[ACC Entry] What Are the Benefits, Harms, and Ethics of Infant Circumcision?

Link: https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/12/10/acc-is-infant-circumcision-ethical/

[This is an entry to the 2019 Adversarial Collaboration Contest by Joel P and Missingno]

“They practise circumcision for cleanliness’ sake; for they would rather be clean than more becoming.” – Herodotus, The Histories – 2.37 

The debate over circumcision in the Western world today is surprisingly similar to the conflict that Greeks and Egyptians faced 2500 years ago.  Supporters tend to emphasize its hygiene and health benefits; opponents tend to call it cruel or to emphasize its deviation from the natural human form.  In this adversarial collaboration we address medical aspects, sensitivity and pleasure, and ethical aspects of infant circumcision. 

Effect on penile cancer

Circumcision greatly reduces the relative rate of penile cancer, a relatively uncommon malignancy in developed nations which kills a little over 400 American men each year. Denmark, while it has one of the lowest rates of penile cancer for a non-circumcising country, nevertheless has 10x the rate of penile cancer as Israel – where almost all men are circumcised.  Likewise, a Kaiser Permanente study of patients with penile cancer found that 16% of patients with carcinoma in situ had been circumcised; only 2% of patients with invasive penile cancer had been circumcised.  Since the circumcision rate of Kaiser patients of the appropriate age was ~50%, this is in line with the 90% reduction.