Circumcision Opponents To Protest This Weekend
ROYAL OAK (WWJ) - A local hospital facing some opposition to a somewhat standard cultural practice. A demonstration against circumcision is being held this Saturday at noon outside of Beaumont Children's Hospital.
Norm Cohen is the director of a group called No Circ Michigan. He says his parents had him circumcised and he resents it. He says circumcision is not health care.
"It's not normal to be cutting off normal parts of a child's body. It violates children and their rights. Every part of our body has a function, so when doctors push this as healthcare, it's really a pretense that's done simply for profit and for old-fashioned ideas that do not hold up," he says.
Cohen explains to WWJ why the need for a rally over the matter.
"We are protesting the fact that hospitals such as Beaumont are cutting off normal parts of a child's body and that is not good healthcare. Most of the world does not practice circumcision. And it's the only surgery done on children without a diagnosis. We feel it violates the rights of a child to bodily integrity," says Cohen.
Cohen says that several boys each day are being circumcised at Beaumont because it's paid for by insurance companies and it's a profitable procedure for the hospital.
Meantime, doctors at Beaumont tell WWJ that circumcision reduces the risk of urinary tract infections, certain kinds of cancer, and certain sexually transmitted diseases.
