Foreskins removed during hospital circumcisions are sometimes sold to biotech labs, since young skin is ideal for researching skin for burn vitamins, insulin manufacture, and also making skin creams for ladies. One infant foreskin can be grown into literally thousands of square feet of new tissue.
Circumcision ranks among the world's most common surgeries (and one of the oldest). After its removal, most foreskin is tossed as biological waste — but when they're kept around, the leftover cells have proven a vital asset to medical research.
Foreskins are sold primarily to pharmaceutical companies, skin crème companies, but also to research labs for an incredible 100% profit. In other words, hospitals get the foreskins for free.
As a biological waste, human foreskin is a reservoir of abundant dermal stem/progenitor cells with potential therapeutic value.
Back in the 1950s, roughly 80 per cent of Australian men and boys were circumcised. That rate has steadily decreased and now, around 20 per cent of Australian newborns are circumcised. This is largely due to developments in modern medicine.
Eventually, the foreskin should be retracted far enough during urination to see the meatus (the hole where the urine comes from). This prevents urine from building up beneath the foreskin and possibly causing an infection. As long as the foreskin doesn't easily retract, only the outside needs to be cleaned.
In Australia today, fewer than 20 per cent of boys are circumcised. When considering circumcision for your child, you should be aware of the possible risks and benefits. Circumcision may offer health benefits, although these may be too small to justify surgery. There are different methods of circumcision.
If you decide to have your baby circumcised, the procedure is usually done in the hospital. These are the typical steps in a circumcision: Your baby will be taken to a special surgical area and any clothing will be removed for the procedure.
In an article for The Tyee, Dr. Paul Tinari estimated that a single male foreskin can be worth upwards of $100,000. He argued that men who are circumcised have a right to the revenue made off the resale of their foreskins (just as someone who sells their hair for wigs would, for example).
But in the Malagasy culture, it does not end at circumcision. Traditionally, the paternal grandfather eats the foreskin after its been cut off and the old man may not have to eat it alone; he can give it away to anyone else in the room as long as they hold an honoured position at the event.
But “baby foreskin” being used in beauty products is nothing new. In fact, the active ingredient in an Oprah-touted skin cream from SkinMedica uses “foreskin fibroblasts” that are used to grow and cultivate new cells. Just one foreskin is said to be able to grow these cells for decades.
Before circumcision, the foreskin covers the tip of the penis (glans). After circumcision, the tip of the penis is exposed. Circumcision is the surgical removal of the skin covering the tip of the penis.
Organogenesis is one company of many that have commercialized infant foreskin.
Conclusion: The highest-quality studies suggest that medical male circumcision has no adverse effect on sexual function, sensitivity, sexual sensation, or satisfaction.
With non-vascularized adhesions the foreskin naturally adheres to the head/glans of the penis and sometimes happens again after circumcision. This type of adhesion often resolves without treatment because of natural exfoliation of the skin.
Excessive Foreskin Removed
In most cases the denuded area will epithelialize spontaneously and give a satisfactory end result, but the inital appearance can be quite distressing to both parents and practitioner.
They reviewed 29 articles that discussed circumcision around the world, including North America, Europe, Australia, Asia, and Africa (e.g., Botswana, Kenya, and Uganda.) They found that “in the overwhelming majority” of studies, women preferred circumcised penises.
Which is better? Either way is normal and healthy — there is no “better” or “worse” option. The foreskin is the retractable tube of skin that covers and protects the head (glans) of the penis. All healthy boys are born with a foreskin.
How common is phimosis? Phimosis is found in virtually all newborns, and then the foreskin changes gradually so that it can be pulled back. It's estimated that only 1% of people still have phimosis when they're 16 years old.
Most boys will be able to retract their foreskins by the time they are 5 years old, yet others will not be able to until the teen years. As a boy becomes more aware of his body, he will most likely discover how to retract his own foreskin. But foreskin retraction should never be forced.
These findings suggest that it is better to perform circumcision when boys are < 1 year old, when the anesthesia complications are also at a minimum. A longer hospitalization is associated with an increased risk of infection as well as increased costs (24).
About one-third of males worldwide are circumcised, although the prevalence of circumcision varies significantly by country and culture.
Almost 60% of men reported that they would prefer to be circumcised and 76% of women stated a preference for circumcised sexual partners.
It is prevalent in some Muslim-majority countries in southeast Asia such as Indonesia and Malaysia; however, the WHO states that there is "little non-religious circumcision in Asia, with the exceptions of the Republic of Korea and the Philippines".
Over the 32-year period, the percentage of newborns receiving circumcision at birth decreased 37%, from 63.9% in 1979 to 40.2% in 2010. Most of this decrease occurred in the 1980s, with the rate dropping to 41.0% in 1989. Rates continued to decrease through 2010, with a low of 31.4% in 2003.