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Posted on 01/10/2004 10:11:42 PM PST by TASMANIANRED
Fri January 9, 2004 07:06 PM ET
By Dan Whitcomb LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A Los Angeles man who allegedly offered to circumcise young girls for undercover FBI agents posing as their parents was arrested along with his girlfriend on Friday in what prosecutors said was the first U.S. case of its kind.
Todd Cameron Bertrang and Robyn Faulkinbury -- who prosecutors say met with undercover FBI agents to arrange circumcisions for two fictitious girls -- were taken into custody at their home outside Los Angeles. "The evidence we uncovered about (Bertrang's) lack of medical knowledge and the lack of sanitary facilities would have made this procedure extremely dangerous," said Thom Mrozek, spokesman for the U.S. Attorneys Office in Los Angeles.
An affidavit filed in the case said that Bertrang, 41, referred to the 24-year-old Faulkinbury as his "slave" and told FBI agents they could see her circumcised genitalia.
Faulkinbury was allegedly planning to assist Bertrang in future surgeries, according to the affidavit.
Female circumcision is widespread in parts of Africa, where it is seen as a right of passage to womanhood that limits promiscuity. Health workers describe the practice as female genital mutilation and say it causes long-term physical and psychological damage.
The procedure has been banned in the United States since 1995. Exceptions are made for cases of medical necessity when performed by a doctor.
Prosecutors said there was no evidence that Bertrang and Faulkinbury, who were apparently born in the United States, were acting out of religious or cultural beliefs.
The FBI agents had posed as a married couple who wanted to have their two girls, ages 8 and 12, circumcised on the advice a British friend who had done the same to his daughter.
The affidavit said undercover FBI agents approached Bertrang over the Internet after getting a tip that he had recently circumcised a young girl and had displayed pictures of a surgically altered teenage girl on a Web site.
During a meeting at Bertrang's home the FBI agents said they met a woman named Fran and a man both sitting a bathtub full of brown liquid.
"Bertrang explained that he had just removed Fran's labia and that she was soaking in the tub to aid in her healing after the procedure," the affidavit said. During the execution of a search warrant, Mrozek said, Bertrang told FBI agents that "he had done more of these anybody else in Western world."
The pair could each face five years in prison if convicted.
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FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794
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We should have the same law banning male circumcision
Circumcision is the cutting off of a perfectly healthy body part without the consent of its owner?
Why should that be allowed?
It is only done because of tradition in the US, and is not widely praticed in other places such as Europe.
I am opposed to depriving people of body parts without their consent
You have your perspective backwards-you need a medical reason to cut a body part off; not to leave a body part on
In those small number of cases where circumcision is medically justified, of course it should be allowed.
The "hygiene" and "it might cause problems in the future" arguments are bogus, we don't cut out the tonsils and appendices of infants on that basis, do we?
We wait until wisdom teeth cause a problem before pulling them.
Have you ever heard of wisdom teeth being pulled from a newborn?
Cut men don't want to believe this, but there is a large loss of sensitivity that comes from circumcision.
I suspect an American woman might be dangerous to live with after such a procedure.
There is no comparison between male circumcision as performed in the civilized world and the mutilation of females as practiced in the Middle East and Africa.
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