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→Commentary on Boldt v. Boldt: Add comment.
There has been a fair amount of commentary on this case.
Sherry F. Colb (2007) wrote:
<blockquote>
Though it is, in some respects, very unusual, this case nonetheless highlights a somewhat hidden and more widespread assumption embedded in our laws - that if a couple's mainstream religion requires them to inflict harm upon their child, then the law will not interfere with that prerogative. … In the Boldt case, the boy at issue is not a newborn but an adolescent, a 12-year-old, who not only has the self-evident capacity to feel pain but who could also offer his own opinion on the question of whether he should have his foreskin amputated. So far, we do not know from press accounts what the boy thinks about his father's plans, although his mother claims that he is opposed yet reluctant to say so. Even assuming, however, that the 12-year-old is neutral on the question, the notion of subjecting a child his age to such a surgery would likely seem barbaric to many people. There is, after all, no medical need to circumcise the boy. His foreskin is, so far as we know, not plagued with any disease or other malignancy. No doctor has offered the medical opinion that the family really ought to circumcise the boy. The only reason to do it is that his father has found religion and wishes to bring his son into the faith. … It is when parents disagree with each other and ask the courts to step in that we are uniquely able to consider some of the harm to which people expose their offspring. The Boldt case thus may, in this way, help us focus on what is otherwise "routine" in parenting and perhaps become more sensitive to the sorts of harm that we might otherwise continue to take for granted.<ref name="colb2007">{{REFweb
|url=https://supreme.findlaw.com/legal-commentary/divorce-religion-and-circumcision-what-a-conflict-tells-us-about-parental-rights.html
|archived=
|title=Divorce, Religion, and Circumcision: What A Conflict Tells Us About Parental Rights
|trans-title=
|language=
|last=Colb
|first=Sherry F.
|author-link=
|publisher=
|website=Findlaw
|date=2007-11-28
|accessdate=2020-04-25
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|quote=
}}</ref>
</blockquote>
The 2009 NOCIRC Annual Newsletter commented: