Sir: So Jack Shamash circumcised his son knowing the risks and arguments against it because, as he says, "I don't really want my son to look different from me." So now we can amputate healthy tissue from our infants for aesthetic reasons. Where will this end? Is there any other part of a child that parents can remove because it doesn't conform to their sense of what looks nice?
Infants are born with foreskins because it is an integral part of the anatomy, not an optional extra. Parents may at the moment have the legal right to subject their sons to surgery without anaesthetic, but do they have the moral right?
As baby Nathan grows I hope his parents keep a copy of The Independent. Then he will truly know that his parents did not traumatise and mutilate him in ignorance, but were completely aware of the risks and damage they were subjecting him to.
SEAN BARTLETT
London SE5
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