To cut or not to cut?

It's not really the question because there was really never any doubt that this little guy is getting circ'd.  But it was asked yesterday on The Bump and started a nice little debate.

I'll be honest, I was really surprised at the number of moms who say they will not be circumcising their baby boys.  I just thought it was a given - it's what's done in this culture.

Many of them stated that no, now only 50% of baby boys are circumcised.  I wasn't really buying that statistic, so I decided to ask Dr. Nic (my sister the pediatrician).  She has performed hundreds, if not thousands, of circumcisions in her 10+ years of being a pediatrician.  I asked her what percentage of baby boys that she sees being born are not circ'd?  She said it's a small percentage, and that's mostly hispanics and hippies (her words, not mine).  I know she's always excited when a baby boy is born when she is on duty because she gets paid extra for every procedure.  And very few times have I ever heard her complain about someone deciding to not have it done.

I did a little googling and it looks like it really depends on the area of the country and it varies greatly by race.  One study found that non-hispanic white males were circ'd up to 88% of the time.

Oh, and when I brought this up to J on the ride home from work yesterday his reaction was "That's just nasty!" So obviously there is no big debate needed on this subject, which I didn't think there would be.

So yes, our little boy will be having this done while in the hospital.  And for those people who say "God wouldn't give him that foreskin if it was unnecessary."  Well, God gave you an appendix, too, and you don't really need that to live, either. So go chew on that for a while.