Florida mom jailed for not having her 4 year old son circumcised.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/florida-mom-released-jail-circumcision-dispute/story?id=31273930
Can one parent force an elective surgical procedure on a child against the wishes of another parent? Except for jews, muslims, american & south koreans, the rest of the world is uncut.
If only the boy’s pennis is infected and there is no alternative treatment.
Is this a family dispute?
For all we know, it was a medically necessary procedure or some bizarre custody agreement. However you failed to quote the reason why she was jailed.
So she essentially kidnapped her son. Seems like a pretty solid reason to face jail.
I cannot understand why the father wants to inflict this on a child of his age. Apparently it was in the initial agreement that it would be done and he would arrange for it, but nothing happened until the boy was 3, at which point the father started insisting on it as a result of what sounds like a misdiagnosis.
I also read that the child was the result of a 6-month relationship that had ended well before he was born, and that the father sued to establish parenthood.
She didn’t kidnap her son. She went and lived in a battered women’s shelter with the boy in order to avoid a judge’s ruling–mind-bogglingly cruel, IMHO–to have this unnecessary surgery performed on a child of his age.
I’m not an intactivist, but I agree that this is unnecessary ritual genital mutilation. From what I read, the judge made this decision based on contract law. Think about explaining this to a three or four year old. It boggles the mind.
Since she wasn’t battered, or even threatened in the least by the father, using the services of a battered women’s shelter was an awful thing to do. Those resources should be used for people who need them, and she should be pay for the cost of her stay.
Yes she did.
So what? Father’s get sued for paternity and often lose if they have a 6-minute relationship.
A member of our extended family had this done at age 6 or 7, it was very traumatic.
I don’t understand the insistence of the father. It seems more like a way to make the mother of their child do something that she doesn’t want to do.
My Dad was circumcised at around age 7. Some stupid thing about moving to the city and getting advice about how things were “supposed to be”. He was not happy and remembers every bit!
I haven’t followed the story, but on reddit someone stated that there was a medical issue and a doctor recommended that he be circumcised to solve it. I don’t know the details but if you look at the topics on reddit there’s something in one of them about it with more details.
Her son was.
Unless the urologist is mistaken, there is no medical reason to do it.
So you consider a man to have “lost” if it is established that he fathered a child? Presumably because he may then be considered financially responsible for it? In this case, it would appear that the father was a “winner,” since evidently the mother did not want either his financial support or his involvement: in fact, it was forced on her.
If you are going to accuse the father or someone else of battering the son or threatening him, you may want to provide, you know, like proof.
Otherwise you are just…oh nevermind.
Personally, I consider forcing a 4-yr-old child to undergo completely unnecessary surgery to his genitals as battery.
YMMV.
This case is very strange. If he was to be circumcised, it should have been done as a newborn. After that, it’s too painful and traumatic.
Why is the father insisting?
Phimosis?
Just awful. Power and money.
Phimosis is not commonly diagnosed in children as young as 4 to my knowledge. Their are common non-surgical treatments it and circumcision should be seen as a last resort. the stretching of the foreskin is not even necessary at that age.
I would wonder how many American pediatricians really have enough experience with foreskins to know if one is “too tight”. It’s more about our culture than about medicine.
Any urologists on here who would like to comment? Otherwise I’m afraid this will be an agenda-driven, full of misinformation discussion. Either the child needs a medical procedure or he doesn’t.
I have a friend that had three boys. The oldest was not circumcised because they bought into the trend not to do it (he is now in his mid to late 20’s). However, he had infections and other issues, so he was circumcised as an older child. The other two sons were circumcised as infants. They wanted to avoid even more trauma/discomfort/inconvenience/issues as he continued to age. Parents absolutely regretted not having all 3 boys circumcised as infants.
I’m sure there are plenty of people who could post stories of choosing not to circumcise their male infants–saying that they “bought into the trend” is pretty dismissive, don’t you think?–and having it work out just fine.