A 28-year-old prison inmate is suing the hospital that circumcised him as a newborn. The reason? He is claiming the procedure has robbed him of his sexual prowess.
He is alleging that the doctor misled his mother into thinking that the circumcision was a necessary medical procedure. He is arguing that it was unnecessary, unethical and without medical benefit.
What’s even more odd is what he is asking for as compensation. In addition to $1,000 in compensatory and punitive damages, he is asking that his foreskin be restored “in the hopes I could feel whole again,” though he acknowledges that he doesn’t expects the “restoration” to be anything more than aesthetic.
As you might expect, the hospital’s representatives have said that they will not pay to replace his foreskin.
This is entertaining and we should all laugh. What is not funny is how tort reform advocates try to use cases like this as a vehicle for tort reform. There is nothing that is ever going to stop silly prisoner lawsuit like this as long as we have a free society with open courtrooms.