Hi everyone. Was a little surprised at first to see subject of circumcision raised, but then it seemed natural. My feelings may seem hypocritical to some, but please bear with me to the end. When I first heard of female genital mutilation hiding behind the term "female circumcision", I was horrified and repulsed. Reading more in the media (which may be slanted on the subject - remember our own recent bad experience!), I realized it was a cultural thing and maybe I was being judgmental. After all, it is very popular now to question male circumcision and typify it as MALE genital mutilation. Raised as a Conservative-Orthodox Jew, I personally would not dream of NOT having had my sons circumcised! This would approximately be equal religion-wise to a devout Catholic not baptising her baby. I resolved the issue (to my satisfaction at least) by trying to find a redeeming feature (a la pornography and the courts) for each procedure. While I have heard it speculated that circumcised boys have fewer penile infections than uncircumcised boys, and that Jewish women have lower incidence of cervical cancer (presumably because mates are circumcised - but Moslem men are circumcised too and I don't recall ever reading about cervical CA rates in Arab women....Anybody know??), I have not heard of nor can I imagine any HEALTH BENEFIT coming to ANYBODY from female genital mutilation. Judy Knopf, BSc, LC Beer Sheva, Israel [log in to unmask]