The USA is considered a stronghold of circumcisions. Far beyond Jewish and Muslim circles, boys are subjected to this procedure. The debate about the verdict of the Cologne Regional Court is followed closely here accordingly.
However, the commentaries responding to the Cologne District Court ruling are predominantly from Jewish writers and hardly any from Muslim writers; Muslims are also hardly present in the executive suites of American media outlets.
As an example of the American view on the German debate, Michael Gerson, a columnist for the "Washington Post" can be considered. He combined his comment with a nod to the Holocaust: the rest of the once large Jewish community in Germany is now learning that the 4.000-year-old identity ritual was a violation of individual rights. "A sad step backward from freedom," Gerson wrote – and if this is really about self-determination, one might as well ban all religious instruction for children.
Symbol of hostility to sexuality
The fact that newborn boys beyond the Jewish and Muslim communities have been almost routinely circumcised in the U.S. for many years has less to do with religious reasons than with the tradition of the former mother country Great Britain. There, in the 19. Circumcision was introduced in the nineteenth century primarily to prevent onanism and was literally the most incisive symbol of the hostility to sexuality of the Victorian era.
America followed suit even after British doctors called circumcision obsolete in the 1940s and the National Health Service cut off funding for it. In the 1960s, nearly 90 percent of all newborn males in the U.S. were circumcised. In recent decades, however, resistance has grown, often with arguments like those found in the Cologne verdict.
Proponents of circumcision have received a boost in recent years from AIDS research: data from Africa found lower HIV prevalence among circumcised men than uncircumcised ones. But it remains unexplained why the absence of the foreskin should prevent the transmission of viruses. Epidemiology statistics also raise questions: No Western industrialized nation has as many circumcised men as the U.S., and at the same time, no other has as many AIDS victims.
More than one in two Americans are circumcised
According to recent data from the Center of Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, the circumcision rate among all newborn boys in the U.S. is 54.7 percent. There are massive regional differences: In some Midwestern states like Iowa, about 80 percent of male babies are circumcised, compared with about 20 percent in California. On average across the country, the circumcision rate dropped by about one percentage point a year over the past decade. Statistics also show that in clinics where circumcision is offered as a standard government health care service, it is practiced 24 percent more often than otherwise.
The American medical societies usually explain somewhat tortuously that a medical benefit is questionable. There is criticism of circumcision for religious reasons only if it is associated with recognizable health damage. In New York in 2005, three young boys contracted herpes, one died from it. In their case, the mohel, the traditional circumciser, had practiced "metzitzah b "peh," sucking on the penile wound – probably transmitting his herpes in the process.
The New York City Health Department's attempt to stop the rabbi from doing this procedure in the future failed. Spokesmen for Orthodox communities accused city authorities of interfering with religious freedom. Now – after recent herpes cases – New York health officials want to introduce a law requiring parents to sign a consent form before this ritual, similar to corresponding consents before clinical procedures. A public hearing has been scheduled for 23. July scheduled.