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Quick question for you...
One more set of facts. There's sorta a "natural study group" if you will, about circumcision and AIDS or HIV.
The US v. Europe. When I googled, I found that .3% of adult males in the US have HIV/AIDS. In France, it's .4% of adult males. In Germany .1 %, in Spain .4 %, etc. (http://www.avert.org/hiv-aids-europe.htm). In the US, well over 50% of all men are circumcised. In Europe, It's less than 10% of the men. Yet the numbers of AIDS/HIV cases are pretty consistent.
That's not science. It's just sorta looking at the numbers. Again, if there really were such significant differences, given the cultural issues for the last 50 years in Europe vs. US, you'd think someone would say "oh my god, americans aren't getting UTIs".
When is it "for the public good?" When you can come up with studies that actually make sense, and are provable. Not ones that are incomplete.
the numbers of 60% are a GROSS over statement of something that *Might* be 10% but more like 2-5% (CDC by the way - it's linked on another page). I'm not going to advocate "safety" when we cannot prove this.
Give me studies that are compelling, show that micro tears really exist (the reports I've read say this is a POSSIBLE reason it works, again - it's not been studied), and give me numbers that are more compelling than 5 percent and fine - you have something. But that's not these studies.
And of course you can compare countries. If a medical procedure is effective, it's effective. Biology does not take into account, coustoms.
And again, harming the human body is NEVER an acceptable answer when you have other EVEN MORE EFFECTIVE answers.
Of course, you want to know why the "mirco tear" theory was proposed? Cause rapists who have partners that are not aroused, have to rub harder. So, are we saying that africa has a higher rape problem? of course we are. But circumcision is not the answer for that, either.
castration might be, but that's the feminist in me talking.
I mean, you can compare countries, but then you have to control for variables. If the US/Western Europe have similar rates, then you also have to account for, as I said before, the fact that WE has a far better healthcare system, so that could be skewing the numbers. If you compare the US's to Eastern Europe, which has a healthcare system much closerto the US's, then you start to see incidence rates from .4-1.2%, which are notably higher than 0.3%
Re "harming the human body"- it's not really harming. You have no memory of the pain if done in childbirth, no decline in sexual pleasure or performance, and no massive psychological trauma- in exchange for lower incidences o disease and easier hygiene. It's more like getting a nipple piercing to prevent breast cancer than getting your beasts cut off, to use your ridiculous analogy from above (Unless getting a nipple piercing is exceptionally painful, I wouldn't know).
Rape is a separate (serious) problem, let's not bring it int the discussion.