article: male circumcism

Article and summary I found in the mothering magazine website...

The First Cut is the Deepest

Parents, child advocates and activists have rallied for years against circumcision, deeming it both unnecessary and unkind. A new article in the current issue of the Journal of Medical Ethics states that additionally, circumcision is ethically inappropriate and unlawful. According to authors M. Fox and M. Thomson, from the School of Law, Keele University, UK, "We conclude that it is ethically inappropriate to subject children—male or female—to the acknowledged risks of circumcision and contend that there is no compelling legal authority for the common view that male circumcision is lawful."

The article "A covenant with the status quo..." exposes circumcision proponents as "evangelists" and their continued commitment to mass circumcision "problematic in a number of
respects."

Increasingly, attention is being paid to the ethics surrounding routine circumcision—and to a child's human rights including that of self-determination. As a result, longstanding medical and cultural arguments favoring routine circumcision are being evidenced as moot or insignificant in comparison.