My daughter recently had her infant son circumcised in Canada. I was surprised by the look of absolute horror in the eyes of some of my friends when I told them.

Equally surprising to me was a question posed by my daughter’s nurse after the procedure. Did she want to retain the foreskin?

I was shocked by the suggestion, as was my daughter. Do people actually want it? Yes, a number do, it seems. (My daughter was also asked if she wanted the placenta after delivery. She declined both offers.)

Obviously I am not keeping up with modern surgical etiquette. So, I was curious to further investigate this trend. I do vaguely recollect that a patient in my intern year had a large gallstone sitting in a bottle by his bed.