American courts should follow Israel’s lead in case of boy facing circumcision

Article here. Excerpt:

'This past June Israel’s highest court ruled that it isn’t appropriate to link a child’s circumcision to a divorce proceeding. It appears the American legal system has no such concerns.

In Palm Beach County, Florida, family court judge Jeffrey Gillen has ordered a young mother arrested and jailed for failing to hand over her healthy four-year-old son so he can be circumcised according to his dad’s wishes.

The situation looks bleak – for Heather Hironomous and for her son’s foreskin – as the initial circumcision order has already been appealed and affirmed. The family is not Jewish or Muslim, so religious concerns are not at issue here.

The cases in Israel and Florida are strikingly similar. Both involve mothers who have serious objections to childhood circumcision absent true medical necessity. Fearful of the pain their boys would inevitably endure, of the potential for surgical complications and of possible diminished sensation in adulthood, both mothers consider themselves to be “intactivists” – a burgeoning human rights group that believes women and men alike should make their own decisions, as consenting adults, when it comes to elective genital surgery.'