Festive Milestone or Barbaric Abuse? - A Gray-Area Guide to the Circumcision Debate
July, 2011, Rabbi Shira Shazeer
Page 7
Page 7
Consider the physical and psychological effects
For a long time doctors and mohalim, specialists in ritual circumcision, would tell you that the baby’s nerve endings weren’t fully developed and he wouldn’t feel any pain. We know now that’s not true. Babies feel pain, and circumcision is painful. The pain of the circumcision itself is brief and the wound heals in about a week. I wouldn’t presume to be able to quantify that pain. This is one of those places where a parent’s personal assessment of what we know and what we can guess comes into play.
You’ll hear different assessments of how the baby reacts emotionally. Babies sleep more for about a day after being circumcised because of the stress caused by the procedure. Other than that, I haven’t been able to find any agreed-upon immediate emotional effects.
I’ve heard people describe babies feeling betrayed and less trusting after circumcision. Again, determining how babies feel involves some guess work. Is the baby insulted or are the parents feeling guilty? In my personal experience, I’m usually more upset by my children’s seemingly traumatic experiences than they are. My stomach is churning and my heart is racing long after they’ve moved on. I wonder here, too, about the distinction between hospital circumcision and brit milah at home. It seems less stressful and much easier for the baby to maintain his sense of trust when his parents are available to comfort him immediately.
What about when the baby grows up? Then there are the claims that circumcised men are less able to enjoy sex. Again, most men have only had the experience of being circumcised or not, so it’s hard to compare. There are studies on both sides of the debate, some reporting uncircumcised men are more satisfied, others reporting no difference, and yet others reporting that circumcised men have more interesting and satisfying sex lives.
There also are people who claim that infant circumcision has long-term psychological effects, including ongoing grief, a sense of loss, intimacy problems and PTSD. On the other hand, a large percentage of American men and a larger percentage of American Jewish men are circumcised without apparently displaying these effects. There aren’t reliable scientific studies to prove or disprove these claims. It seems like it would be hard to determine accurately if they were true. If grown men have psychological problems, it must be close to impossible to determine if those problems are caused by being circumcised as infants.
You’ll hear different assessments of how the baby reacts emotionally. Babies sleep more for about a day after being circumcised because of the stress caused by the procedure. Other than that, I haven’t been able to find any agreed-upon immediate emotional effects.
I’ve heard people describe babies feeling betrayed and less trusting after circumcision. Again, determining how babies feel involves some guess work. Is the baby insulted or are the parents feeling guilty? In my personal experience, I’m usually more upset by my children’s seemingly traumatic experiences than they are. My stomach is churning and my heart is racing long after they’ve moved on. I wonder here, too, about the distinction between hospital circumcision and brit milah at home. It seems less stressful and much easier for the baby to maintain his sense of trust when his parents are available to comfort him immediately.
What about when the baby grows up? Then there are the claims that circumcised men are less able to enjoy sex. Again, most men have only had the experience of being circumcised or not, so it’s hard to compare. There are studies on both sides of the debate, some reporting uncircumcised men are more satisfied, others reporting no difference, and yet others reporting that circumcised men have more interesting and satisfying sex lives.
There also are people who claim that infant circumcision has long-term psychological effects, including ongoing grief, a sense of loss, intimacy problems and PTSD. On the other hand, a large percentage of American men and a larger percentage of American Jewish men are circumcised without apparently displaying these effects. There aren’t reliable scientific studies to prove or disprove these claims. It seems like it would be hard to determine accurately if they were true. If grown men have psychological problems, it must be close to impossible to determine if those problems are caused by being circumcised as infants.
