Circumcision is an surgical procedure which consists in cutting some or all of the foreskin (prepuce) from the penis. The frenulum may also be cut away at the same time, in a procedure called frenectomy. The word “circumcision” comes from Latin circum (meaning “around”) and caedere (meaning “to cut”).
Circumcision predates recorded human history, with depictions found in stone-age cave drawings and Ancient Egyptian tombs. The origins of the practice are lost in antiquity. Theories include that circumcision is a form of ritual sacrifice or offering, a sign of submission to a deity, a rite of passage to adulthood, a mark of defeat or slavery, or an attempt to alter aesthetics or sexuality. Circumcision of males is a religious requirement of the Muslim and Jewish faiths, and is practised extensively throughout the Middle East, North Africa, the newly independent Muslim countries of Central Asia, Malaysia and Indonesia. It is also practiced by the majority of South Koreans, Americans, Filipinos, mong the middle classes in Mexico and in other countries of central America, by around 25%-30% of mainland Chinese, by both Muslims and non-Muslims in Albania, and among the large majority of boys of non-Muslim origin in the following African countries: Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, Sierra Leone, Togo, Liberia, São Tomé and PrÃncipe, Ivory Coast, Benin, Niger, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Uganda, Kenya, Eritrea, Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania. It is also practised extensively in Zambia and South Africa, and its prevalence is increasing rapidly in the remaining non-circumcising countries in Africa to combat the spread of AIDS.
Infant circumcision has come under increasing discussion in recent decades. The American Medical Association states that medical associations in the US, Australia, and Canada do not recommend routine “non-therapeutic†circumcision, which it defines as the non-religious, non-ritualistic, not medically necessary, elective circumcision of male newborns. According to the AMA’s 1999 literature review, in the US when parents choose elective circumcision for their child, it is largely because of social or cultural expectations, rather than medical concerns. However, a 2001 survey questionnaire found that 23.5% of parents listed ‘health reasons’. The genital integrity movement condemns all infant circumcision, religious or secular, as a form of male genital mutilation that they consider comparable to female genital mutilation. Some argue that there are medical benefits in the procedure (i.e. fewer urinary tract infection in infant males, less penile cancer in adult males, and possibly less sexually transmissible infections, including HIV—Human Immunodeficiency Virus). Circumcision may be needed to treat chronic inflammation of the penis, and penile cancer. Some physicians recommend circumcision to treat phimosis, while others recommend the other effective treatments for this condition.