Tera Warner

Circumcision – by Karen Ranzi

by | 8 comments

by Karen Ranzi

I read Karen’s new book, Creating Healthy Children, and was intrigued by the chapter dedicated to circumcision. Karen kindly agreed to write a short wisdom nugget for our pregnancy month on this topic.

healthychildren

“Just before I gave birth to my son, I read the chapter “Mutilation of Male Babies” in Dr. Herbert Shelton’s book Hygienic Care of Children. I already knew I wouldn’t allow a circumcision to be performed on my child, but I became extremely concerned for other baby boys while reading some of the details about the procedure.


In 1880 it was thought that masturbation caused blindness and epilepsy. This began routine U.S male circumcision, and boys no longer resembled their fathers. Due to the pain and complications that circumcision has brought to boys and men over the past 130 years in the U.S., we need to focus on doing the same today: ending male circumcision and having boys once again not resembling their fathers.


The foreskin of the penis grows from 12 to 15 square inches of erogenous tissue, the inner and outer layer included. The foreskin is attached to the gland which protects from feces entering the area. It adheres like the nail to the nail bed or the eyelid to the eye. We certainly wouldn’t want these important protective body parts to be severed. The foreskin has to be detached before it can be cut.


The foreskin can be as much as one third of the outer skin of the penis. It’s meant to be a moist internal organ. The foreskin has protective functions: We know it prevents feces from entering the penile area. It is also highly erogenous tissue.

Some people say the baby doesn’t feel the pain of the circumcision, but in fact the cutting of the foreskin is excruciatingly painful. If you have had a natural childbirth and understand attachment parenting principles, following the needs of your child, you would want to foster trust in your infant. Circumcision is a painful and unnecessary practice which causes physical and emotional pain for the young soul who has recently entered this world and expects the mother to protect him/her from harm.


Every male mammal has a foreskin, and 85% of the men in the world are intact. The United States is the only country which does circumcision for medical reasons, although there is no national medical organization that endorses it. Nowhere else in the world do they remove normal healthy functional tissue for a social custom. Every six seconds, a male in the U.S. gets circumcised.
There are so many benefits of not performing circumcision. For sure, your precious son will be glad to be intact.
The following are the possible consequences of circumcision:

  1. Severe infection
  2. Hemorrhaging
  3. Painful erections
  4. Although rare, death

I attended a showing of Cut, a documentary film available as a DVD, by Eliyahu Ungar-Sargon, raised an Orthodox Jew. The film examines the subject of male circumcision from a religious, scientific and ethical perspective. Using cutting-edge research, in addition to interview footage of rabbis, philosophers, and scientists, Cut challenges viewers to confront their biases by asking difficult questions about this age-old practice. It’s a powerful film, important for all parents to see before making a decision about circumcision.”

Raw Mom Karen Ranzi, is author of Creating Healthy Children.