Circumcision tied to reduced risk of HIV transmission

[theryn]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16184582/

The NIH is strongly suggesting male circumcision in Africa as a way to reduce risk of HIV transmission in heterosexual males.

Would this make you more likely to have your son circumcised?

Comments

[ever_abstract]

Absolutely not.

Condoms prevent HIV transmission.

I'm not going to cut off a vital part of my son's anatomy because of the potential of his future sexual irresponsibility. I would hope that my children learn to use safe sex, not only for HIV infection but to prevent all of the other sexually transmitted infections that come with unsafe sex.

Removing a foreskin to prevent against HIV transmission is as assinine to me as removing a cervix to prevent against HPV-caused cancer.

[missflorafauna]

I think the question presupposes that the child would be raised in a cultural context that makes such statistics possible. If one was socialized in Africa, from childhood, it would be in an environment where condoms, for historical and cultural reasons, are very unpopular and underused, despite the best efforts of NGOs (the ones that didn't get their funding cut for promoting non-abstinence safer sex, anyway); that's just the cultural reality. Your child could receive the same factual education about safer sex in Africa as he would in the United States, but the context in which that knowledge would be acquired would be totally different, in terms of what is normalized, what is stigmatized, and what is expected, so how things play out in practice might be very different. Cultural practices don't conform to what seems self-evidently preferable and healthier. South Africa is the place where the "dry sex" (where women put earth soaked with baboon urine in their vaginas to dry out the natural secretions and inflame the tissues) is

[ever_abstract]

I agree about the statistics in articles like that presupposes a certain cultural context but, the question presented by the OP was, given this article about Africa, "Would this make you more likely to have your son circumcised?"

I stand firm to my answer.

I live in New York where the cultural context of condoms in rural parts of Africa don't apply to me, or my son. If my child were to be raised in Africa, I still wouldn't circ my son because regardless of where we might be living we would still not be part of those cultural norms.

[ever_abstract]

Also, read the first sentence in that article again:

"Circumcising adult men is an effective way to stop transmission of the virus that causes AIDS"

We're not talking about un-consenting infants here, we're talking about grown men who have chosen to be circumcised.

[gemmedazure]

No, wouldn't make me more likely (circumcision shouldn't be used as a means of protection even if it does deter the transmission of the virus), but I'm planning to have Drake circumcised anyway.

[missflorafauna]

possibly, if I was going to live and raise my child in Africa, as a "lesser of two evils" decision. I also take other precautions that I wouldn't in the United States, like being cautious about tap water, etc.

[chippyjem]

no

[so_there]

I don't really assume my kids are going to be promiscuous...