A German court ruling has stepped right into the middle of one of the most passionate debates among parents, by banning circumcision, except where medically necessary. The ruling, which only applies in the area of the city of Cologne, came down Tuesday. Males who are old enough to consent to the surgery would not be affected by the ban.
It was sparked by a case in which a doctor was charged with grievous bodily harm for circumcising a four-year-old Muslim boy, who later had to be hospitalized for severe bleeding. The doctor charged in the original case was eventually acquitted on appeal because of the legal confusion about circumcision laws, but the court said that it wanted to clarify the “confusing” law.
Jewish and Muslim groups immediately protested the ruling. The Central Council of Jews in Germany said the ruling was an “unprecedented and dramatic intrusion” of the right to religious freedom. “Circumcision for young boys is a solid component of the Jewish religion and has been practiced worldwide for millennia. This religious right is respected in every country around the world," President Dieter Graumann said in a statement.
The Central Council of Muslims was equally outraged, saying, “Freedom of religion is highly valued in our constitution and cannot be the play-thing of a one-dimensional case law which, furthermore, consolidates existing prejudices and stereotypes."
But the court ruling disagrees: “The fundamental right of the child to bodily integrity outweighs the fundamental rights of the parents.” It also stated that “the religious freedom of the parents and their right to educate their child would not be unacceptably compromised, if they were obliged to wait until the child could himself decide to be circumcised.”
Ali Demir, Chairman of the Religious Community of Islam in Germany, said that if circumcision were to be banned in all of Germany it would lead to “circumcision tourism” to neighbouring European countries.
Does the parents’ right to religious freedom outweigh the child’s right to bodily autonomy?
The Wonderful Cynthia Hill is filling in this week so our hard-working Mummy Buzz can take a much-needed break.
In between ballet lasses, Glee Club lessons, swimming lessons, and karate lessons (none of them hers), mom of four Cynthia Hill works full-time as an administrative assistant, does the occasional community theatre production, edits other people's stuff, and writes her own, like her novel, Idol Hands. Her new book should be available later this summer.
A South Carolina teen didn’t get the graduation day that she’d hoped for, after her mother was escorted from the ceremony and arrested for disorderly conduct.
Did Iesha Cooper’s mother, Shannon, get into a fist fight with another parent? Streak across the stage? Grab the microphone and start singing bad karaoke? Nope. She was arrested for whooping and cheering when her daughter’s name was announced.
At the beginning of the ceremony, the principal of South Florence High School told the crowd that the graduates had voted, and were requesting quiet as the names were read, with a round of applause for all of the students at the end. However, several families didn’t adhere to the school’s wishes, and several people were escorted out of the Florence Civic Center, where the graduation ceremony was being held. Shannon Cooper was taken to the Florence County Detention Center, though, and held for several hours, before being released on $225 bond.
Cooper claims that she knew she would be escorted out for cheering, and so she was already on her way out of the ceremony at the time of her arrest, but she was still detained and handcuffed. “Are y’all serious? Are y’all for real? I mean, that's what I'm thinking in my mind. I didn't say anything. I was just like OK, I can't fight the law. I can't argue with the police, but I'm like are you serious? I didn't do any more than the others did. Which I feel like no one should have went to jail," said Shannon.
Iesha says it was humiliating to realize that her mother had been locked up. “That’s all I can picture, me crying, looking at the police van knowing my mother was in there.”
Family members of some of the other graduates, though, said that the shouts and hollering were so disruptive that often families couldn’t hear the name of the next graduates being read out. One commenter on the website of local station WPDE said, “One lady took her new born baby and held it up in the air like Simba in the Lion King and was screaming at the rail in the upper level! Was disgraceful.”
Although the Cooper family was able to celebrate Iesha’s graduation the next day with a barbeque, Iesha says the arrest will always taint her memories of her special day. “Yesterday can’t be replaced,” she said. “Mama went to jail on my graduation day.”
Was Mom just being a supportive parent, or was she a disruptive influence?
The Wonderful Cynthia Hill is filling in this week so our hard-working Mummy Buzz can take a much-needed break.
In between ballet lasses, Glee Club lessons, swimming lessons, and karate lessons (none of them hers), mom of four Cynthia Hill works full-time as an administrative assistant, does the occasional community theatre production, edits other people's stuff, and writes her own, like her novel, Idol Hands. Her new book should be available later this summer.
Willow Smith, the precocious preteen daughter of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith, raised more than a few unpierced eyebrows recently when she tweeted out an Instagram picture of herself with what appeared to be a tongue stud.
Willow has never shied away from wild choices when it comes to her appearance: in the past she has shaved her head, and dyed her hair many different colours. Going to the extent of getting a very adult-themed body piercing, though, seemed a much more extreme move than a different hairstyle. According to California law, anyone under the age of majority must have parental consent before undergoing body piercing, so if it was real, Willow would have needed an “okay” from her famous parents beforehand.
In a recent interview with Parade magazine, her father stated that he felt it was important to allow her to make her own choices about her appearance: “We let Willow cut her hair,” he said. “When you have a little girl, it's like how can you teach her that you're in control of her body? If I teach her that I'm in charge of whether or not she can touch her hair, she's going to replace me with some other man when she goes out in the world. She can't cut my hair but that's her hair. She has got to have command of her body. So when she goes out into the world, she's going out with a command that is hers. She is used to making those decisions herself. We try to keep giving them those decisions until they can hold the full weight of their lives."
It would appear that allowing Willow to make decisions about her hair style and clothing may be the extent of her freedom at the moment, though. Shortly after, in an apparent response to the shocked comments, the friend in the original picture tweeted out a similar shot using the hashtags #dontjudge, #dontberude, #justhavingfun, and #fake.
Do Will and Jada have the right idea about their daughter’s body autonomy, or does “Willow Reign” need to be reined in?
The Wonderful Cynthia Hill is filling in this week so our hard-working Mummy Buzz can take a much-needed break.
In between ballet lasses, Glee Club lessons, swimming lessons, and karate lessons (none of them hers), mom of four Cynthia Hill works full-time as an administrative assistant, does the occasional community theatre production, edits other people's stuff, and writes her own, like her novel, Idol Hands. Her new book should be available later this summer.
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