It is being reported today that circumcision may cut the risk of being infected with the AIDS virus by half.
Maybe so, but it seems a rather roundabout way to achieve nothing more than a 50% less chance of contracting AIDS. That leaves a 50% chance that men who are circumcised will contract AIDS just as often as they would otherwise have. There are other known ways of preventing the spread of AIDS that have much closer to a 100% success rate.
This is one case in which statistical advantages don't necessarily translate into wise public policy. In fact, if men overcompensate for the fact that they have been circumcised by engaging in more risky behavior than they otherwise would -- just as people often subconsciously neutralize the benefit of power brakes by driving faster -- any potential benefit of circumcision could quickly be nullifed.
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