The Des Moines Register
Thursday, August 13, 1998, Page 12A
letters@news.dmreg.com

Ignore circumcision scare

        In regard to Carolyn Reinhold's July 30 letter ("All Circumcisions 'Botched"'):  While I feel for the two little boys whose penises were ablated during circumcision, I found her statements otherwise to be insulting drivel.
        She slides from two circumcisions gone terribly wrong to all circumcisions being evil in the space of two paragraphs.  She quotes some nonprofit organization none of us has ever heard of as saying: "We have come to the conclusion that every routine circumcision is a 'botch' job, since it is a brutal assault on a child's sexuality and a violation of a child's right to a whole intact body."
        Well!  Apparently Reinhold, et al., equate circumcision with child abuse and amputation.
        One cannot turn around these days without seeing a magazine article about what a cruel and terrible thing circumcision is.   Circumcision seems to have become the latest crying towel of that segment of our society with the perpetually bleeding heart.
        Reinhold further quotes the nonprofit group as saying, "Parents are ... poorly informed about the sexual and psychological damage caused by circumcision."  Funny, I don't remember being traumatized by my circumcision.
        When my son was born, I must have agonized over the decision of whether or not to have him circumcised for, oh, seconds.  The Carolyn Reinholds of the world can wring their hands, practice their scare tactics and trumpet the horrors of circumcision all they want.  It will never cause me to second-guess my decision for my son for an instant.

-- Steven Johns,
2408 26th St., Des Moines.