It's official.
Governor Brown has signed AB768, which decrees that the circumcision of healthy, non-consenting individuals is "medically beneficial."
I could be mistaken, but this could very well be the first law in all of the United States that dictates the medical validity of a surgical procedure on healthy, non-consenting individuals, without evidentiary hearings of any kind.
I'm at a loss for words.
The law basically defies the whole of Western medicine, and absolves doctors from reaping profit from non-medical procedures performed on healthy non-consenting individuals.
By California law, males 17 years and below have no capacity to refuse a permanent disfigurement on their genitals, and doctors and other individuals responsible are absolved.
What a sad day in the fight for equal rights.
No, children's rights.
No, basic human rights.
They day will come when this law will be overturned, and all who signed it will be ashamed of themselves.
Federal Level
The law proposed on the federal level is a bit more brazen, outright calling on our federal government to protect circumcision in the name of "religious freedom" and "parental choice." Not only does it defy all of Western medicine, it also flies in the face of the 1st and 14th Amendments.
Readers, if you are opposed to the "Religious and Parental Rights Defense Act" (H. R. 2400) and would like to take action to stop it, I strongly suggest you use POPVOX to contact your Representative. It is also a good idea to contact other Representatives, particularly those on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, which is considering the Bill. When you write, be sure to include a clause which specifically says "I oppose H. R. 2400."
I personally have used POPVOX and I got a form reply from my representative Sam Farr, so I know it works. POPVOX makes it easy for you to contact your Representative about this and other issues. I highly recommend readers register with POPVOX and contact their Representative concerning this bill.
Click here to go directly to the H. R. 2400 bill on POPVOX.
Let your voice be heard!
It could make all the difference.
Visit the following links for another set of analyses regarding the the circumcision protection laws:
Califronia Law
Federal Law
It is a sad day.
ReplyDeleteI'm honestly not so sure this bill is a setback. I think it might just be a part of the process that our culture has to go through, and I think what's at the end of that process is the abandonment our tradition of genital mutilation.
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of when Dade County, Florida, passed that referendum that essentially made it possible to fire gay teachers. That was back around 1977. Anita Bryant was involved. It was all over the news for months. People thought that was some kind of massive setback for gay rights, but it wasn't. If anything, it gave the movement more momentum.
Sometimes you look back on something that felt like a fifteen-car pileup, and you realize it was just a bump in the road.