Blog of Andreas Eschenbacher

·        Before 600 BC , Middle East, Religious Identity: Jews adopted circumcision from the Egyptians and are believed to be the first to perform it upon newborns ·        The practice was taken up by the Phoenicians around 400 BC, from either the Egyptians or Israelites, and propagated to other nations. ·        In 170 BC , ritual circumcision was banned by Greeks. Renowned Greek philosophers construed circumcision as a flaw of the human body, hence only Jews and slaves were subjected to this practice. ·        Greeks, Romans : prepuce was highly valued; exposed glans was ridiculed, forbidden   Sprinter on a vase, Fikellura style amphora with a running man, Greek, 6th century BC, from Kamiros, Rhodes, Aegean Sea, Winning at the ancient Games, British Museum (7667202636).jpg. Author: Carole Raddato. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Now we jump a little bit forward in time … ·        Western societies  (specially Germany) used th

The following list provides some information about what may count as trustworthy assumptions / facts about the development of human foreskin and the practice of Human Genital Modification HGM. I took this information from a variety of sources (see upcoming literature list). Incomplete staff with phallic morphology from Cueto de la Mina cave (Asturias). Paleolithic Age. Author: José-Manuel Benito / Public Domain /  https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bastón_fálico_paleolítico.png ·        The evolution of foreskin happened around 100 million years ago in proto-mammalian species ·        In primates , the foreskin has been present in the genitalia of both sexes of mammals for at least 65 million years and likely has been present for over 100 million years of evolution, based on its commonality as an anatomical feature in mammals (Link: ( http://www.intactwiki.org/wiki/Evolution_of_the_Foreskin ) ·        Emergence of the archaic Homo Sapiens about 300,000 years ago, and the mod

The Foreskin Industry Infant foreskins seem to be a multi-million-dollar industry since neonatal fibroblasts / stem cells gained from the foreskin (prepuce) can be used for:   breathable bandages, treatment of bedsores, hair-grow stimulants, anti-aging cosmetic face creams, and injectable collagen.  Foreskin derived stem cells could be used to treat congenital muscular dystrophy. A patent search finds thousands of patent applications (most are not granted) dealing with all sorts of ‘prepuce-related things’, like: prepuce stretching, cutting, prosthesis, restoration, cleaning, stripping, measuring, stitching, surgical treatment of juvenile phimosis, but also the use of human foreskin cells suitable for culturing stem cells. Patent applications may use text snippet s like (just look at the catch words): ·        The present invention is generally related to skin care compositions, and more specifically to cosmeceuticals and medicaments for topical application, including a skin 

Circumcision – introduction and motivation why I write about this In the next few Blogs, I would like to write about male and female ‘circumcision’ . For men , the term circumcision is somewhat ‘obvious’ for it is widely practiced and is ‘recommended’ or ‘demanded’ by the Jewish religion as well as within the Muslim faith system (although there is room to argue about this).  Male circumcision comes in a variety of practices. Female circumcision (there are 4 main types) is also called Female Genital Mutilation (FGM ) or Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting/Circumcision (FGM/C). All this can be summarized under the terms Human Genital Circumcision (HMC) or Human Genital Mutilation (HMG). The terms Mutilation and Cutting are often times not accepted since they bear the connotation of harmful, illegal. For this Blog, I will use the term H(uman)GM, F(emale)GM, and  M(ale)GM , the ‘ M ’ stands for the more neutral term Modification , but I keep the original abbreviations and meanings in th