Morocco World News
Morocco World News
New York, August, 28, 2012
According to the New York Times, the American Academy of Pediatrics has announced last Monday that a new research conducted in Africa has suggested that circumcision has many benefits. According to the findings of the study, circumcision can protect heterosexual men against H.I.V. Besides, its health benefits are said to outweigh its risks.
Though the academy ranked the numerous advantages of circumcision, it insisted that the procedure remains a family matter. In other words, it is up to parents to decide on it. The research findings come at a time when there is a heated debated in Europe and America about the utility of circumcision and the risks it may cause on the male body.
“We’re not pushing everybody to circumcise their babies,” Dr. Douglas S. Diekema, a member of the academy’s task force on circumcision and an author of the new policy, said in an interview. “This is not really pro-circumcision. It falls in the middle. It’s pro-choice, for lack of a better word. Really, what we’re saying is, ‘This ought to be a choice that’s available to parents.’ ”
Opponents o the practice view it as a kind of crime and scandal. To them, it should be banned and abolished as no person has the right to touch, let alone remove a healthy body part of another person.
These findings are of great interest to public health policy makers inside and outside the United States. “Of course, if male circumcision is performed safely in a medical environment, it can certainly complement other HIV prevention strategies and it could, therefore, reduce the burden of HIV/AIDS, ” experts say.
Besides protecting from these pre-mentioned diseases, circumcision has other benefits:
1. It can protect against cancer of the penis.
2. It can help the couple enjoy a better sex.
3. It can lessen urinary tract infections among babies.
People are expecting more debate to take place on the positive and negative effects of circumcision in the coming days. While some might argue that circumcision should only be performed when boys are old enough to make an informed decision whether they want or they don’t want to be circumcised, others have to wait for more research to prove the efficiency of this ritual.
