Will Bris Milah Become A Bris Misdemeanor?

Well, it will if Lloyd Schofield has his way--Schofield wants to put Bris Milah on the November 2011 ballot in

The Board of Supervisors just banned toys in Happy Meals, which drew worldwide attention.
Now the latest ban being proposed in San Francisco is on male circumcision.

A proposed ballot measure for the November 2011 ballot – when voters will be electing the San Francisco’s next mayor – would amend The City’s police code “to make it a misdemeanor to circumcise, excise, cut or mutilate the foreskin, testicle or penis of another person who has not attained the age of 18.”

Doing so would result in a fine of up to $1,000 and up to one year in jail, according to the proposed measure submitted to the Department of Elections.


The measure was submitted by San Francisco resident Lloyd Schofield, who has spoken up on this issue in the past.

He was not immediately available for comment.

It won't take much to put this on the ballot:

For the ordinance to make it on to the November ballot, it would require the collection of 7,168 valid signatures by April 26, 2011.

It's unknown if Schofield approached members of the Board of Supervisors asking them to vote on such a measure before deciding to take it to the voters.

Doctors are apparently staying out of the debate about circumcision:

"Most medical groups have not come out with strong opinions regarding pro or con circumcisions," said CBS 5 medical reporter Dr. Kim Mulvihill. "Most are saying leave it up to the families, let them decide what's right for their son."

On the other hand, Scientific American did have an article about the health benefits of circumcision in January of this year:

Clean-Cut: Study Finds Circumcision Helps Prevent HIV and Other Infections
The first microbiome study of the penis offers some clues as to why removing foreskin cuts the risk of HIV infection in circumcised men

The World Health Organization declared three years ago that circumcision should be part of any strategy to prevent HIV infection in men. The organization based its recommendation on three randomized clinical trials in Africa that found the incidence of HIV was 60 percent lower in men who were circumcised. Although this "research evidence is compelling," wrote the WHO panel assigned to the topic, there was little evidence explaining how circumcision might reduce a man's risk of acquiring HIV.

Now comes an answer in a new study, published in the January 6 issue of PLoS ONE, which found that there are gross changes in the penis's microbiome following circumcision, suggesting that shifts in the bacterial environment could account, in part, for the differences in HIV infection. Families of anaerobic bacteria, which are unable to grow in the presence of oxygen, are abundant before circumcision but nearly disappear after the procedure. The researchers suspect that in uncircumcised men, these bacteria may provoke inflammation in the genitalia, thereby improving the chances that immune cells will be in the vicinity for HIV viruses to infect.

...In any case, changes that occur to the penis microbiome following circumcision could hamper the transmission of other sexually transmitted diseases. Similar to HIV reduction, Gray's clinical trial in Uganda found that the incidence of genital herpes and human papillomavirus were about 27 and 35 percent lower, respectively, in circumcised men.

Moreover, the current study found that two of the most abundant anaerobic organisms present on uncircumcised penises, Clostridiales and Prevotellaceae, have been associated with bacterial vaginosis, an uncomfortable condition in which the vagina's bacterial balance is upset. This finding could help explain why there are reduced rates of bacterial vaginosis in the wives of circumcised men, Gray says. He adds that the microbiome study will help doctors understand the extent of the potential health benefits of circumcision.

Among Schofield's arguments are:

• "You shouldn't be performing cosmetic surgery for other people"
• "Tattooing a child is banned as a felony and circumcision is more harmful than a tattoo"
• "People can practice whatever religion they want, but your religious practice ends with someone else's body. It's a man's body and...his body doesn't belong to his culture, his government, his religion or even his parents. It's his decision."

Based on the Scientific American article, circumcision is neither cosmetic nor harmful

As for Schofield's last argument--that is a philosophical opinion, and not something that should be imposed on others.

Which I guess is what the ballot is supposed to be about--except that it sounds less like an opinion and more like a crusade.

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