Divorce, Religion, and Circumcision: What If the Parents Disagree?

Find Law columnist, Rutgers law professor, and visiting Columbia law professor Sherry Colb wrote an interesting column dated November 28, 2007 entitled "Divorce, Religion, and Circumcision: What A Conflict Tells Us About Parental Rights" where she discusses a pending Oregon Supreme Court case involving divorced parents' dispute over whether their twelve-year-old son may be circumcised in accordance with his converted Jewish father's wishes. Colb considers the specific questions the case poses, and also addresses a related presumption that she contends is implicit in American law: If a couple's beliefs, stemming from their adherence to a mainstream religion, require them to inflict what could be seen as harm on their child, then the law will not interfere. Colb considers why we generally are loath to intervene when it comes to parental decisions of this kind.

Look for the court to decide in favor of the 12 year old child's wishes as opposed to the desires of either parent. The case would be far more difficult if the child was 5 years old instead of 12.

Mitchell H. Rubinstein