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BRM
I sometimes wonder what it would be like to have a foreskin. When I was born about 80% of Australian boys had it done as a "routine procedure" by the medical profession. In the UK it had already been stopped on cost effectiveness grounds as the NHS reviewed the evidence that a risk of death of 1 in 6000 was worse than the risk of treatable infection of 1 in 75.
I still remember at school that some immigrant British boys were regarded with wonder and ridicule.
The Wikipedia piece is clear that in western English speaking countries the widespread adoption of cutting was due to moral self righteous concerns over controlling
health concerns were secondary.
In Australia the rate has steadily declined to below 25% in the 1990s and below 10% now. It is still partially funded by Medicare. In Canada the rate is around 30% and still above 50% in USA. There is wide variation between states depending on whether or not it is paid for by Medicaid. In these "christian" countries the practice seems to have continued due to the self righteous avarice of the medical profession trumping the clinical evidence.
The volume of comments here show that stopping cutting children is a difficult, sensitive issue. I am pleased that it is now being talked about but it will not be easy to change ritual cutting that has been going on for 10s of thousands of years and continues in about one third of the world's male population today.