LEAH CYPRESS: Parental Responsibility and the Rhetoric Against Circumcision. “New York City’s regulation of a Jewish tradition does little more than add to a growing aura of hostility and ignorance surrounding a health decision. . . . As a parent, it seems to me that most of these outraged people are unaware of the actual extent of ‘the authority of parents over the life of their child,’ including the authority and responsibility to make life-changing decisions for them.” It’s mostly just important to be outraged, because from that outrage comes their own authority, or pretense thereto.