Why is the USA the only advanced nation in the world that routinely circumcises their boys?

Answer 1

It is most certainly the onlyadvanced nation in the Western world that routinely circumcises its boys for purely secular reasons. Yet the same barbaric custom is not only carried out in primitive and poorly educated countries but also in a very few developed nations. The most significant of these is South Korea following the Korean War; though the practice is only performed on post-puberty males. It's worth noting that circumcision was almost unknown in South Korea before the US trusteeship; and now the number of circumcised men is close to topping the current birthrate - while in America, infant circumcision has dropped from a high of over 90% in the early 1970s to a present figure of just over 50%.

Female circumcision is condemned by the World Health Organisation and most civilised nations have banned the practice.

The reason some educated parents who don't have religious reasons for circumcision have it done is because they are embarrassed by the thought of having to actively teach their male children the basics of penis hygiene. But even this is a nonsense. If they teach their sons to clean their teeth and bathe or shower regularly - washing behind ears, between toes, under arms and genitals, these are the basics of personal hygiene. Do they do the same for their daughters, whose genitals are far more prone to problems than any boy? Of course they do!

So we are still left wondering why the USA, a rich, educated and supposedly civilised nation, is alone among similarly advanced countries across the world.

Secular circumcision was introduced into the United States and other English speaking countrys as a result of observations made by the British medical fraternity in the Victorian era. It was decided at the time that masturbation was responsible for many diseases ranging from syphilis to insanity and that by circumcising boys they would be discouraged from masturbating. It caught on big time in the US and other countries influenced by the English and for about 50 years reigned supreme. Needless to say people started to wake up to the folly of such reasoning. and the practice started to wane. However around the time of WW1 medics convinced the US Army that they should circumcise conscripts for reasons of health. The whole thing was reinforced again. Similar interventions happened several times as the century progressed in the US as there were strong interests that wanted the practice to continue as there was much money involved. Today the main medical bodies in the US, while stating that there is no therapeutic reasoning behind routine circumcision, still speak in a way that leaves this form of abuse open for their members to engage in as reasonable.