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Jamaal Coleson Jr.
A toddler died in a New York City hospital after what was to be a routine circumcision.
The boy, Jamaal Coleson Jr, went to Beth Israel Hospital in Manhattan on Tuesday for a circumcision. The boy was supposed to have the simple surgical procedure that required a local anesthetic, but for an unknown reason, he received general anesthesia and that is what doctors believe may have killed him.
Jamaal would have been two years old next month. Now his grieving family is searching for answers.
An Oregon mom performed a circumcision on her 3-month-old son with a box cutter and a pair of pliers.
A 29-year-old Oregon mom was arrested for first and second-degree assault and first-degree criminal mistreatment after attempting to perform a medical procedure on her infant son. After reading passages from the Old Testament, Keemonta Peterson decided the she wanted her 3-month-old boy to be circumcised. One problem. She knew the pediatricians at OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital wouldn’t circumcise a boy that old. So after watching a couple of circumcision videos she found on YouTube, Peterson decided to take matters into her own hands. And those hands held a box cutter (scalpel) along with a pair of pliers (tourniquet).
It didn’t go well.
Is circumcision genital mutilation?
I have to admit that when I’m finished with my own work, one of my favorite things to do is browse Babble and see what my colleagues have written. More often than not, there is a piece that reaffirms my parenting decisions in one way or another, which is exactly how I felt as I read Jennifer Margulis’ piece, The Uncircumcised Penis: One mother’s stance against infant circumcision.
In it, Margulis addresses all the common beliefs surrounding the procedure in a very straightforward way. As the mother of two older girls and a boy, I was very unfamiliar with the whole issue of circumcision when I was pregnant with my son, but as soon as my midwife told me he was a boy, the issue swirled around in my mind daily.
Should we have him circumcised or not?
Circumcision lowers incidence of hpv
A study in the journal The Lancet this week reports a finding that circumcisions could provide a protective benefit for partners against the human papilloma virus.
The highly-contagious HPV (which has a dozen different strains) is the primary cause of cervical cancer, which is the second most common cancer in women worldwide, according to Reuters. It “is expected to kill 328,000 this year, mostly in developing countries.”
Studies have previously found that circumcisions could lower the risk for men of contracting HIV.
Here’s what the current study found about the benefits of circumcision: Continue reading »
Baby's Bris
Today Jewish community leaders criticized the proposed San Francisco ballot measure which would ban male circumcision.
As a Jew who feels strongly about freedom of religion, I agree with their stance on the issue.
Sierra wrote earlier this week about the proposed ballot measure in San Francisco which would make circumcision before the age of 18 a misdemeanor offense carrying a $1000 fine. Sierra wondered “why are we so cavalier about surgically altering baby boys’ penises?” and suggested that “maybe circumcision should be banned, barring religious exemptions and the rare cases of medical necessity.”
In response to the proposed ban, The Anti-Defamation League, the Jewish Community Relations Council, the Board of Rabbis of Northern California and the American Jewish Committee issued a press release, which is excerpted below: Continue reading »
Should circumcision be banned?
Should circumcisions be banned? Some folks in San Francisco think so. They’re moving to put a ballot question on the 2011 ballot that would ban circumcisions, making it a misdemeanor to:
“to circumcise, excise, cut or mutilate the foreskin, testicle or penis of another person who has not attained the age of 18.”
Most of the response I’ve seen suggests this is crazy talk: another case of San Francisco being oh-so-San-Francisco and legislating an extreme progressive agenda instead of letting people just do their thing. This is the city that just outlawed Happy Meal toys, after all.
A circumcision is not like a cheap plastic toy, though. It’s a surgical procedure that changes a person’s body forever. Is that a choice parents should really be allowed to make for their kid at birth?
Right now, the ballot question hasn’t even gathered enough signatures to make it on the ballot. But the election is a year away, and there’s enough anti-circumcision activism that I bet they’ll get a vote on it.
Should it pass?
High end face cream is made with human foreskins.
Say what you will about circumcision (and I know you all have lots to say about it), but have you ever wondered what happens to the foreskins of circumcised babies after they’re snipped?
As the mother of two girls, I’ve never had to make a circumcision decision. Which is just as well, as I doubt my Jewish grandmother would have approved of my decision, had I made one.
I had also never wondered about the fate of those little flaps of skin.
Turns out, circumcised foreskins have long and fascinating lives after they part ways with their original owners. They’re used for everything from cosmetics to scientific studies.
Lori Garcia 
Joslyn Gray 
Amber Doty 
Julianna Miner 
Monica Bielanko 
Sierra Black 
Meredith Carroll 
Carolyn Castiglia 
Sunny Chanel 
Madeline Holler 
Rebecca Odes 
Danielle Smith 
Danielle Sullivan 
Katherine Stone 
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