The Des Moines Register
Tuesday, September 1, 1998, Page 10A
letters@news.dmreg.com

Circumcision: Child abuse

        Regarding Steven Johns' Aug. 13 letter, "Ignore circumcision scare": Johns claims that he was not traumatized by his own circumcision.  I think Johns is simply trying to rationalize what he doesn't understand.
        I don't remember my own circumcision, either.   I was circumcised at an early age.  How easy it would be for me to agree with Johns that I was not traumatized by the event.
        My mother dropped me down a flight of stairs when I was less than a year old and broke three of my ribs.  I have no memory of that event, either.
        Would Johns say that dropping a baby down a flight of stairs and breaking a few bones has no traumatizing effect on the child and should therefore be inflicted on everyone at birth?
        Circumcision is child abuse, plain and simple.

-- Carl E. Olsen
1116 E. Seneca Ave., Des Moines.