The Council of Europe in Strasbourg has recommended nations consider banning child circumcision. Jewish groups, and the State of Israel, are predictably outraged by the recommendation, which if adopted would make traditional (and not just religious) Jewish life impossible on the Continent. Thus the law has been denounced as anti-Semitic. While I have recently criticized […]
Archive | Circumcision Bans
Court Tentatively Decides That State Law Preempts Proposed San Francisco Ban on Circumcision of Boys
By Eugene Volokh on July 28, 2011 12:15 pm in Circumcision Bans, Parental Rights, Religion and the Law
California Business & Professions Code 460(b) reserves the regulation of medical procedures to the state, and preempts contrary local rules: No city, county, or city and county shall prohibit a healing arts professional licensed with the state under Division 2 (commencing with Section 500) from engaging in any act or performing any procedure that falls […]
“No Account Shall Be Taken … of Any Belief … That the Operation Is Required as a Matter of Custom or Ritual”
In the discussions about the proposed circumcision bans, some people suggested that the provision that “[i]n applying [the medical necessity exception to the ban], no account shall be taken of the effect on the [child] of any belief on the part of [the child] or any other person that the operation is required as a […]
Harshly Criticizing Religious and Cultural Figures and Practices
A bunch of people have e-mailed me about Foreskin Man, a comic book series written by Matthew Hess, a leading figure in the anti-circumcision movement who apparently drafted the prototype for the San Francisco anti-circumcision ordinance. (Contrary to some initial reports, he is not the official “proponent” of the initiative listed with the San Francisco […]
Are the Proposed Circumcision Bans Motivated by Hostility to Jews (or Muslims)?
I’ve heard some people argue that the proposed circumcision bans (one of which is now on the ballot in San Francisco) is motivated by hostility to Jews. I quite doubt it, for a reason I mentioned in an earlier post: As of 2005, about 56% of newborn American boys, and about 31% of American boys […]
Planned Anti-Circumcision-of-Boys Initiative in Santa Monica
The proposed anti-circumcision initiative follows the text of the San Francisco initiative. According to the Jewish Journal, “To qualify the initiative for inclusion on the ballot in Santa Monica’s next election in November 2012, its proponents will need to collect signatures from 10 percent of the city’s approximately 61,000 registered voters in the next six […]
Proposed San Francisco Circumcision Ban, and Religious Freedom
In the earlier post, I discussed whether the proposed San Francisco ban on circumcising boys would violate parental rights, even when the parents don’t raise a religious objection to the ban. (As I mentioned in the post, likely about 95% of male circumcisions in the U.S. are not done by Jews or Muslims, the two […]
Proposed San Francisco Circumcision Ban (with No Discussion of Religious Freedom in This Post)
In November, San Francisco voters will vote on an initiative that would generally ban circumcision of boys under age 18, except when “the operation is necessary to the physical health of the [child] because of a clear, compelling, and immediate medical need with no less-destructive alternative treatment available, and is performed by a … licensed […]