There isn't much more horrifying than leaving your 20-month-old toddler with a trusted family member and coming home to find out that there was an attempt at an at-home circumcision with a kitchen knife on your precious boy. Unfortunately this is exactly what a Florida man was arrested for.
I don't care what Larry Leroy Floyd's reasons were — butchering your nephew's penis with a kitchen knife goes beyond "concerned uncle" to "dangerous criminal." Circumcision remains a hot debate not only among new parents but society at large, particularly within the U.S., where it has started to fall out of favor in many areas. Some folks maintain that it's the choice of the parents, but others feel that removing a functioning body part without permission of its owner is morally wrong.
But no matter where you fall on the debate, this crime shouldn't even factor in. Nowhere does anyone advocate circumcising a child by yourself, and definitely not at home with a kitchen knife that is not suited for the process. You just have to know that this disturbing crime would never be OK. What was the man thinking? That the little boy's dad would come home and be happy his family member decided to trim off his kid's pesky foreskin?
There hasn't been an update on the boy's condition, but it's hopeful that he will recover. How intact he will be remains to be seen, of course, and the "operating room" where the "procedure" took place definitely wasn't sterile — same goes for the knife — so there are likely concerns about infection. There weren't too many details released other than the boy was bloody and crying (likely screaming) and he was rushed to the hospital by his father.
Floyd was charged with domestic aggravated battery, and the Orlando Sentinel says the man has a rap sheet that includes drug possession, domestic violence, armed robbery, trespassing and aggravated stalking of a child.
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