Thursday, March 04, 2010

DON'T LOP OFF THAT FORESKIN

Legislation is now being proposed in the Massachusetts state legislature to ban circumcision of any male children, including Jewish children.

A bill would make it illegal for parents to circumcise boys, unless there's a medical reason. It would ban the procedure on any male under the age of 18 even for religious reasons. Under the legislation, people who disregard the ban would face a fine and possible 14-year prison sentence. The proposal classifies male circumcision as genital mutilation.

Have the authors of this legislation taken leave of their senses? Is circumcision so cruelly painful to a newborn infant that the state needs to step in and stop this procedure?

Ever since the time of Abraham, circumcision has been required of all male infants born to parents of the Jewish faith. Doctors generally recommend the removal of a male infant’s foreskin for hygiene purposes. Circumcised men are less likely to get sexually transmitted diseases, urinary tract infections and penile cancer.

The idiots who are proposing this legislation are probably lawyers, as most lawmakers are. Maybe these legislators are former prosecutors who are just trying to head off the prospect of defense attorneys in murder trials arguing that jurors should consider as mitigating circumstances that the killer was suffering from POST CIRCUMCISION STRESS DISORDER.

I’ll be surprised if this bill succeeds in being approved by the legislature. But if it does pass, I’ll be even more surprised if the governor does not veto it. By enacting a law that bans circumcision, Massachusetts would be making Jews criminals for adhering to their faith.

No comments: