Circumcision

Re “Spreading Islam With His Scalpel,” May 21:

Readers appalled by this account of mass circumcision in Kazakhstan might be alternately lulled into complacency by the suggestion that psychological damage is avoided when the act is performed, as most often in the U.S., immediately after birth. That is not the case.

Circumcision’s critics--in Judaism, Islam and secular medicine--grow steadily in number, and those familiar with the neonatology research of the last 20 years know what most parents already feel: Genital cutting terrorizes and injures for a lifetime regardless of age, rationalization, religion or gender.

Samuel Richmond

Irvine