Lizzie and Matthew didn’t give circumcision a great deal of thought when their first son, Oliver, was born last November. They were always planning to have it done, not for any philosophical reason, but because it seemed like a sensible, routine thing to do. “I was neutral, and my husband was kind of keen,” says Lizzie. “He and his family thought it was the right thing to do, for hygiene reasons.”

The couple live in London, although both have American roots. Matthew was born and raised in Missouri. Lizzie is English but her mother hails from the US – and is Jewish. For them, the snip was just that – a part of the normal course of events. “Everyone in the States pretty much has it done,” Matthew says. “I just took it as a matter of course.”