Penis transplant

[Icey]

I don't know whether to applaud or shudder at this latest news.

If there are so many botched circumcisions, surely it'd be cheaper and easier to teach how the technique should be carried out properly? Then again, if it makes the men happy .....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-31876219

[tomsk]

It's good to have a working willy though...

[pilvikki]

Africans perform first 'successful' penis transplant

this is BBC and they don't know how to use quotation marks?

why the hell can't people get it through their thick skulls that it is mutilation, child abuse and totally stupid, be it male or female in question???????

[Icey]

It's very difficult to change people's perceptive of traditional practices. I personally think it's cruel and abhorrent to do these things unless it's for medical/health reasons, and particularly where females're concerned.

Tomsk - an uncircumcised willy works, because that's what nature intended, but if these guys go ahead and have the op, and it goes wrong ... they've only themselves to blame. The trouble is, there's a lot of pressure to "conform" over in these countries, so probably quite difficult to get out of.

[tomsk]

I'm glad I'm Catholic..

[Icey]

LOL - do some of the alternatives bring tears to your eyes? : )

[yogi]

Circumcision seems to have its roots in religious rituals. All the operations I know of took place when the child was an infant and without incident. My question of why it was thought to be a good idea has still not been answered. I suppose it's just something that was always done so that the tradition is being carried on. But, we are not born circumcised, so what made it all happen in the first place?

The organ of a circumcised male is outside of the natural sheath of skin. This obviously makes things a little more sensitive in the normal course of daily activity. OK, that's cool, but why is it a religious ritual? Does being more sexually aware of yourself bring you closer to God somehow? It's baffling, but otherwise harmless as far as I can tell.

[Icey]

A regional German court equated circumcision with criminal bodily harm, and some see it as child abuse. However, this perhaps gives an insight into why it's done, and it seems it was practiced way before any religious rituals got in the way, although it's hard to see how anyone knows that.

http://www.cirp.org/library/legal/price/

[pilvikki]

not totally harmless, when saxon had to return to the hospital for jaundice, there was a baby boy who'd had his circumcision gone wrong and caused dangerously excessive bleeding. and that's in 2008. how often has that happened, but wasn't mentioned in the years gone by?

and besides, it would have been 'god's will' anyway.

suppose it was a replacement for offering the whole child to baal or some other god? we're not willing to give up the whole baby, so here's a piece of him?

[Icey]

Yep - something special to the male? Adversely so, in my opinion.
Well I agree about circumcisions that can go wrong. They CAN. Bleeding and infections're probably more common than we're led to believe, and it must be incredibly painful for the poor child.

I can see that it'd be beneficial where some medical conditions're present, such as in phimosis, but for stupid religious reasons?

[pilvikki]

i'm betting we're talking control here?

[Icey]

Certainly with women; maybe men as well.

Those who agree with it find ways of justifying the practice, but it's un-natural and cruel.