The parents of a newborn baby boy will make a lot of decisions for their child. They will decide what sort of discipline they will use to raise their boy, and they will decide what sort of morals they will instill in their newborn. Many parents will discuss and decide on these issues before the child is born; but many parents neglect to discuss and research the very first decision they may have to make for their baby boy. Should the infant son be circumcised? .
Circumcision is the surgical removal of the foreskin, the sheath of tissue that surrounds, lubricates, and protects the head of the penis. Infant circumcision was not widespread until the beginning of the century in the United States when it was promoted as a medical procedure with an odd variety of purposes: to discourage masturbation, to enhance cleanliness, and to prevent disease. Most of these so-called medical procedures for circumcision have proven to be propaganda; but researchers that dismissed the idea that circumcision can reduce the spread of HIV may be about to change their minds. .
For more than ten years, AIDS researchers studying the disastrous spread of HIV throughout Africa have been gathering evidence suggesting that the epidemic is not infecting populations evenly, but seems to be selecting the people and places it does the most harm to on its own. In 1988, American anthropologist Priscilla Reining prepared a map of the African cities enduring the highest HIV infection rates and superimposed it on another map of Africa that illustrated the circumcising and non-circumcising areas; the correlation was striking: HIV was shown to be spreading faster in places where male circumcisions were not routinely performed. Despite this information, circumcision as an option to reduce the HIV epidemic has been routinely ignored, ducked, and dismissed. Advocates don't expect the world to suddenly embrace a mass circumcision program, but they are hopeful for people to be open to the idea that circumcision could reduce this epidemic.
