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(If you don't know why circumcision is cosmetic, unnecessary and a violation of human rights please look into intactivism and get educated about this important topic. Feel free to ask for links and additional information.)
He wasn't prepared or informed on this topic and had some really odd responses.
These included a "federal hair cutting law" retort (we'll come back to our hair cutting philosophy later) to which we tried to explain the removal of nerve endings and permanence of circumcision. He responded that "We don't know that much about hair." It gets worse: a Nazi reference, his approval of circumcising dogs, equating intactivism to a "god hates gays" movement and even saying "Children are like pets..."
Yes, a person advocating for civil liberties thinks children are pets.
I would like to make it very clear that children are humans and entitled to the same inherent rights. These rights should not be withheld due to arbitrary age and are not anyone's to refuse or allow. Being a parent does not make you an owner of a child, (it would be more accurate the other way!) Your ownership is of your own body and does not extend to the possession of another human being. Your rights end (religious, parental) where another person's body begins.
Our duty as parents is to provide, protect, educate and allow our children to become the best version of themselves. Children's rights mirror these values and include freedom from fear and harm and the freedom of choice over their own body.
It is not a parental right to choose elective and cosmetic procedures for children. It is the child's right to choose, especially when the procedure is permanent and body altering such as circumcision, ear piercing or tattoo. It is in our own parental philosophy to let the children choose when they want their hair cut. I recall a dispute with a lady informing me that sometimes you have to traumatize children as a part of childhood, like a haircut. Disagree. Choice, right to one's body and nurturing win in this home, personally we enjoy watching their hair growing in their natural patterns: mullet, curls and swirls.
Let's commend the German court that ruled that a child's right to physical integrity trumps freedom of religion and parent's rights and for the ban on circumcision that came from this ruling.
We wouldn't subject our children to personal, medical, religious or other procedures they did not choose or did not want. Of course there are loopholes and scenarios we could go batty over, but even in a medically necessary (emergency procedure most likely) I would validate my child's emotions and physically be supportive with them through it.
We also conclude that a child's right to be free of fear and harm win over the (improper) parental right to hit a child. (Since nowhere in society hitting another person is a right, and even a threat is considered criminal)
We need to rethink our roles as parents. There is nothing that bugs me more than a "Because I'm the Mom!" approach to parenting. Children are people, they have real feelings, real thoughts and inherent rights. We need to humanize our babies and never forget that they are not a possession but a person who we are given the honor of loving, protecting and teaching. We must respect their rights and teach them to respect others. If we nurtured every child this way the world would be such a better place.
