I’ve heard most of the reasons people use to justify circumcision. This one keeps popping up, and it’s used a lot by nurses and friends of nurses.
And every time I hear it, I cringe a little more.
It’s the nursing home argument.
It goes something like this:
“I [or a friend of mine, or a cousin’s roommate’s ex-boyfriend’s mom’s nephew’s neighbor’s dog-walker’s mailman’s sister] am a nurse in a nursing home, and there are SO MANY older men in the facility who aren’t circumcised, and cleaning them is terrible and nasty. So many of them have to get circumcised because they keep getting infections.”
For the nursing home argument to be valid, you must assume many unlikely things about the future.
OK. I get that nurses are trained to do things a certain way here in America, and I’m not doubting that some men, in the past, needed a circumcision while in a nursing home facility. But to suggest that it is an epidemic?
That’s breathtakingly short-sighted.
Here’s why.
Reason #1:
This just isn’t the case in countries other than the US.
In Europe, South America, Asia, and even other countries in North America, there are nursing home facilities. And yet there are no horror stories from them about men needing circumcisions like there are in the US.
Reason #2:
Even if this were the case, this reasoning can only exist for right here and right now. Unless you believe that there is no chance that American nursing homes could possibly improve over time.
Think about it.
Your son isn’t even born yet. Do you really think the world won’t change at all as he grows?
Your son isn’t born yet. It’s 2016 (or whenever you’re reading this).
Currently, according to Linda Breytspraak at the Center on Aging Studies, University of Missouri-Kansas City:
“According to the U.S. Bureau of the Census, slightly over 5 percent of the 65+ population occupy nursing homes, congregate care, assisted living, and board-and-care homes, and about 4.2 percent are in nursing homes at any given time.”
That’s not very many.
If you assume that he will be one of these few that have to enter a nursing facility, and given that the average age of admittance into a nursing care facility is approximately 80 years old, we can assume that this would happen around the year 2096.
That is a long time from now. Think about how different 1916 was from 1996. If you assume your son will ‘need’ a circumcision during his stay in a nursing home, you must assume that there will be no change in the quality of care provided by American nursing homes between today and 80 years from now.
That means you must assume:
- Nurses won’t be taught anything different 80 years from now
- There will be no new technology to cure possible infections more effectively
- We will have gotten nowhere in terms of prolonging the quality or longevity of the human lifespan
- Your son will end up in a nursing home in the first place
You’re saying that your experience in 2016 will still be the status quo almost a century from now.
Even if it were the case that there were scores of “uncircumcised” men in nursing homes that actually needed to be cut every year to provide a basic level of hygiene and care, you must accept all of these suppositions as true if subject your child to circumcision now as an infant and use this line of reasoning.
I, for one, have more hope for the future than that. I believe that:
- There will be advancements in the quality of later-in-life care as the century progresses and more and more technology is invented (by our children, nonetheless).
- There will will be advancements in the understanding of what causes infections and how we can prevent them before they occur.
- The education that nursing students receive regarding geriatric care will be different with each decade that passes.
- America will lose the stigma once and for all that a foreskin is somehow inherently problematic, germ-ridden, and useless, and instead understand it to be an important, functional part of the male reproductive system, like almost all other countries in the world already do.
- In the rare event that 80 years from now, a man might require a circumcision, he can confidently say that he appreciated all the years he was thankful to have had it and understood how beneficial it was for him.
What kind of future are you hoping for for him?
Ultimately, I have hope that we are leaving, and that God is building, a better world for our children than the one we had growing up.
What kind of future do you hope for?
A world of peace, prosperity, and advancement?
Or a world that looks exactly the same as it does now?
Think about it. Before you sign the paper that authorizes someone to cut off your son’s foreskin. Live with the hope that, like the vast majority of the men alive today, your son will have no problems whatsoever with his penis left exactly the way it was designed to work.
Joe
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Hannah Vander Wilt says
Good points. I was wondering too about the assumption that a child will grow up and live in a nursing home. Not everyone lives to age 65, but for those that do I found this statistic:
“Today, a senior citizen (65+) has about a one-in-four chance of spending time in a nursing home (skilled care facility).”
(http://nursinghomediaries.com/howmany/)
Jenifer Gale says
Women have many more folds… Just saying.
Sarah Elishia Robson says
I think it makes more sense to teach nurses and nurse’s aides the simple care of a naturally-occurring body part than to jump to surgery for every boy.
Leora Shalev says
Sounds like the staff in nursing homes are in desperate need of proper training and not the men in need of surgery.
Jerrold Greenberg says
This post reminds me of a much less important, but still interesting, bit of trivia. Having lived through the millennium, it recently occurred to me that many babies and young children alive today will see the beginning of the TWENTY-SECOND century: The year 2100 (in terms of popular culture). The year 2101 (mathematically correct).
Cody Knight says
This reasoning for forcing unnecessary mutilation on my sex organ causing me daily pain from tightness is absolutely disgusting. When I hear people use this one I find it very difficult to keep my composure. It is so offensive and controlling over my body.
notyourstocut.com says
I’m glad you addressed this, but you missed the biggest counter to this: WOMEN. Elderly women are far more prone to infections than elderly men, but no one has considered researching whether cutting off their genital folds will reduce their risk of infection.
The thing that “clicks” with people the most, in our experience, is pointing out the double standards we have for the intact male genitalia vs. the intact female genitalia.
Jason Fairfield says
It’s worse than giving a newborn a hip replacement or a knee replacement because so many senior citizens have that. Or pulling out all of a teenager’s teeth because they might need that in their 80s.
Mean Jean says
The nursing home argument should only be used to justify more and better trained staff at nursing homes.
Christina McCarty says
If a man needs a circ because of the care received in a nursing home that is medical abuse.
Mary Ann Hall says
Lies, lies and more lies! No more circs!
Aaron Meade says
It’s not that hard to clean. Soap should never be used under the foreskin at any age! It changes the ph and is too harsh for the glans. Just pull back, wash with water, and push it forward. It’s not that hard.
The ignorance people have of the male sex organ is infuriating.
Marisha Heinen says
Gosh, how on earth do these people clean labia if they can’t handle foreskin? Way more skin on women. Or do they neglect the women also?
Jennifer D. Doughty says
My mom cared for a bed-bound elderly intact man for over a decade. She understood intact care, and he had ZERO problems.
#EnoughLies #juststopcuttingkids
Jennifer Burkhardt Adkison says
It’s time to move my dad to a nursing home and I’m concerned about this issue because there are so many people out there that don’t understand intact care. How do I find a good nursing home that understands?
Scott Hays says
I trained two young women on foreskin care many years ago, they giggled the entire time I was showing them, after was all done I took them in the hallway and blew up at them, it was incredibly rude of them
Stephanie Smith says
If ‘dirty’ was such an epidemic, home shoppers club would already be selling washing gadgets $.10 a piece!
Dee Sang says
Any caregiver who even hints that males should have their genitals cut for this reason
Needs to stop caregiving and work alone at a desk somewhere.
Fewer than five percent of adults EVER require assistance with toilet hygiene!
And one proven intervention to improve hygiene in elderly men and women is the tub bath.
Lyndon RN MSN says
As a bedside nurse for over thirty years caring for those unable to do self care, I am also able to give an opinion on the subject of foreskin care of intact men. I have never seen smegma under the foreskin of a man. This is partly because of good care by those caring for these individuals previously and the fact that there really is not a problem of smegma building up under the foreskin over the course of 1-2 days. The smegma issue really is in the mind of those hating on foreskins.
I will also note, and won’t dwell on this too much, but both men and women need good perianal care and both will become odorous if good bathing is not done. Some women seem to think it doesn’t happen to them, but …that is the reason given for cutting girls on the African continent. “They are cleaner if cut.” Reality is, both men and women can have a smegma build up if not giving themselves good care.