20,870
edits
Changes
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
→Legal proceedings: Wikify.
'''Boldt v. Boldt''', framed as a child-custody case originating in the state of Oregon, actually concerns the proposed non-therapeutic [[circumcision]] of a boy, intended to indulge his father's religious urges.
On Sunday, May 30, 2004, the mother, Russian-born Mrs. Lia Nikolaevna Boldt, learned from her son, nine-year-old Mikhail James Boldt, known as Misha/Jimmy, that the custodial father, James Harlan Boldt, was planning on having him [[circumcised ]] as part of the father's plan to convert the child from the Russian Orthodox faith to the Jewish faith.<ref>{{REFdocument
|title= Appelant's Brief and Excerpt of Record
|url=
==Legal proceedings==
The case started in 2004 when James Boldt, a divorced father, who had custody of his nine-year-old son, decided to convert from Russian Orthodox to [[Judaism]] and wanted to have his son [[circumcised ]] in accordance with the [[Abrahamic covenant]]. The son, however, had not converted and did not want to be [[circumcised]]. He was supported by his mother in his desire for [[genital integrity]].<ref name="svoboda2010">{{REFweb
|url=https://arclaw.org.customers.tigertech.net/wp-content/uploads/Svoboda-Three-Fourths-Were-Abnormal-Mishas-Case-Sick-Societies-and-the-Law-Denniston-Milos-Hodges-Genital-Autonomy-Protecting-Personal-Choice-2010.pdf
|archived=
Geisheker notes that the Court mentioned only the child’s right to be heard, but did not recognize its paramount duty to protect him. Misha’s case is a sad commentary upon American life and constitutional principles. ''Boldt v. Boldt'' eloquently demonstrates that in the US, at least, the law to date has not been able to effectively grapple with such a heavily contextual and cultural practice as male circumcision.
To date, with one known exception, all awards and settlements have occurred in cases involving either a “botched” procedure or a lack of [[informed consent]]. At least three times, courts have avoided squarely addressing the legality of male circumcision by diverting the discussion into such peripheral, procedural issues as standing. Judicial views of standing are politically and culturally shaped in response to social mandates. Although MGC is currently illegal under existing laws and [[human rights]] treaties, if properly and objectively interpreted free of cultural bias, American cultural blindness has prevented recognition of this. Elsewhere in the world, Tasmania’s Law Review Commission recently released a lengthy issues paper questioning the legality of male circumcision. Sweden has regulated circumcision and the practice was recently made illegal in [[South Africa]], with religious and medical exceptions included that threaten to swallow the rule. While the practice is not otherwise explicitly prohibited anywhere in the world, it is of course illegal worldwide under a broad range of prohibitions imposed by statute, common or civil law, [[human rights]] treaties, and customary law.<ref name="svoboda2010" />
</blockquote>