Replace circumcision with symbolic ritual, says Norwegian children's watchdog

Submitted by Mastodon on Tue, 2012-08-07 21:52

Article here. Excerpt:

'Norway's ombudsman for children's rights has proposed that Jews and Muslims replace male circumcision with a symbolic, nonsurgical ritual.

Dr. Anne Lindboe told the newspaper Vart Land last month that circumcising boys was a violation of their right to decide over their own body.

"Muslim and Jewish children are entitled to the same protection as all other children," Lindboe said, adding that the practice caused unnecessary pain and was medically unbeneficial.

Lindboe, a pediatrician, was appointed ombudsman in June. Her predecessor, Reidar Hjermann, proposed setting 15 as the minimum age for circumcision. According to Jewish religious law, Jewish babies must be circumcised when they are eight days old.'

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Comments

1. A man must sacrifice a female lamb, or goat, or two turtledoves or pigeons, if he is unclean or sinful in any way. By 'unclean' this means contact with a dead carcass or human body.
2. Ritual washing following intercourse or after a woman's menstrual period.
3. Complete water immersion for men on the day prior to Yom Kippur.

And so on; there are many hundreds of rules and traditions, possibly thousands. Some Jewish people still practice some of these traditions and rules. But do any Jewish people in the world today still try to practice all of them? I doubt it. Point is, many traditions and observations of rules fall by the wayside over time for often very good reasons, not the least of which is practicality as well as an evolving sense of what is appropriate; to put it in the context of a religious debate, this means what is now pleasing to the All-Mighty. Burnt offerings/sacrifices were a big part of Jewish tradition until one day-- they were forbidden as no longer pleasing to The Man Upstairs.

Why this cannot happen with circumcision, I just don't know. If people can stop ritually sacrificing animals as atonement for their sins, can't they cease and desist cutting off pieces of their newborn sons' genitalia? And why this tradition just seems to go on and on, with one rationalization being made for it after another even by secular people, utterly eludes me.

All I can do is hope for the day that will come, hopefully sooner rather than later, that was like when dueling as a tradition came to an end-- one day, everyone just realized that it was a dumb thing to be doing, so they stopped. Just as with animal sacrifices. And hopefully some day soon, MGM.

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Submitted by Matt on Thu, 2012-08-09 01:14