A Foreskin in the Right Place at the Right Time

Article here. Excerpt:

'Sometimes an intact foreskin is just the result of being in the right place at the right time, for the penis anyway. In 2002, when my first son was born, we were living in Britain, where less than 10 percent of males are circumcised. (In America, it’s around half.) After his birth, I was told we would have to make a separate appointment for circumcision with a specialist outside the hospital. I assumed we would do it. Wasn’t that what people did with penises? It was my husband who said: ‘Let’s not. It doesn’t seem necessary.’

We weren’t religious. We were thousands of miles from home. There was no one around to talk us into having it done. And we had just delivered a healthy baby boy. The last thing we wanted to do was have him cut.

When my second son was born, back in the United States three years later, the hospital staff assumed we would have him circumcised. We had to make a point of saying no. Our older son had no complications from keeping his foreskin, why take his brother’s away? And shouldn’t they match? What if we circumcised the younger one and then he wanted a foreskin like his brother? I could just imagine the big brother lording it over the little one: Foreskins are cool. I bet you wish you had one. A foreskin is not the kind of thing you can give back to somebody later.'