Quote:
Originally Posted by PsychoLoco
You both make good points, but if you are going the route of basically saying it crosses a line when someone is harmed, then you'd have to outlaw a lot of stuff in the U.S., such as ritual circumcision in Judaism (because there is physical harm to a child that cannot give consent), and you could take that philosophical argument to the extreme, such as with piercing ears. All of these decisions would have to be made by people over the age of 18, and you could not really make an exception for kids with parents that consent because parents all over the world consent to stuff that really is harmful to children by our standards, such as ritual female circumcision in Africa, exploitation of child labor in Southeast Asia, and the suppression of women's rights in many Islamic communities.
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But once again we get into that gray area "use common sense" part.
You need a parent's consent to get piercings if you're under 16. Not because it harms you but because kids are dumb and do dumb things which is why parents are in charge of kids.
And religious ritual IS looked at closely. Like you mentioned, female circumcision in Africa is horrible. And it is becoming an issue. Male circumcision isn't an issue because 1) it is medically healthy for you (yes, I know uncircumcised can be fine if you really take care of it, but for general purposes cirucumcision is now for health reasons more than religious) and 2) it is a small amount of pain. If male circumcision caused severe emotional trama and other side effects, there would be more policing of it.
Though I get your points of harm and repression, these are examples from other countries, not in USA (WINNING!). If female circumcision happened in a small podunk town in the midwest, our government would put a stop to it. The only reason horrible repression happens is because we aren't the world police...all we can do is bring awareness and pressure another country to stop.
If it is my religious ritual to throw a brick at a child's head, it would be stopped, believe me. But I dislocated my 3 year old daughter's arm while trying to leave the children's museum a few weeks ago. Did I get arrested for harm to a child? NO. Because stuff like that happens sometimes. Will I get arrested if she is constantly in the doctor's office with signs of abuse? Yes. Because there is a common sense gray area and I obviously have gone over the line into abuse.