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Re: REQUEST : Foreskin / circumcision
Vivek Sadananda Pai (vivek@cs.rice.edu) wrote:
: Societies where the average lifespan is shorter will almost be assured
: to have lower cancer rates, simply because the people will die of
: something else before they die of cancer.
: Any study which doesn't account for the difference in lifespans (among
: other things) should be suspect, and in general, I view a lot of these
: cross-cultural studies with a bit of suspicion, since there are many
: variables involved.
: That said, I should also state that I'm unaware of the breakdown of
: the causes of mortality in India. I would imagine that such a
: breakdown doesn't exist, or if it does, it has a large margin of
: error. I don't imagine the cause of death in many cases is really
: determined.
Dear Vivekji:
Thank you for your interesting explanation. Please allow me to say a few
things about how such a study could be done. The validity of the study
will necessarily depend on proper sampling. Epidemiologists have standard
charts for collecting such data. They typically chart many things, that
may or may not be considered related at the outset. Only when a
consistent pattern is obtained from the survey, a connection can me made.
Your hypothesis about longevity, is not very strong, because it has not
been substantiated in any society. There are two issues here; the "hope"
that circumcision will get rid of the tissue that could become cancerous
in future; and, the "protective" action of circumcision against the
cancer. In order for the hypothesis to be accepted by the scientific
community, especially the second must be found true. As far as I know,
such a connection has not been established.
With best regards,
Dhruba.
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