Circumcision is a procedure that cuts off a newborn baby boy's skin on the end of his penis. It is usually done routinely in the United States, although many parents are questioning the wisdom of such an operation on a newborn, with no anesthesia. It was originally done during Biblical times (Abraham's day) as the mark of a covenant between the Jewish people and God.It was used much as a tattoo would be used, to show ownership. During the early 1900's it was believed that circumcision prevented masturbation, homosexuality, and kept the penis cleaner than if it were left intact.
Now we know better. There is no reason to cut a perfectly normal penis skin. There is no basis in fact for many of the fallacies that surround an intact penis. A boy who is taught to wash under the foreskin is as clean as one who doesn't have one. Having or not having a foreskin has nothing to do with the propensity toward homosexuality. It has nothing to do with masturbation. It does, I believe have something to do with the fact that so many men in America are super self-concious about their penises. Almost a fetish, you might say. Since the boy or man does not remember his pain on a conscious level, I believe to compensate, the baby internalizes it. It is now known that unborn babies of 12 weeks gestation feel pain and fear. Can you imagine taking a 8 pound newborn,who is still recovering from the effects of birth (especially if it was in an American Hospital), and putting him on his back on a hard Y-shaped board, strapping him down all over after removing his diaper,putting a metal or plastic bell-shaped cone on the end of his little penis and pulling the foreskin up around the outside of the cone with 2 sutures in the skin, then cutting around the cone with a scalpel. NO ANESTHETIC. The baby is left to scream and deal with his pain as best he can, and his mother hopes he doesn't get an infection from the now open wound. Sometimes circumcisions are botched, and have to be redone( with what??) or the penis is cut,or permanently deformed(phimosis) or an infection sets in, which can sometimes result in the removal of his penis, and subsequent surgery to make him look like a girl(yes,this happens more than you might think)... this is no way for a newborn to experience the first days of his life.
I believe in the right for all people to decide as adults whether to have permanently disfiguring surgery done on them, not as children.
There are several good sites about the advantages(!) and disadvantages of circumcision.