The state legislature's Joint Committee on the Judiciary holds a hearing March 2 on a bill that would ban "genital mutilation" on people under 18, with the threat of a 14-year jail sentence for violators.
The bill as currently written would ban circumcisions done for religious reasons:
[N]o account shall be taken of the effect on the person on whom the operation is to be performed of any belief on the part of that or any other person that the operation is required as a matter of custom or ritual.
The bill would grant exemptions for procedures done for health reasons.
Via Chaz.
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Comments
Still
By Kaz
Thu, 02/11/2010 - 3:57pm
Breeders, as well as most farm animals, are kept relatively disease free for obvious reasons and I doubt the male pigs are Jewish. No matter what reasons there are for humans to be circumcised (and I'm making no assumption for or against the procedure), they will not correlate to the same living conditions/religions/lifestyles/etc of the animals in the way you're looking for. It's an impossible analogy to correlate to our own purposes for circumcision.
I Know It's Impossible, But That's Kind Of My Point
By Suldog
Thu, 02/11/2010 - 4:50pm
If we can't correlate, then that provides a good basis for reasoning that, at the least, it cannot be proven as clearly beneficial, no? I mean, you've got a liver, a pig has a liver, we know what happens if either of you loses that liver. It's bad. On the other hand, if you have a nasty parasite, and a pig has a nasty parasite, we know what happens when either of you is rid of the parasite. It's good.
But, if you have a foreskin, and a pig has a foreskin, the proponents of circumcision are willing to tell you that it's a good thing for you to get rid of the foreskin, but none of the supposed benefits are beneficial enough to matter to any other species?
Ah, skip it. This is just getting too weird. Still bugs me, though.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
If breeding pigs behaved more like humans, maybe
By Kaz
Thu, 02/11/2010 - 4:54pm
But then we'd have more to worry about from Snowball and Napoleon.
You know, the more I reread that subject line...I think I am going to skip it.
Maybe not pigs, but whales *DO* get circumcised
By Sarcastic Sam
Fri, 02/12/2010 - 2:30pm
and it takes FOUR SKIN DIVERS to get that accomplished!
Haw haw haw!! hyuk hyuk hyuk!
hate to break it to you, kaz
By bandit
Thu, 02/11/2010 - 5:05pm
but pigs don't have a foreskin. they have a penis that retracts into their belly, protecting it.
most animals do not have a foreskin like humans do. they have an extension of their skin and cartilage which forms a protective sheath.
Well, I was gonna let it go, but...
By Suldog
Thu, 02/11/2010 - 5:09pm
"...forms a protective sheath."
Which is the main function of the foreskin, is it not? Ergo... something.
no, that's probably the point of human foreskin, too!
By bandit
Thu, 02/11/2010 - 5:11pm
just saying that it's not growing off the penis, it's growing off the belly or groin.
and now i really think we've all spent a wee bit too long talking about pig penises. i am starting to feel a little pervy here. and not in the good way.
Truly
By Kaz
Thu, 02/11/2010 - 5:34pm
It brings new meaning to Pigs in a Blanket.
The American health
By Sue Keller
Thu, 02/11/2010 - 4:46pm
The American health establishment touts the benefits of male circumcision to prevent disease when they should be pushing the use of condoms and monogamy. As long the American health establishment and Jewish/Muslim religious and cultural adherents can get health insurers to cover male circumcision, then it will keep happening, regardless of the fact that any kind of circumcision is barbaric and primitive and archaic. Overwhelmingly, male and female circumcision seek to reduce sexual pleasure and thus, curb and control sexuality of both genders. I'm all for circumcision of consenting, competent adults. Leave children and vulnerable adults alone.
Don't force your issue onto my body
By WhoDat?
Thu, 02/11/2010 - 6:46pm
FGM and male circumcision are vastly different beasts. FGM is full removal of the clitoris. Male circumcision is removal of the foreskin. BIG difference. The latter would be the equivalent of scratching the clitoris. The former would be like lopping off the penis. Debate male circumcision on its own merits, but DO NOT equate it to FGM.
Uh, no, the female equivalent
By anon
Sun, 02/28/2010 - 12:52am
Uh, no, the female equivalent would be to amputate the clitoral hood. Do you think it would be OK to do that to girls? After all, they'd still have the clitoris! I mean, it would be quite desensitized since it'd have nothing to keep it moist and protect it, but it would still be there!
Old "facts"
By anon
Thu, 02/11/2010 - 7:00pm
Thats simply not try anymore. The HIV study wasn't even completed! And it was in a country with low condom use. Condoms are better than circumcision for reducing HIV, STD's. Boys who are cleaned properly, do not get more UTI's than girls (actually way less). When the foreskin is forcibly retracted for excessive cleaning, infections occer more often. The foreskin should not be manipulated until it loosens in it's own in later childhood. Also the US have high rates of circumcision and high rates of HIV so the HIV argument does not hold water. And penile cancer is so rare, and the difference so miniscule that it dies not make sense to risk infections, mutilation and death. Yes, death.
"Infections, mutilation and
By WhoDat?
Fri, 02/12/2010 - 9:42am
"Infections, mutilation and death."
You act as if this is a new procedure that hasn't been performed for centuries. There's about as much risk of the above as there is in a tonsillectomy. Anon, good nurse, anon.
Deaths
By Suldog
Fri, 02/12/2010 - 11:54am
Circumstitions
Easy enough to Google many other pages detailing the rates of infection and mutilation, among other hideousness. This was just the first I clicked onto.
Just because something has been done for centuries, that doesn't mean it isn't potentially dangerous.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
Clitoridectomy
By Betsy
Sun, 02/21/2010 - 12:34am
When girl is circomsized it is very different than that of a boy. What you speak of is only one form of the female circomsizion, and they both have to do with the removial of the clitoris.
Here is writings of the matter out my college textbook:
Clitoridectomy. Cultures in some parts of Africa and the Middle East ritually mutilate or remove the
clitoris, not just the clitoral hood. Removal of the clitoris, or clitoridectomy,is a rite of initiation into
womanhood in many of these predominantly Islamic cultures. It is often performed as a puberty ritual
in late childhood or early adolescence(not within a few days of birth, like male circumcision). In modernday
Egypt, the vast majority of female adolescents, aged 10 to 19, are circumcised (El-Gibaly et al., 2002).The clitoris gives rise to feelings of sexual pleasure in women. Its removal is an attempt to ensure the
girl’s chastity, because it is assumed that uncircumcised girls are consumed with sexual desires. Cairo physician Said M. Thabit says “With circumcision we remove the external parts, so when a girl wears tight nylon underclothes she will not have any stimulation.”What effects does it have on the sexuality of women? A study of 250 female patients from the Maternal and Childhood Centers of Ismailia, Egypt, found that those who were circumcised were 80% more likely to complain of dysmenorrhea, 49% more likely to complain of vaginal dryness during intercourse, 45% more likely to lack sexual desire, 49% less likely to be pleased by sex, and 61% more likely to have difficulty reaching orgasm (El-Defrawi et al., 2001). But some groups in Egypt and in the Sudan simply perform clitoridectomies
because it is a social custom that has remained unchallenged (Missailidis & Gebre-Medhin, 2000). It is usually done by women to women (Nour, 2000). Some perceive it as part of their faith in Islam. However, the Koran—the Islamicbible—does not authorize it (Nour, 2000). The typical young woman in this culture does not grasp that she is a victim. She assumes that clitoridectomy is part of being female. As one young woman told gynecologist Nawal M.Nour (2000), the clitoridectomy hurt but was a good thing, because now she was a
woman. In many locales, clitoridectomies are performed under unsanitary conditions
without benefit of anesthesia. Medical complications are common, including infections, bleeding, tissue scarring, painful menstruation, and obstructed labor. The procedure is psychologically traumatizing. An even more radical form of clitoridectomy, called infibulation or Pharaonic circumcision, is practiced widely in the Sudan. Pharaonic circumcision involves complete removal of the clitoris along with the labia minora and the inner layers of
the labia majora. After removal of the skin tissue, the raw edges of the labia majora are sewn together. Only a tiny opening is left to allow passage of urine and menstrual discharge (Nour, 2000). The sewing together of the vulva is intended to ensure chastity until marriage.
My reference comes from my college class reading on human sexuality, from: Human Sexuality in a World of Diversity, Sixth Edition, by Spencer A. Rathus, Jeffrey S. Nevid, and Lois Fichner-Rathus. Published by Allyn and Bacon.
Copyright © 2005 by Pearson Education, Inc.
You are sexist.
By John Flushing
Mon, 03/01/2010 - 12:11am
The foreskin is a normal body part. It is really no different from the clitoral hood of a woman.
The parents have no right to amputate a normal, healthy body part. This is ultimately a civil rights issue, plain and simple. As men, we do not demand any special rights or privileges. We merely demand the SAME rights and privileges afforded to women.
The hygiene issue is no excuse. We teach our little girls how to clean their private parts. If a little girl can be trusted to clean her private parts, then I'm sure that a little boy can be trusted to clean his. As a male, I find it to be VERY insulting to my intelligence (and also very degrading) to think that I somehow can't be trusted to keep my private parts clean, even though a little girl can clean her private parts without any trouble.
If I am ever able to track down the thief who stole my foreskin, then I WILL file assault charges.
to be fair...
By bandit
Mon, 03/01/2010 - 8:27am
... there is a bit of a difference, physically, between keeping a foreskin clean and keeping a vagaina clean. vaginas are basically self-cleaning.
please note, i am *not* saying that little boys can't easily be taught to keep themselves clean. they can. it should be part of parenting to teach your boy children. just that it's not exacly the same as little girls.
and if you want to go after the person who took your foreskin, i suggest looking at your parents who probably authorized its removal.
Indeed, I have considered
By John Flushing
Fri, 01/21/2011 - 8:27pm
Indeed, I have considered suing my parents. It's just that I feel that the sick and twisted "doctor" who should have his license revoked is as much at fault as my parents. Cutting off normal body parts is something that you simply don't do.
Religion should not be an
By anon
Thu, 02/11/2010 - 11:31am
Religion should not be an excuse to mutilate a healthy child in this day and age. If an adult male wants to be circumcised that should be his choice.
Sounds good...
By Philonoist
Thu, 02/11/2010 - 1:30pm
Let's also hold off on having our children attend religious ceremonies or Sunday School until they can make such decisions regarding religion for themselves.
Not analogous
By eeka
Thu, 02/11/2010 - 10:51pm
Religion needs to stop being an excuse for anything that would ordinarily be viewed as abusive/illegal/harassing/discriminatory.
But taking your kids to religious observances isn't any different than making them play soccer or take piano lessons. Sure, it might not end up being their thing, but participating in any of the above (unless your religion is a lunatic fringe sect, in which case see above) is not abusive, and it probably does good things for the child's character and exposure to different things in the long run.
Sounds good...
By Philonoist
Thu, 02/11/2010 - 1:33pm
Let's also hold off on having children attend religious ceremonies or Sunday School until they're 18 and can make such decisions regarding religion for themselves.
Here's a topic that brings
By NotWhitey
Thu, 02/11/2010 - 12:07pm
Here's a topic that brings out the kooks.
Hands off my penis!
Exactly!
By SwirlyGrrl
Thu, 02/11/2010 - 12:42pm
Scalpels off, too! Unless that is, what you as an adult, want ...
The American Academy of
By WhoDat?
Thu, 02/11/2010 - 1:27pm
The American Academy of Pediatrics says it's a wash:
http://aappolicy.aappublications.org/cgi/content/f...
That's not what they said
By dga
Thu, 02/11/2010 - 2:43pm
They AAP does not advocate for a ban, but here's the quote from the abstract and summary:
So they do not recommend the procedure be performed routinely.
I suppose "not recommend" is not exactly the same as "recommend not", but I dispute your assertion that they "says it's a wash".
If you don't recommend it,
By WhoDat?
Thu, 02/11/2010 - 2:59pm
If you don't recommend it, but you don't recommend against it, that's a wash.
and either way,
By Sarcastic Sam
Thu, 02/11/2010 - 3:54pm
I recommend washing it.
Whose body is it?
By ml66uk
Thu, 02/11/2010 - 12:32pm
It's illegal to cut off a girl's prepuce, or to make any incision on a girl's genitals, even if no tissue is removed. Why don't boys get the same protection? Everyone should be able to decide for themselves whether they want part of their genitals cut off.
The supposed health benefits just aren't there.
The Covenant will not be stopped by a law
By Alan Wilensky
Thu, 02/11/2010 - 12:36pm
They will have to throw thousands of Jews into prison before we stop a sacred practice of the mystical binding of a man to his patriarchal lineage. The Romans and Babylonians tried to stop, the KGB tried to outlaw brit milah and Mivkvah, to no avail.
I have known non-religious intermarried couples where they professed not one care about tradition or circumcision, but when the child was born, a welling up of mystic transcendence helped the Jewish partner overcome cowardice to provide their sons with the requisite connection to our sacred forbears.
All you who inveigh against my holy tradition, come and fight, bring out your hostility for all to see in its naked light, we will not halt our practices, especially, Brit Milah.
G-d Damn the stain of gentile culture. The worst thing that has ever happened to this poor earth was the misled beatification of a Nazarite epileptic, and the creation of a Catholic Church.
Wow
By samablog
Thu, 02/11/2010 - 1:29pm
I would agree, that it's unlikely to stop religious types from doing in their own homes. But it's worth it just to stop those who do it for no reason other than "daddy had it done".
Worth it to whom?
By WhoDat?
Thu, 02/11/2010 - 2:22pm
Worth it to whom?
Wow
By anon
Thu, 02/11/2010 - 2:24pm
Who let Walter from "The Big Lebowski" in?
But seriously, you might want to tone down the "stain of gentile culture" and ranting against the Catholic Church, especially if you're taking a tone of religious righteousness here. What's different about your use of the term "stain" to describe gentiles-- which is actually a pretty offensive term, by the way-- and the use of the same term by anti-Semites to describe Jews?
For all those who thought Ms. Coke Chicken Hater's ...
By Michael Kerpan
Thu, 02/11/2010 - 2:40pm
... rhetoric was over the top -- Here is the "real thing" (TM)
Real live religious hate speech.
Just sayin'...
By Kaz
Thu, 02/11/2010 - 2:45pm
The real last name of your "patriarchal lineage" is Vilenski.
Rather than worrying about how well a clipped penis ties you to your mystical bonds, maybe you should start by undoing the shackles of some Catholic Irishman's transliteration on your forefather's Ellis Island forms. Your superstitious rituals aren't any better or more purposeful than any other religion's superstitions, bubala.
PS - Does it make me even more holier than thou to say that the worst thing that ever happened to Earth was the creation of ALL religions, yours included? Isn't that just the ultimate irony?
Stand back
By Stevie Nicks
Thu, 02/11/2010 - 2:53pm
...cause Kaz is _rolling_ today!
Philip Roth, is that you?
By WhoDat?
Thu, 02/11/2010 - 3:38pm
Philip Roth, is that you?
Ok, except for the end...
By Marc
Thu, 02/11/2010 - 7:49pm
Hey guy,
I'm with you there - no question...
Ok, lost you there pal. What on earth are you talking about? Why are you "damning" Catholics? You must be confused about the article.
I could understand if you were attacking post-religious atheistic culture, since that is where it seems that this argument is coming from. Not from any Christian church. In fact, if ever such a ban on circumcision, or for that matter kosher slaughtering, were to be enacted here for the non-religous reasons presented, I would think that the Catholic church and other organized American Christian groups would be among the first and loudest defenders of Jewish religious freedom.
Consider that possibility.
How about you not try to speak for Jews?
By eeka
Thu, 02/11/2010 - 10:55pm
Since you're a crazy wacko extremist one.
What if it is a commandment
By John Flushing
Fri, 01/21/2011 - 8:30pm
What if it is a commandment in my religion to cut off my daughter's clitoral hood? Are you going to make a religious exemption for me?
Wow, and here I thought
By Michael
Thu, 02/11/2010 - 12:57pm
Wow, and here I thought I'd had a harmless procedure done that I have no memory of (although I'm sure it hurt at the time...I couldn't walk for a year!) and, on balance, am glad was done. But now, after reading this thread, I'm going to call my folks tonight and scream at them because they've apparently mutilated me without my permission (I'm also going to have some stern words about me not signing off on that measles vaccine) and first reading reams of medical journals and weighing the opinions of thousands of properly peer-reviewed public health officials. Thanks, UH!
Awesome.
By WhoDat?
Thu, 02/11/2010 - 1:16pm
Awesome.
you don't understand the first thing about peer review
By Brett
Thu, 02/11/2010 - 1:47pm
weighing the opinions of thousands of properly peer-reviewed public health officials
Pubic health officials aren't "peer reviewed." RESEARCH is "peer reviewed". And thousands of public health officials haven't studied the issue. Just because something is published does not mean it has undergone "peer review". Peer review is what happens AFTER something is published.
A handful of researchers got MONEY to CONDUCT research and then they published in journals. Which newspapers then clamored about, without mentioning the significant problems with the research.
peer review shmear review
By anon
Thu, 02/11/2010 - 2:54pm
..and after 4 hours the comments devolve into petty bickering over semantics. Oh, the internet.
Not exactly
By SwirlyGrrl
Thu, 02/11/2010 - 3:00pm
I peer review articles for journals all the time - and the results of my review and reviews of other selected reviewers are tied to whether an article gets published.
Then there are Literature Reviews, which are compilations of data across articles and journals and presentations and other sources. These are then put together as a body of evidence - sometimes as a meta analysis if they are similar enough, more typically as combined figures and tables sorted different ways. The discussions and conclusions from those exercises are then peer reviewed before publication.
Example: I recently selected, convened, and moderated a panel of peer-reviewers for a large literature review of peer-reviewed journal articles. I myself was not peer-reviewed, aside from a few complements on the new glasses.
You seem to be an expert on
By ShadyMilkMan
Thu, 02/11/2010 - 3:28pm
You seem to be an expert on everything from peer reviews, to local customs, to planning /development and now penises. Bravo
Advanced pathophysiology
By SwirlyGrrl
Thu, 02/11/2010 - 5:06pm
and five boy-years of diaper changes. With two sons and babysitting time, I've probably spent more time cleaning them than you have.
Planning, development, peer review - all part of my job with air pollution science for public policy, dearie.
well...
By jodie
Thu, 02/11/2010 - 1:12pm
I would imagine it would not be okay to say that genital mutilation that conforms to the religious customs of Jews and Muslims is okay, where when it conforms to the customs of other cultures, it's not.
I can't imagine this bill actually being passed, but I don't think it would at all be appropriate for the government to dictate that some religious or cultural customs are more okay than others when it comes to a specific act. Change the language of the bill so that it reflects no surgical removal of labia, etc., it might have a better shot.
It doesn't
By Brett
Thu, 02/11/2010 - 1:32pm
It names all the naughty bits and then says hands-off. For EVERYONE.
hopefully
By anon
Thu, 02/11/2010 - 1:36pm
Well, unless you want to share your toy with a friend, I would hope...
Sounds reasonable to me.
By Roy Sablosky
Sat, 02/13/2010 - 1:53am
Sounds reasonable to me.
So does travelling 4,000
By WhoDat?
Mon, 02/22/2010 - 4:22pm
So does travelling 4,000 miles to push a piece of legislation nobody asked for just because your home state isn't receptive. Maybe you should worry about whole human beings in California before lobbying for the rights of foreskins here in Mass.
I imagine
By anon
Thu, 02/11/2010 - 1:27pm
I imagine any number of religious traditions made sense back in the days before soap, refrigeration, or modern medicine. The fact remains that it is a procedure that was came about during the Bronze Age because dudes couldn't (or wouldn't) reliably wash their wangs with soap and water. So a couple of village shamans figured out (I don't even want to know how) that, in the absence of basic hygeine, this would help... But if you keep your wang clean, you don't have problems. Same goes for STDs. Keep your wang "clean", and you won't have problems.
foreskins look funny and are ugly.
By Pete Nice
Thu, 02/11/2010 - 2:49pm
Therefore they should be banned. Infants can't vote, so why should they decide wheteher or not they want these abominations of nature (forskins)? Cut em all off and get the pacifiers ready. Frickin babies.
Won't this lead to backalley
By HP
Thu, 02/11/2010 - 3:59pm
Won't this lead to backalley circumcisions?
Wouldn't this ban ultimately
By HydeParker
Thu, 02/11/2010 - 4:03pm
Wouldn't this ban ultimately lead to back alley circumcisions?
Clinics
By Kaz
Thu, 02/11/2010 - 4:11pm
I'm sure we'd eventually have a Supreme Court decision ("Rod v. Spade"?) that would allow us to establish clinics for the procedure if you wanted it ("Planned Peener Hood"?).
I agree. Even though I don't
By Sheila
Thu, 03/04/2010 - 2:57pm
I agree. Even though I don't think boys should have to get circumcised at birth (neither of my boys are), I don't think it should be outlawed either. That will cause too many people who still think it is "necessary" to have it done under less than ideal circumstances. Since it is am optional surgery, it should be treated as such. Instead of having insurance cover it, or letting the government pay for it, let the parents pay for it, but let them have that option.
For those who think it's the child's body, let them decide, do you let your kid decide whether or not they get their shots? It's their body, isn't it the same thing?
I love my foreskin, and would
By J
Fri, 02/12/2010 - 12:03am
I love my foreskin, and would support a ban on circumcision. I feel bad for males that had their penis damaged. I know, I know, most of them say "it's fine, sex is good"...but very few men are able to experience sex with and without foreskin (including myself)
I do have a friend who had to get medical circumcision in his 20s. While he hated the painful week that caused....he said he preferred how sex felt while he had the extra skin, so he's glad it wasn't done at birth.
That's fine, but forcing your
By WhoDat?
Fri, 02/12/2010 - 9:38am
That's fine, but forcing your stance on others isn't going to help at all. Here's the deal: You take circumcision, we'll take abortion. There are some folks who would be just fine with that tradeoff, but I'm guessing there's be a hell of a lot that aren't. The arguments on each are too similar to ignore.
Forcing your stance on others ...
By Hugh7
Fri, 02/12/2010 - 3:25pm
... is exactly what non-therapeutic neonatal circumcision does.
So does parenting. It's years
By WhoDat?
Fri, 02/12/2010 - 4:03pm
So does parenting. It's years of forcing your stance on someone else. However, there's a nuanced difference there.
Nuance
By Roy Sablosky
Sat, 02/13/2010 - 1:56am
The difference between responsible parenting and unnecessary surgery is not nuanced. It is kind of dramatic.
The medical community has
By WhoDat?
Mon, 02/22/2010 - 4:18pm
The medical community has taken a line of strict neutrality on male circumcision. That said, it is up to the parent to make that decision based on the facts presented. Many parents do just that, which constitutes responsible parenting. If a parent feels, based on statistical and empirical evidence, that the minimal hygenic and prophylactic benefit of a circumcision outweighs inaction, they and their doctor likely don't consider it "unnecessary surgery."
Let's not be naive
By Restoring Tally
Mon, 03/01/2010 - 10:21pm
The medical industry makes lots of money with the million + infant circumcisions done every year in the US. The have a vested interest in continuing the practice of infant circumcision. Even still, the AAFP and the AAP have not found enough benefits to infant circumcision to recommend the surgery. The fact that they weasel out of condemning the procedure is most likely due to their financial conflict of interest.
It is not the parent's choice to permanently alter the body of their children absent a true medical necessity. It is unnecessary surgery because the baby is healthy and will continue to be healthy without the surgery.
His body, his choice.
How is NOT circumcising
By J
Sat, 02/13/2010 - 5:03am
How is NOT circumcising someone forcing anything?
Forcing = circumcise at birth. Kid never had a choice and can never take it back.
Not forcing = delay circumcision until kid is 18. Now it's a choice. He can keep the skin, or get rid of it. Everybody wins.
And no, your abortion comparison doesn't hold water.
If its my choice, Force Everyone, if not, Ban Outright
By Marc
Sat, 02/13/2010 - 8:23am
I just don't understand this mindset, so common on this blog apparently, that if you choose to do something for your kid, you must make it universal (for medical reasons, of course). And if you choose NOT to do something for your kid, you must ban it outright (for human rights reasons, of course). I'm sure just as "highly educated" as the rest of these reflexive tyrants.
My abortion comparison holds
By WhoDat?
Mon, 02/22/2010 - 4:32pm
My abortion comparison holds plenty of water, but you chose to drink the sand.
The kid DOESN'T have a choice. That's the point. It's a parental choice -- one they are legally and morally entitled to make. A child doesn't get to chose whether it goes to school or not, a child doesn't get to chose when its parents leave it with a sitter, a child doesn't chose where it gets to live, what it gets to eat, what bed it gets to sleep on, what happens to its umbilical cord or what it is vaccinated for. It is up to a parent to make this decision, and the medical community has kept this decision in a parent's hands.
As a parent, I wouldn't want that choice stripped away based on flimsy evidence brought forth by individuals lacking the credentials to take a child's temperature.
Parents DO have a right to
By John Flushing
Fri, 01/21/2011 - 8:35pm
Parents DO have a right to choose to vaccinate, send their children to school, etcetera. They do NOT, however, have a right to go cutting off body parts.
There are so many people like you who claim that a parent has every right to cut off a boy's foreskin. Yet I can guarantee that these are the same people who would scream bloody murder if a doctor were to do so much as make a pinprick in a little girl's foreskin.
That was a part of MY penis that they removed without MY consent (how would a woman feel if they cut off her clitoral hood)? I have to be reminded of this every time I go to the bathroom. If that alone is not a good enough reason to criminalize the practice then I do not know WHAT IS.
Circumcision = Male Genital Mutilation = Child Abuse
By Nickolas
Wed, 03/03/2010 - 8:53pm
This Shouldn't even be a debate anymore. It's about time that This Sexual Abuse and Torture finally comes to an end. This mutilation with baby boys has really gone on way too long already and NEEDS to become Illegal Now. Male Genital Mutilation(Circumcision) does not reduce any diseases or is it hard to keep clean. All these "Excuses" are complete bullshit and anyone with a brain can figure that out. It's common sense that it doesn't and if it did then the US would not have such a high rate of HIV and other diseases over countries where baby boys are left Intact and they don't perform this torture and abuse. When people hear that women have their clitorises cut off in Africa, they go, "Oh, how horrible." Meanwhile why are men mutilated here every day? Of course, it's sexual mutilation. That's like saying, "You know what? If you cut off your arm you'll never get an ingrown nail on your hand!" That's a great benefit! In Africa they mutilate women and we think that’s barbaric, but we’re doing the same thing to men! Parents should not be allowed to make this decision. It should not be up to parental consent. If somebody wants to get a circumcision, let them do it when they're an adult. This seriously NEEDS to be stopped and eventually it will be against the law. It’s as barbaric as what goes on in Africa. There is no reason for circumcision, PERIOD! This is the way you are born for a reason. We’ve been conditioned to think that men aren’t clean who are uncircumcised, and it’s wrong. And it’s wrong to put kids through this kind of pain. There’s no reason for it at all!
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