Is Circumcision Ethical?
Valerie C. Coolidge
November 15, 2004
Is Routine Circumcision of Infants Ethical?
History of Circumcision: Reviewing the history of circumcision and the many misguided reasons for its practice will help form an understanding of the multifaceted issues concerning routine infant circumcision. Some of the earliest evidence of male circumcision comes from Egypt around the year 3000 BC. However, researchers studying this practice do not understand or agree on its purpose. Some researches believe that circumcision was a form of branding for slaves while others thought it to be from the priestly class as a form of religious ritual. But when is more pertinent to this argument is that the early Greeks and Romans outlawed male circumcision believing it to be a barbaric form of mutilation of male genitalia.
The first documented purpose for circumcision is in the Old Testament Scriptures (Gen 17:10) concerning the covenant between Abraham and God, representative of the relationship between Israel and Yahweh. According to the governing doctrinal resource for Catholics worldwide, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the explanation for Old Testament circumcision is in section 1150.
“1150 - …Among these liturgical signs from the Old Covenant are circumcision, anointing and consecration of kings and priests, laying on of hands, sacrifices, and above all the Passover. The Church sees in these signs a prefiguring of the sacraments of the New Covenant.”
The circumcision of Jesus in the New Testament explains that when Jesus came, as the fulfillment of prophecy that the new covenant manifested through the innocent blood of Jesus replaces once and for all the old covenant through Father Abraham. There is no longer a need for animal sacrifices and the early Christian community determined that baptism was to be the new sign of the covenant.
“527- Jesus' circumcision, on the eighth day after his birth, is the sign of his incorporation into Abraham's
November 15, 2004
Is Routine Circumcision of Infants Ethical?
History of Circumcision: Reviewing the history of circumcision and the many misguided reasons for its practice will help form an understanding of the multifaceted issues concerning routine infant circumcision. Some of the earliest evidence of male circumcision comes from Egypt around the year 3000 BC. However, researchers studying this practice do not understand or agree on its purpose. Some researches believe that circumcision was a form of branding for slaves while others thought it to be from the priestly class as a form of religious ritual. But when is more pertinent to this argument is that the early Greeks and Romans outlawed male circumcision believing it to be a barbaric form of mutilation of male genitalia.
The first documented purpose for circumcision is in the Old Testament Scriptures (Gen 17:10) concerning the covenant between Abraham and God, representative of the relationship between Israel and Yahweh. According to the governing doctrinal resource for Catholics worldwide, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the explanation for Old Testament circumcision is in section 1150.
“1150 - …Among these liturgical signs from the Old Covenant are circumcision, anointing and consecration of kings and priests, laying on of hands, sacrifices, and above all the Passover. The Church sees in these signs a prefiguring of the sacraments of the New Covenant.”
The circumcision of Jesus in the New Testament explains that when Jesus came, as the fulfillment of prophecy that the new covenant manifested through the innocent blood of Jesus replaces once and for all the old covenant through Father Abraham. There is no longer a need for animal sacrifices and the early Christian community determined that baptism was to be the new sign of the covenant.
“527- Jesus' circumcision, on the eighth day after his birth, is the sign of his incorporation into Abraham's