"I can tell you, after assisting in countless circs., they do indeed feel pain! We had one recently who had to be rushed to the hospital because of massive blood loss. I assisted in one the other day and as I was stroking his cheek and head, the doctor clamped a hemostat on and the baby let out a blood curdling scream and went into convulsing sobs. He had been fine the moment before but his pain was obvious when the cutting/clamping was being done.
"Anyone who has ever seen one and can then have it done to their own baby is heartless, in my opinion. My husband is circed and I had to fight long and hard with him not to have my son circed but I won. The major influencing factor came from our own ped., who my husband's mother was talking to at a dinner party and he said that he would be glad to do it for us but that it was a totally unneccesary procedure. My mother-in-law was surprised to hear this, since she stated that she had her two boys done because back then she thought it was "the law". Ha ha! I believe that it's an uniformed decision made by parents who are just following the old traditions without questioning why.
"We don't allow the parents to stay during the circ. I wonder why? (Sarcasm intended). I once assisted with a doctor who was joking around and held the foreskin up as an earring and said he should make them into jewelry and sell them!"-- Patti