Circumcision Ban to be on the Ballot in San Francisco
Last night I read in the WSJ that a ban on circumcision is being placed on the ballot in San Francisco in November. And that a similar ban was proposed in Massachusetts last year. How come I never heard about that?
The San Francisco initiative would ban the circumcision of males younger than 18, and has already gotten enough signatures to appear on the ballot, and it would make the act, which the bills calls “genital mutilation” a misdemeanor.
I turned to my labor and delivery nurse daughter and asked her what she thought. “Have you ever seen this done? It’s brutal! They use a topical anesthetic and they have to pull the foreskin forward and then cut around it. Some times they botch the job and if they do, there’s no way it grows back!”
I wondered how the Jewish community of San Francisco would regard this law. Is it an ancient cruelty we should have long ago abolished, or a tradition that’s been passed on and performed by special men since the beginning of time?
Both I guess.