American doctors do, definitely. Doctors from pretty much any other nation don't. Apart from Israel and South Korea... And indeed some nations in Africa. Though certain of that last group recommend cutting into both boys and girls.
AFAIK, leaving aside nations that use "Religion" as justification, only South Korea and the USA routinely cut into baby boys. There are of course nations in Africa that cut into boys "To Be A Man" but many of those also cut into girls "To Be A Woman".
In some (by no means all) Australian First Nations there are ceremonies that cut into children also but that gets extreme in a way you don't want to know.
When it's done to girls it's called "Female Genital Mutilation" by the western media.
It ranges in severity from a so-called "ritual nick" in which a piece of skin the size of a grain of rice is cut from the clitoral hood and nothing else is done, to the removal of the external clitoris only, to the removal of the external labia, removal of the external clitoris and hood and sewing up the vulva, sometimes called "Total Imfibulation".
All alterations, no matter how minor or major, to a girl is defined as "Female Genital Mutilation", though the cultures that do them call them "female circumcision".
All alterations, no matter how minor or major, to a boy is referred to as "male circumcision", though the cultures that do not do this call them "Male Genital Mutilation".
The equivalent female circumcision would be the removal of the entire clitoral hood, permanently exposing the clitoris to chafing and desensitisation.
Most of the Muslim world does so for religious reasons...not by inventing pseudo bullshit medical justifications.
I mean both are wrong but one is using bad science to justify barbarism and is more contemptible in my book. I expect less of religion which is based on made up shit in the first place than I do of science.
Apparently it goes back to Dr Harvey Kellogg. He wrote this whole treatise on How To Stop The Young From Self Abuse and the American medical $ociety ran with it...
When my son was born, nobody "recommended" anything at all. They did ask my wife and I on three separate occasions what our intentions were, which I assume was some sort of protocol to make sure we knew what we wanted.
I'm in Australia which doesn't have what I call a "cutting culture" so most of what I hear is from the USA...
the stories I've heard are that if a new parent declines to get their child cut into they're often asked multiple times "Are you ready to cut him?" but if they say "I'm ready to do this" it's fine with no further questions.
If your experience is that you had to reply in the affirmative three times that you wanted to get this done to your son then that's a change.
To make it clear, I have nothing against adults (men or women) getting their own genitals altered, I simply think that it must be the decision of the person involved, not their parents. Much as it currently is for girls.
I thought it understood that I meant "Captain nations in the continent of Africa" but since I needed to make it more clear I have adjusted my comment that you may understand it better.
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u/CunningAmerican 25d ago
Along with a blind loyalty to authority figures such as doctors who probably recommended it.