Routine infant circumcision is an unnecessary, nonconsensual genital mutilation procedure that results in a variety of detrimental sexual and emotional effects. Excision of healthy genital tissue negatively impacts males in the most intimately devastating way possible. Cultures that normalize genital cutting like the USA do not have a well-informed perspective on the matter. The USA's medical community is biased in favor of it as a tribal custom, and has financial incentives to not abolish it.

Here are some images that illustrate differences between an intact and a circumcised penis. These links contain photos of male genitalia and gore.

• Glans of a Circumcised and Intact Penis
The glans on an intact penis are smooth, moisturized, and sensitive. Circumcised penises are dry and keratinized from constant external exposure, losing sensitivity over time. The glans, frenulum, and urethra are not meant to be permanently exposed and are now at risk of irritation. They are internal organs that are supposed to be retracted and protected inside the foreskin when not aroused.

Organisms as far as 2 million years ago have had foreskin present; modern anatomical humans are 100,000 years old. Circumcision began as cutting the outermost tip of the foreskin a substitute for child sacrifice and as a tribal mark. The modern, more drastic procedure of cutting around the base of the glans is only around 2,000 years old. This more drastic cut was introduced so Jews that wished to blend in with the nude events taking place in ancient Greece could not stretch to restore their foreskin. Historically, rabbis and puritans advocating the procedure knew it diminished sexual function and pleasure and advocated for it for this reason.

• Frenulum of a Circumcised and Intact Penis
The frenulum on circumcised penises is almost completely excised. Circumcised men can touch the underside of their glans to verify the frenulum is one of the most sensitive parts of the penis.

• Sensitivity Diagram of Intact and Circumcised Penis
Unlike the rest of the shaft, the skin present on the foreskin has Meissner's corpuscles, the same kind of fine-touch receptors that are on the palm of ones hand. Circumcised men can lightly touch their circumcision scar line to verify this sensitivity. The foreskin has over 20,000 nerve endings (a clitoris has 8,000). The total amount of nerves removed during circumcision could be many times more. Men circumcised as adults have reported around 70% reduction in sensitivity.

• Size of Foreskin Removed
12-15 square inches of (would be) skin is removed in circumcision. Circumcision removes over half of the skin on the penis. This healthy tissue is no different than any other skin on the shaft, except that it is the most sensitive skin on the shaft, and that the inner foreskin is a mucous membrane that keeps the glans healthy and lubricated. Circumcision removes more skin than most types of Female Genital Mutilation. FGM is universally scorned and recognized to cause pain, sensitivity loss, and severe emotional distress to its victims. Proponents of FGM claim similar hygienic, aesthetic, and tribal reasons, like male circumcision proponents. Circumcision causes similar physical and emotional distress; men have killed themselves after experiencing the expected results of a normal circumcision.

• Skin Diagram of Circumcision Procedure
Highly innervated, erogenous tissues is cut off the penis and then the resulting wound is fused to itself. The glans are now permanently exposed and the inner foreskin is unnaturally fused to the outer foreskin, with the inner foreskin everted backwards.

• Gliding Motion of Intact Penis
The foreskin is no different than any other skin on the shaft. This penis with its foreskin retracted is just as easy to clean as a circumcised penis. In addition to the nerve, sensitivity and protective losses, circumcision is essentially the needless tightening of the skin on the penis. During intercourse/manual stimulation, the glans glide in an out of the foreskin sheath (2nd image from left). The glans are not meant slide with friction directly against the material they are penetrating. Due to the absence of this natural gliding function, circumcised men generally need synthetic lubrication to avoid pain when stimulated.

• Veins on an Intact Penis
Circumcision is a drastic and unnecessary genital cutting procedure that cuts through normal, healthy tissue. Large veins and arteries that run through the shaft are severed. Cutting through healthy genital skin and fusing it to a new location should not be routine or acceptable. Even circumcisions performed as intended are detrimental to sexual function, not to mention the high risk of additional complications (meatal stenosis, skin bridges, missing glans/shaft, accidental over-amputation) and botched circumcisions, most of which hospitals are not required to report.

• Infant Genitals Pre and Post Circumcision
The foreskin of an infant is completely fused to the glans at birth and gradually separates as the child reaches 18 years old. Pediatricians and doctors in the USA commonly do not know not know that forcible retraction of the foreskin can permanently injure infants and children. The glans naturally separate from the foreskin over time. In an infant circumcision procedure, the doctor forcibly tears the preputial epithelium (a fingernail-bedding-like bond that seals the foreskin to the glans) resulting in a bloody, exposed glans. Over 99% of intact males can fully retract their foreskin by age 18, and less than 0.5% of intact males require medical intervention for foreskin related problems in their lifetime.

Nothing about this is natural and the thought of strapping infants down, cutting a slit through the top of their penis, and stretching the remaining skin through a clamp is probably enough to make Satan himself (thought to be responsible for such horrors as fever and arthritis) reel.

• Psychological Effects of Infant Circumcision
Doctors stimulate the infants penis to give them an erection to better estimate how much to cut. This is an infant’s first sexual experience and the backdrop of all future sexual experiences. This may cause permanent emotional trauma to the infant, as they frequently are seen staring into space with a glazed look as the procedure is performed.

• Analysis of American Academy of Pediatrics’ Circumcision Recommendation
The 2012 paper on infant circumcision published by the American Academy of Pediatrics claims the "benefits of circumcision outweigh the risks" yet explicitly states the resulting complications are "unknown". No other industrialized country aside from Israel practices routine infant circumcision. Andrew Freedman, who leads the AAP board, is more concerned with the procedure as a tribal custom than with the medical aspects.

The proposed benefits of circumcision are dubious. Circumcised penises lack natural gliding and lubrication and increase friction and abrasive rubbing. This could possibly increase the risk of HIV transmission due to the increase in friction and abrasion causing more open sores. The USA has one of the highest rates for both HIV transmission and circumcision, which suggests circumcision is not an effective solution for HIV transmission or a replacement for safe sex practices. Urinary Tract Infections are easily treatable with antibiotics. Penile cancer is exceptionally rare. There is nothing cleaner about being circumcised; a washed penis is a clean penis, intact or not. Genital cutting is a very drastic proposal to these issues, and one that should not be on the table.

The for-profit structure of USA healthcare incentivizes unnecessary surgeries to maintain profits. Infant foreskins are even sold to medical labs and cosmetic companies for profit to be used in their products.

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Genital cutting cultures like the USA lack public knowledge and incentive to provide parents with a well-informed decision regarding routine infant circumcision. It is distressing that circumcision is performed in infancy, which disregards an individual's consent, and perpetuates a lack of knowledge regarding what intact penises are like, for both the individual and their parents.

A circumcised penis is hardly a human penis - it is a manufactured prolapsed arid scar stick flayed by overzealous flesh carvers in an antiquated religious delusion. Infants do not require corrective genital surgery. Circumcision is religiously mandated child sexual assault and disfigurement disguised as a medical procedure. A partially amputated penis is not an improved penis, it is a mangled fraction of a sex organ deprived of function, protection, and sensation. Routine circumcision physically disturbs and sexually cripples males against their will. Being circumcised completely precludes the victim from being able to experience normal, healthy sexual sensation.

If you would never strap down an infant girl and tear her hymen, excise part of her clitoris, and shred 15 square inches of her labia, then please extend your compassion to boys whose rapists will tear their foreskin-glans bond, excise part of their frenulum, and shred 15 square inches of their penis.

That is all I ask.