Male circumcision is the surgical removal of the foreskin. The foreskin is a retractable fold of skin that covers the end of the penis. Sometimes, there may be a medical reason for performing a circumcision - for example, to prevent the foreskin from becoming infected (balanoposthitis) in individuals who do not respond to antibiotics.
So called ‘female circumcision’, or to use a more accurate term, ‘female genital mutilation’, has no medical benefits and is illegal under British law.
The history of circumcision
Circumcision is thought to be one of the oldest medical procedures in human history. There is evidence that circumcision was practised as far back as at least 6,000BC, and possibly as far back as 13,000BC.
Many cultures have practised circumcision for a number of reasons including:
- as a mark of religious and cultural identity,
- as a rite of passage into adulthood,
- as an act of purification, and
- as a symbolic offering to God (or ‘the gods’).
Ritual circumcision became commonplace in middle eastern cultures around 1,000 BC, and is still routine in the Jewish and Islamic faiths. Both religions have a long-standing tradition that all boys should be circumcised shortly after birth (in Judaism), or at some point during childhood (in Islam).
Routine circumcision of all boys, regardless of religious faith, became widespread in England during the nineteenth century for two main reasons:
- it was thought that circumcision helped to reduce the risk of contracting syphilis (a type of sexually transmitted infection), which is actually true to a certain extent, and
- it was thought that circumcision would ‘cure’ masturbation (the mistaken belief that masturbation could cause physical and psychological damage was widespread during the time).
Routine male circumcision gradually started to become less widespread as many members of the medical community argued that it had no medical benefit in the majority of cases. Due to this, when the NHS was founded in 1946, it refused to fund circumcision.
Today, outside of the Islamic and Jewish communities, circumcision is uncommon in the UK. However, it a remains a more widespread practice in other countries, such as the United States of America.
