Florida mom Heather Hironimus is currently a fugitive from justice after she refused to submit to a judge's order that her four-year-old son be circumcised.
A warrant has been issued for her arrest, and her whereabouts are unknown.
The woman's attorneys say she and her son have checked into a domestic violence crisis shelter because the youngster is "terrified" of the circumcision.
"The child is scared to death of the procedure and doesn't want it," attorney Thomas Hunker said, according to South Florida's Sun-Sentinel newspaper.
Hunker said "there have been no safeguards put in place to protect the child's psychological and emotional condition with regards to this surgery."
The obvious question on everybody's mind: How did it reach the point where the minor, whose name is Chase, was thrust into the national spotlight?
Hironimus and the boy's father, Dennis Nebus, squared off in court over the issue last month, according to media reports, and the judge took his side.
While Hironimus and Nebus once agreed to have Chase circumcised, Heather changed her mind and has been battling his estranged father over it.
Supporters of Heather's contend that circumcision is a barbaric practice that Chase shouldn't have to endure (or at least that he should get to decide).
One group founded on behalf of her plight, called Chase's Guardians, helped raise more than $35,000 online to pay for Hironimus' attorneys' fees.
"We feel like this is our son," Amber Baxley, founder of Chase's Guardians, said. "We're fighting tooth-and-nail against this abhorrent, disgusting decision."
Circumcision has become a polarizing and hotly-debated issue in recent years, and this is not the first case involving it to make national headlines.
Most of the children involved were anonymous, however. Hironimus and her backers have (they claim out of necessity) made Chase a cause celebre.
The mom's lawyers have requested that a mental evaluation be done on Chase to see if he's mentally and emotionally capable of enduring a circumcision.
Just how common is the medical practice? It depends who you ask, but it's clearly favored more by select people and in select places than others.
Only about a third of all men across the world are circumcised, according to World Health Organization research, most often for non-medical reasons.
Whether you agree with having it done or not, it seems pretty crazy that the boy and his mother could be ordered to do so by a judge, doesn't it?
Tell us what you think of this surprising case in the comments below ...
This might actually be a GENIUS parenting moment. Dollars to donuts the kid under that napkin is sleeping and Dad's eating his hoagie with two hands. WIN!
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