgical procedure that many of them get later in life. If it were done at birth by a qualified medical practitioner, it wouldn’t harm the clitoris, but have the advantage of cleanliness and, while it hasn’t been studied extensively, preliminary results show some benefit in preventing disease. Seems like a great idea. Why don’t we do it?
They can choose to do it once they’re over 18.