Immunological Functions of the Human Prepuce (Foreskin).
The demonisation of the human male prepuce has been an unscientific process, even though some research, on the surface, might seem to support it.
In the late 19th century, when male circumcision came into vogue in medicine in the United States, there was near universal acceptance among American medical professionals that circumcision was an effective treatment for such "diseases" as masturbation, headache, insanity, epilepsy, paralysis, strabismus, rectal prolapse, hydrocephalus, and clubfoot.
Leading medical journals published thousands of case reports demonstrating these and other miraculous therapeutic benefits from preputial amputation.
The notion that circumcision improves hygiene and prevents sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) originated at the same time in the context of the discourse over racial and moral hygiene.
The peculiar American phenomenon of mass newborn (that is, involuntary) circumcision was a product of the cold war era.
United States doctors readily embraced the concept of mass, involuntary circumcision just as they had embraced involuntary sterilisation and other eugenic measures--practices rejected by almost all other Western nations.
Mass circumcision peaked in the 1970s, when almost 90% of male neonates in the United States were circumcised. Since then, the rate has declined but circumcision industry spokesman have added to the list of diseases that circumcision allegedly prevents and cures.
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