I couldn't think of an original subject line that wouldn't be inflammatory in one way or another...

This question has several faces. I agree with you on one hand, and SDF on the other.

SDF, apart from his foaming at the mouth whenever anyone talks about religion as a positive influence for anything, appears to advocate restriction of elective surgeries to adults who can choose rationally, though they don't always. He has a point. He might be chagrinned to learn the extent to which doctors would agree with him. For instance, I doubt anyone could find a doctor in the United States who would perform a preventive appendectomy on a toddler at a parent's request. Well, maybe one could find a few, but it's not considered responsible medical practice.

However, as a parent of four, I know that some preventive medicine is wise. No child wants to be stuck by a needle. All of my babies suffered mild fevers and muscle aches as a result of vaccination. Yet, as their mother, I believe I did the right thing in making sure they were immunized against measles, polio, tetanus and diphtheria, which are all potentially lethal, and against mumps and rubella, which can cause serious medical problems if contracted as adults. My children were young when the controversy over the whooping cough vaccine first came up, and I researched. I also asked our doctors about it. My reading and interviews led me to conclude that the pertussis vaccine, while carrying undoubted risks, was still statistically less dangerous than the lung damage and secondary infections that a child who caught the highly infectious pertussis bug could get. So they were all immunized against that too. When they were older, I took them for the hepatitis B series as well, even though they were old enough to object, and did. Being a parent means that you have an obligation to make what you consider to be the best decision possible for your minor children, even if the decision results in some temporary pain.

Innoculation as preventive medicine, like circumcision, has its merits and its risks. I decided to risk my children getting convulsions from pertussis vaccine, and it caused me no little anxiety in the days after each booster. Had any of them suffered damage as a result of my decision, I would have felt awful, and the care they would have required as a result would be all my responsibility. But they didn't. Recently, whooping cough swept through our high school; my youngest daughter didn't have to worry about it.

People who decide to have their sons circumcised based on health considerations have the same anxiety. They still believe they have made the correct decision for their son early in his life, so he doesn't have to deal with any medical complications, however rare they might be, later in life. People who decide against it have to teach hygiene, which places a burden on the boy to learn good habits and practice them throughout life, but given that, his unaltered person may give him no problems and may be equally beneficial in other ways.

People who seek the practice based on religious belief are obliged, in my opinion, to seek out a doctor and a sterile environment to do the actual procedure, and to take the boy for follow-up inspection within eight days, or less if anything appears to be healing abnormally. The clergy presence should be limited to religious ritual, not medical practice.

I have a son. I am not going to discuss the decision his father and I made re: circumcision on a public internet forum out of respect for his privacy. Suffice to say, I can see both sides of the issue, and our decision was not driven by religious belief, since neither his father nor I have any religious beliefs to speak of.

I agree with you, Bowser, that preventive medicine has benefits that we shouldn't discount for our children or ourselves simply because they are uncomfortable and carry some danger with them. Though doctors' opinions should not be taken as infallible, there's information out there which anyone with an IQ over room temperature can find and interpret to assist them in their decisions. It's risk management, pure and simple. Everyone can weigh their own risks for themselves, and decide which risks are more bearable for them. Parents are obliged to make those decisions for their children, and to do so wisely.