A Florida appeals court has sided with a mother who wanted to stop the forced circumcision of her 3-year-old son, the Broward-Palm Beach New Times reported.
The Fourth District Court of Appeals decided that the son of Heather Hironimus, of Boynton Beach, is not to be circumcised. The appeals court ruling reverses a lower court's recent decision in favor of the child's father, Dennis Nebus, who wanted his son to have the procedure.
Hironimus claimed that since her son is now 3, a circumcision is "not medically necessary," according to court documents obtained by the Broward-Palm Beach New Times. "She did not want to have the parties' son undergo requisite general anesthesia for fear of death."
Hironimus, a stay at home mother, entered a parenting agreement with Nebus a year after their son was born on 2010. According to the agreement, Nebus was put in charge of scheduling and paying for their son's circumcision.
Years went by and the procedure was never done. Judge Jeffery Gillen ruled last week that despite the time passed, the father should still be allowed to go ahead with the circumcision, the Broward-Palm Beach New Times reported.
Gillen based his ruling on a pediatric urologist's testimony that "penile cancer occurs only in uncircumcised males," and that "uncircumcised males have a higher risk of HIV infection than circumcised males."
However, the claims the urologist apparently made are untrue. Taryn Sinatra, the mother's lawyer, said the urologist also testified that he would not circumcise a child at age 3.
"Putting aside what they agreed to, if you're going to enforce this contract, you have to look in what is the best interest of the child," Sinatra told the newspaper. "The best interest of the child should always trump" any agreement.
Circumcisions, where the foreskin of the penis is removed, became mainstream in the U.S. with the rise of hospital births after WWII. But the practice has been on the decline in recent years, and is not usually practiced in Europe.
