Post by snipsnsnails on Jun 28, 2012 12:45:20 GMT -5
"In what has been described as a landmark decision, a court in the city of Cologne said circumcision violated a child's "fundamental right to bodily integrity" and that this right outweighed the rights of the parents."
Circumcision, no more. No religious exemption. Hello, foreskin!
Hrm I don't like the "no religious exemption" part.
Personally I'm not really for circumcision -- our boys aren't, and actually for the reason they listed, haha -- but it doesn't seem right to completely disregard a religious ceremony. Short sighted, for sure.
what will always bother me is that circumcision still gets more press than female genital mutilation (which truly is mutilation). I swear, when something involves a penis, it seems to be a bigger deal.
what will always bother me is that circumcision still gets more press than female genital mutilation (which truly is mutilation). I swear, when something involves a penis, it seems to be a bigger deal.
well this isn't a common/semi-common practice over the entire globe.
"In what has been described as a landmark decision, a court in the city of Cologne said circumcision violated a child's "fundamental right to bodily integrity" and that this right outweighed the rights of the parents."
I agree with the above statement 100%.
Now given Germany's historical relationship with the Jewish community I think it wasn't the best country to pass a law like this...
what will always bother me is that circumcision still gets more press than female genital mutilation (which truly is mutilation). I swear, when something involves a penis, it seems to be a bigger deal.
well this isn't a common/semi-common practice over the entire globe.
No, but it does happen even in our country.
I am not making light of the subject at hand (because it is serious), but I just tend to notice this in general when it comes to men and their junk.
to keep back the screaming throngs of women dying for some circumcised peen. i gotcha.
listen, my husband is jewish, as is his family. it recently occured to me that if there were another holocaust, i'd have to hide him and my kid. and that that's why he doesn't know a lot about where his (polish) great-grandparents came from. i don't know why i didn't think of that before, but i didn't. this isn't "my" history, but now it's the history of my family.
i think to forbid a religious exemption in that country, with that history, for something that has been conducted for--literally--millenia with a very low incidence of problems, is terrifying. this isn't trying to keep the upstart FLDS polygamists from marrying off their 4th grade girls to 90 year old men who rape them.
To some it might be barbaric, but I think to simply say it is done for cosmetic reasons is both being too simple and belittling.
And, like it or not, I have heard a good amount of stories of boy getting this done later in life because of constant infections because they were not cleaning themselves properly.
i'd like to add that my feelings about circumcision are far from fully formed. just formed enough that i think not to permit a religious exemption (in freaking GERMANY) is a problem.
Post by snipsnsnails on Jun 28, 2012 13:23:31 GMT -5
To be honest, I shamefully don't give circumcision all that much thought. And I'm the mother of a son.
What I do give thought to now are questions like, "As a secular state, is this understandable? How many generations (if that) are we from becoming a secular state where this might be possible? What is the inherent value in protecting religious freedoms in a country? At what point do they alienate fundamental rights?" And so on and so forth...