URGENT: Boy of 12 to be forcibly circumcised

[admin]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/1/26/103213/567

Dr. John Geisheker of DoctorsOpposingCircumcision.org has appealed for monetary help in the case of Misha (a pseudonym, since he is a minor). Mish'a father intends to have him cut for religious reasons. The boy and his mother oppose the plan. The case has lost at various levels and is on its way to the Oregon Supreme court, and if need be, the US Supreme Court. Unpaid legal costs are already in excess of $20,000.

I urge you to donate to D.O.C. TLC Tugger will contribute half of gross proceeds this Sunday (actually for the 24-hour period commencing midnight Saturday, Chicago time), so if you need any spare gear or have a friend you can talk into restoring, now's the time. If you want to send a contributing order by mail, send me a note Sunday so I can figure your amount in.

If you know anyone in the press, please ask them to contact John. I'm sure he'll be happy to help the mother to dialog about the case with the press, to the extent she can do so while maintaining the boy's privacy.

This case may recognize the precedent set in Chicago last fall, when a judge ordered that a 9-year-old boy be left intact until he could make his own choice at 18. They're going to need our help to mount a worthy case. The judges at the earlier stages made rulings that failed to weigh the case on ethical grounds or even issue an opinion, but merely affirmed the father's right to compel his son to have cosmetic surgery for religious reasons.

Regards,
-Ron Low
http://TLCTugger.com

[TLCTugger]

Thanks, all. You came through with $260 (gross) on Sunday, so I'll be mailing a check to DOC for $130 on Tuesday.

[admin]

Here's a write-up on the Misha case in a local Oregon paper:

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1177644329102660.xml&coll=7

-Ron

[z726]

It's good that this case is drawing publicity - The Oregonian is the biggest paper in Oregon, with a circulation of over 323,000 (not exactly "local" by newspaper standards). Now perhaps it will stir up some public debate on circumcision, and possibly its legality.

i would suggest spreading the link around, as people did during the case of that boy in Illinois last year. I've posted it to one of the anti-circumcision groups at LJ; perhaps people can post it at various other online groups. As more people see it, more people will have the opportunity to view the matter from a critical perspective.

[bukkakesurprise]

Your best bet would be to get a letter out to a local state representative. Start low and work your way up. Don't start out at the top, you will just be wasting your time unless you show them that it's just more than a bunch of cooks out standing on a soapbox. Get a petition going with actual physical signatures and make backup copies and mail it to a local state representative and they will start within the state level. That is a much better way to approach this than to write one letter to a presidential candidate or a senator and pray that they will care, which, even if they do, they will not address it because to them that is "one mile below whale shit."

[alex673]

I feel so deeply sad for poor Mischa... If his sick f***er of a father is willing to cut off the most sensitive part of his penis, what else is he willing to do in the name of religion? Fair enough if the Father wishes to convert to Judaism, but why force the same on his son?

I was forcibly cut as an infant in Australia in the 70's after my mother was brainwashed by a doctor, even though my uncut father was completely against the procedure. I know that circumcision is not just cosmetic surgery as reported by the court, and even though I can't afford to contribute anything at the moment but my support, if I had the cash I would gladly pay all court costs, right up to the Court of Human Rights if necessary.

Maybe DOC should look into that avenue? Perhaps the american legal system (sorry Americans!) is so used to cut penises, that they don't care about an individuals rights to genital integrity?

DOC, keep up the fight and don't let the buggers win! Mischa, you are in my thoughts and prayers. Mischa's father, I hope you have enough money to buy your sons love, because you don't deserve to earn it.

All the best

Alex

[Shane]

What was the outcome of this? What a damn shame!!

Shane

[admin]

http://tinyurl.com/3e46ap

The link takes you to the brief filed by the Anti-Defamation League in the "Misha" matter before the Supreme Court of Oregon.

Not surprisingly, they assert a parent's right to amputate normal healthy body parts for superstitious reasons.

[Joseph]

Read the Friend-of-the-Court's briefs submitted by allies on both sides.

Anti-Defamation League Brief

http://www.adl.org/civil_rights/ab/Brief%20on%20Merits%20(3).pdf

Doctors Opposing Circumcision (DOC) Briefs

http://www.doctorsopposingcircumcision.org/pdf/2007-04BoldtReview.pdf

http://www.doctorsopposingcircumcision.org/pdf/2007-07BoldtMerits.pdf


Media Attention:

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1177644329102660.xml&coll=7&thispage=1

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18366778/site/newsweek/

http://www.forward.com/articles/11410/

[Joseph]

http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/breaking/104271.html

... the decision about whether or not to go through with a circumcision is "a central right of a person to determine his identity and life."

Will the Oregon court rule differently?

[z726]

Will the Oregon court rule differently?

I hope not, but then again judges in Oregon aren't quite the same as judges in Germany. Here in the US it seems to me that children's rights are seen as secondary to those of their parents… if they're afforded any in the first place.

But I do hope that German case opens up some debate there on the issue. I figure that countries where circumcision is rare will be quicker to do something about it.