Circumcision: Separation of 'church' and medicine

It's one thing to analyze circumcision purely from the perspective of medicine and medical ethics.  The same principles of medicine and medical ethics applied to other surgeries are applied to circumcision.  From this perspective, the foreskin is given no special status, and it's removal is recognized as a 'non-conservative' treatment.

But there's another aspect to circumcision:  Judaism and Islam treat this body part as very special and unique (their traditions require its sacrifice).  Similarly (though perhaps without a 'scriptural' component), many cultures practice ritual circumcision (e.g. in Africa).

The United States is often described as a "melting pot" because a wide array of peoples and cultures comprise our population.  But just as there are risks in eroding the "wall of separation" between religion and state, so too there are risks in not maintaining a strict wall of separation between religion and medicine.

I'm not sure what to say about this.  I find the problem vexing.  From a medical standpoint, the ethics of prophylactic circumcision are (in my view) clear.  Circumcision meets none of the criteria necessary to justify it as a prophylactic medical treatment, unlike, for example, the Polio vaccine.  I plan to write a diary detailing exactly what those criteria are and how circumcision fails every test, but that's for another day.

I'd be content ignoring the religious aspects, but they keep coming up in discussion.  My tendency it to keep a strict wall of separation, but since others do not always do so, religion/culture always finds its way back in.

Why is this so much of a problem?  Why does the American medical establishment allow religious practices to influence its perspective on circumcision?  It clearly does so by devaluing the male prepuce ("foreskin") to the status of disposable body part, despite it's highly sexual and functional nature.

Those who oppose medical circumcision are sometimes accused of being prejudiced against religions which practice it ritually.  It's happened to me personally, right here at DailyKos.

In most of my diaries, I present a clear view.  In this case, I'm just throwing this issue out there for some (hopefully enlightened) discussion.

Circumcision in America is a vexing issue, I think, because of the religious confound.

Does anybody know how to untangle religion from medicine, so that freedom of religion is not abridged, yet the integrity of medicine is not corrupted?

Update:

I'm on hiatus

This comment strongly expresses the opinion that my diaries on circumcision are too frequent, and doing more harm than good for the cause of Genital Integrity Rights at DailyKos.  Accurate or not, it's bummed me out enough that I've decided to take a break.  You will see no such diaries from me during the next couple of weeks.

Followup comments.