Routine Infant Circumcision and FGM

First of all, some definitions:

Routine infant circumcision is the circumcision (removal of all or part of the foreskin) of infants on a routine basis (i.e. not for religious or medical reasons).

FGM, or female genital mutilation, is the removal or modification of some or all of the external female sex organs, primarily for religious reasons.

I am vehemently opposed to routine infant circumcision and FGM - always have been, always will be. In a word? Choice. A doctor, a mother, nobody has the right to say whether a piece of an infant can be hacked off and discarded. It's nobody's choice but his.

Routine infant circumcision is a barbaric, outdated and fundamentally useless practice practiced in America and in Muslim and Jewish countries. And it's not just a bit of skin, and he will miss it. I'm not going into details, but statistics show that circumcised men have more sexual problems than uncircumcised men. Why can't we just leave it be? Men were born this way.

To be honest, I don't see religion as a very good excuse for it, either. If it said in the Bible or the Torah or the Koran or any other holy book to hack off our arms, and burn our babies, would we blindly do it? A book is a book, no matter how holy. A book is a static, stationary time capsule, and following a book word for word is doing the time warp. Times change. Religion doesn't. That's just that.

FGM is a revolting suppression of female sexuality and a violation of human rights. It's primarily an Islamic thing, although it is quite extremist and many Muslims (thank goodness!) are shunning it as a cruel barbarity. The sick part is that circumcision may sometimes be excused 'for religious reasons', but the primary function of FGM is to avoid female sexual arousal and to give men dominance in a sexual relationship. I can't even begin to tell you how sick and twisted this practice is. FGM is often a backyard practice performed by inexperienced, unqualified people in unsanitary environments, and many die or become seriously ill from infection. People with more extreme variants of FGM cannot even pass urine without discomfort, and FGM greatly increases the pain and stress of labour and childbirth. Shame on anyone who supports FGM.

I don't understand why we mutilate our bodies in the name of religion, or social convention. Since when have we become so weak and swayable? Before you jumble up your and your children's rights with religion and he says she says, think about it. A body is a body. A life is a life.