Protection from AIDS by Cassie Van Gompel

As usual, CONA proposals don't disappoint. They are always pushing the envelope and pushing some of us out of our comfort zones, and one proposal does just that. Proposal No. 64, a proposal to mandate neonatal circumcision for male babies born in the United States, by David Murdter from California, led to much controversy in the chambers. Murdter's critics asserted that 43 percent of parents willingly decline circumcision and should not be forced to make their children have this surgery. They also state that the government is trying to "be a better parent than the biological parent." The pro speakers of this bill assert that it would lower the rate of herpes by 25 percent, would lower the rate of uroloical cancer, and would lower the rate of contracting HIV by 50 to 70 percent. They also argued that its effects were like that of a vaccine, lowering the transmission of a disease, but with much lower complication rates, the circumcision complication rate is .2 percent and the complication rate of the flu is 5 percent. Murdter's facts are supported by International Herald Tribune and the Center for Disease Control.