The news stories below are listed from newest to oldest. For a complete listing, please see our Site Map page.

April 4, 2013

N.Y. newborn contracts herpes from circumcision rite

(JTA) -- The parents of a Jewish newborn who reportedly contracted neonatal herpes following a controversial circumcision rite did not sign the required consent form.

According to the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the newborn is the second in three months to contract the virus due to metzitzah b'peh, in which the circumciser uses his mouth to draw blood from the baby's penis.

The baby's parents did not sign the form advising that "direct oral suction should not be performed" because of the risk of contracting herpes, a recently required New York City health board regulation, and they have refused to identify the mohel, or ritual circumciser, who apparently is carrying the virus, The Forward reported.

At least 11 boys contracted herpes from the practice between 2004 and 2011, according to New York City health officials. Two died from the disease and two others suffered brain damage, the officials said.

Last September, the board of health voted 9-0 to require mohels to obtain the signed consent forms. Several months earlier, the city had struck an agreement with city hospitals to distribute pamphlets about the ritual's dangers to the mothers of newborns.

Using oral suction to take blood from the area of the circumcision wound is common in some of New York's haredi Orthodox communities.

Source: Jewish Telegraphic Agency

January 11, 2013

Judge won't block New York City circumcision law

A Manhattan federal judge refused to block a New York City regulation requiring people who perform circumcisions and use their mouths to draw away blood from the wound on a baby's genitals to first obtain written consent from the parents.

U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald on Thursday refused to issue a preliminary injunction against the change to the city's health code, which some members of the city's Orthodox Jewish communities called an unwarranted government intrusion on religious freedom.

In September, the New York City Board of Health voted to require mohels, who perform circumcisions, to obtain advance consent that tells parents about the risk of a potentially fatal herpes infection linked to the ritual of metzitzah b'peh, or MBP, involving direct oral suction of the penis.

Enforcement of the regulation was put on hold until Buchwald could rule on the request by the Central Rabbinical Congress of the USA and Canada, the International Bris Association and some rabbis for a preliminary injunction.

In court papers filed in October, they said the regulation improperly singled out an exclusively religious ritual, and violated the free speech and free exercise protections within the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

But in a 93-page decision, Buchwald refused to halt enforcement of the regulation, and said the plaintiffs' claims were likely to be found without merit.

"There is ample medical evidence that direct oral suction places infants at a serious risk of herpes infection, as well as evidence that parents are sometimes unaware in advance of a circumcision that MBP will occur, and the regulation plainly addresses these legitimate societal concerns," Buchwald wrote.

"As enacted, the regulation does no more than ensure that parents can make an informed decision" whether to consent, she added.

Shay Dvoretzky, a partner at Jones Day representing the plaintiffs, was not immediately available for comment.

The city welcomed the decision. "Informing parents about the grave risks associated with this procedure is critical to safeguarding infants' health," Michelle Goldberg-Cahn, a senior lawyer for the city, said in a statement.

New York City said it plans to begin enforcing the consent requirement even if litigation continues.

City health officials on Thursday said at least 11 infant boys have in the last several years contracted a potentially fatal form of herpes following circumcision with direct oral suction, and that two of the boys died.

Opponents of the regulation have said the health department had not proven a higher incidence of neonatal herpes among boys who had received direct oral suction.

The case is Central Rabbinical Congress of the USA and Canada et al v. New York City Department of Health & Mental Hygiene et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 12-07590.

Source: Fox News

November 14, 2012

German lawmakers propose barring circumcision before age 14

Circumcision Goes Horribly Wrong

Suit Is Filed Over Move to Regulate Circumcision

October 2, 2012

Finnish party plans new bill to ban circumcision

(JTA) – Finland's third largest party, True Finns, has demanded a ban on the ritual circumcision of minors.

In a debate held Sept. 26 at the Finnish parliament in Helsinki, Vesa-Matti Saarakkala, a lawmaker for True Finns, reiterated his calls in March to outlaw the practice in Finland.

Saarakkala, 28, said he would submit a bill proposing to criminalize ritual circumcision in boys younger than 15 years of age, according to the online edition of Yleisradio, Finland's national public broadcasting company.

"The Finnish constitution guarantees everyone the right to personal integrity," Saarakkala is quoted as saying. Saarakkala, a critic of what he called perceived integration problems among immigrants, also pointed out that female circumcision "is already considered assault" in Finland. The fact that circumcision in males is legal in Finland, he said, constitutes legal discrimination.

With 39 seats out of 200 in the lower house, the socialist-conservative True Finns is Finland's largest opposition party.

Jouko Jaaskelainen, a lawmaker for the Christian Democrats, said in parliament that circumcision was a minor procedure and that research showed it was helpful in preventing diseases.

On Sept. 30, an international conference of critics of ritual circumcision opened in Helsinki.

Gideon Bolotowsky of the Central Council of Jewish Communities in Finland told JTA that he did not foresee a ban on circumcision in Finland in the near future.

"Those trying to ban circumcision are hard-pressed to present scientific evidence that circumcision is harmful," he said.

Bolotowsky added that the critics of circumcision in children "have had the rug pulled from under their feet" because of the publication in August of a new research by the American Academy of Pediatrics suggesting that the procedure may protect heterosexual men against HIV and that the health benefits outweighed the risks connected to the procedure.

Source: Jewish Telegraphic Agency

September 13, 2012

N.Y. Board Orders Forms for Circumcision Rite

Health Officials Mandate Parental Consent for Metzitzah B'Peh

By Seth Berkman

The New York City board of health has voted unanimously to require parents to sign a consent form before allowing a mohel to perform metztizah b’peh, direct oral-genital suction during circumcision.

The vote was 9-0 to require parental consent for direct oral suction, a practice employed only by ultra-Orthodox mohels that can lead to transmission of a strain of herpes to which infants are especially vulnerable. Though transmission rates are believed to be low, if infected, babies can suffer brain damage or even death.

“We’re not banning the procedure, we’re not regulating how circumcisions are performed,” Jay K. Varma, deputy commissioner for disease control for the health department said after the meeting. “We’re simply requiring that people understand there is a risk, and if people want their baby to be circumcised, they have to understand that this procedure might potentially transmit an infection that is both serious as well as life threatening.”

There are no mandatory penalties imposed if the waivers are not signed. But the health commission may impose penalties at its own discretion. Varma said the department would respond to public complaints and investigate the claims, and that repercussions could range from a phone call or a formal warning letter, to fines of up to $2,000 for each violation.

Despite the unanimous approval, during the meeting board members, who are appointed by the mayor, voiced their concerns about the forms and the potential of limiting religious freedom. Board member Sandro Galea referred to the waivers as a “tricky issue,” and Health Commissioner Thomas Farley said the department had worked hard to protect infants and respect religious traditions at the same time. He also took note of calls from the Orthodox Jewish community to delay the vote, but said that would be inappropriate and essentially doing nothing on the matter. Farley did say that he hoped to continue dialogue with critics past today.

Three protestors gathered outside of the hearing at the Department of Health building in Long Island City to denounce the decision. Rabbi William Handler, leader of Traditional Bris Milah, a self-proclaimed group formed to “protect Jewish ritual circumcision,” provided orange flyers that accused Mayor Bloomberg and Farley of instigating “Blood Libel.”

“The puppets all danced to the tune of the puppet master,” said Handler, referring to the health board and the mayor. “What this is, is the first step in completely taking away traditional bris milah from the Jewish people in New York City.” 

Source: The Jewish Daily Forward

August 27, 2012

Pediatrics group says circumcision's benefits outweigh risks amid U.S. decline in procedure

By Ryan Jaslow

(CBS News) The health benefits from male circumcision outweigh the risks, says the American Academy of Pediatrics in its latest guidelines on the controversial procedure published Monday.

In its first policy statement on the subject since 1999, which was later reaffirmed in 2005, the academy stops short of recommending routine circumcision for males, but adds that based on the current evidence, insurers should cover its costs.

The group's previous stance said the procedure can prevent bladder infections and sexually transmitted diseases like HIV/AIDS, but also carried potential downsides like reduced sensation and infection.

"In 1999, there was some data suggesting that there were some small medical benefits to circumcision but, at the time, there was not a compelling medical reason to recommend circumcision. So the previous policy didn't argue for or against circumcision," Dr. Douglas S. Diekema, a member of the circumcision task force behind the new statement, told AAP News. "However, now there is much stronger evidence about protective medical benefits associated with circumcision, so the tone of this policy statement has changed."

For the new policy statement, researchers formed a task force in 2007 to review evidence from 1,000 studies that took place between 1995 and 2010. They found that the procedure had preventive benefits, including a major risk reduction for male urinary tract infections - especially during the first year of life - and a lower risk of cancer, and heterosexual acquisition of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. Specifically, risk for herpes was 28 to 34 percent lower for circumcised men and risk for HPV was reduced by 30 to 40 percent.

The new policy is published in the Aug. 27 issue of the academy's journal, Pediatrics.

The task force members also said the procedure is safe when performed by trained professionals in a sterile environment, and complications are rare and much lower for newborns - less than 1 percent - compared with adult males who get the procedure.

However the group said the health benefits are not great enough to recommend routine circumcision.

"Ultimately, this is a decision that parents will have to make," Dr. Susan Blank, chair of the task force that authored the policy statement and corresponding technical report, said in a written statement. "Parents are entitled to medically accurate and non-biased information about circumcision, and they should weigh this medical information in the context of their own religious, ethical and cultural beliefs.

Based on current rates, it appears an increasing number of parents are opting to skip the procedure. A recent analysis from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found the U.S. circumcision rate fell from about 63 percent of newborn boys in 1999 to 55 percent in 2010. In the 1980s, the U.S. circumcision rate was about 79 percent of newborn boys.

A study in last week's Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine found the 20-year decline may have already contributed to about $2 billion in additional medical costs, for care related to treating urinary tract infections and sexually transmitted diseases throughout a male's lifetime. The researchers say if the trend continues to where only 10 percent of U.S. males are circumcised - rates similar to Europe - the country could face about $4.4 billion in health care costs - an added $407 per man.

That's in part because 18 states have already abolished Medicaid coverage for male circumcision. In the new policy statement, the American Academy of Pediatrics says the procedure's benefits warrant third-party payment by insurers should parents opt for the procedure for their kids.

"It's a good idea to have this conversation during pregnancy, and to learn whether your insurance will cover the procedure, so you have time to make the decision," said Dr. Blank.

Psychologist Ronald Goldman, director of an anti-circumcision group, the Circumcision Resource Center, told the Associated Press that studies show circumcision causes loss of sexual satisfaction -- a claim the academy said is not supported by the research it reviewed -- and can be psychologically harming. Goldman says medical studies showing benefits are flawed and that the academy's new position is "out of step" with international opinion on male circumcision.

Controversy over circumcision has ramped up in recent years, highlighted in the U.S. last year when a male circumcision ban almost made the November ballot in San Francisco. A judge eventually ruled such a decision should be a state matter, rather than decided by a city election.

In Cologne, Germany, a court ruled this July that circumcision went against the "fundamental right of the child to bodily integrity," and should be decided by the child himself once he gets older. The German government is currently working with the German Medical Association to clarify the ruling to ensure religious freedoms.

Source: CBS News

August 26, 2012

Denmark to probe whether circumcision violates health code

(JTA) – Denmark has commissioned an investigation into whether non-medical circumcision procedures violate its health code.

“We will examine the public health recommendations followed in this area,” Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt told the Copenhagen-based Politiken daily on Saturday.

Politiken reported that the Danish government has commissioned a study on this question. Last month the paper published an expose that said the National Board of Health did not monitor the conditions under which circumcision takes place.

Non-medical circumcision of minors has been the subject of a heated debate in Denmark over the past few months. Several politicians reportedly have called for a ban on the practice, prompting angry reactions from Jews and Muslims.

Venstre, Denmark’s largest party, will decide whether to seek a ban on such circumcisions based on the results of the study, a party spokesperson told JTA.

The chief rabbi of Denmark, Bent Lexner, told Politiken that he did not think the launching of the investigation reflected distrust on the government’s part. He said the government was welcome to carry out its investigation.

Lexner added that a doctor is always present during a circumcision, which under the Jewish rite is carried out by a mohel, or ritual circumciser.

"Our register goes back 250 years and we can document every single circumcision," the rabbi told Politiken. "A journal is also kept in connection with the circumcision itself. The doctor who is present keeps a record of what happens."

Denmark, a country of 5.5 million, has a Muslim minority of 210,000 and some 8,500 Jews.

Finn Schwarz, the president of the Jewish Congregation in Copenhagen, told JTA that the current debate about circumcision is connected to popular discontent with the level of integration of Muslim immigrants.

Source: Jewish Telegraphic Agency

August 21, 2012

Rabbi Charged with Illegal Circumcision in Germany

Criminal assault charges have been filed against the rabbi of the Jewish community in oberfränkischen Hof, Rabbi David Goldberg, for circumcision for religious reasons. Chief prosecutor Gerhard Schmitt confirmed that the complaint was filed by a doctor from Hessen, which is under the jurisdiction of the Cologne Regional Court, which decided a while ago that non-medical circumcision was a criminal offense.

According to the "Judische Allgemeine," Rabbi Goldberg, who is also a mohel, or religious circumciser, was informed by journalists about the lawsuit.

Cologne Rabbi Yaron Engelmayer of the Orthodox Rabbinical Conference declared: "I'm shocked."

It was the first time that a rabbi has been charged with a criminal violation in the Federal Republic of Germany because he performed a religious ritual.

Maram Stern, vice president of the World Jewish Congress, said there was an urgent need to create legal certainty about this matter. "We hope that the prosecutor will show sensitivity regarding this issue and will not initiate an investigation against the mohel."

Source: Jewish Press

August 21, 2012

Tasmania moves a step closer to circumcision ban

A trail-blazing legal ban on the circumcision of most baby boys is a step closer in Tasmania.

The Tasmanian Law Reform Institute today recommended the state impose a general prohibition on the circumcision of "incapable minors," except for well-established religious or ethnic reasons.

In a benchmark 101-page report, the institute also calls for legislation to clarify the legality of circumcisions done at the request of adults and "capable minors".

The institute's director, Kate Warner, said it was unclear whether non-therapeutic infant male circumcision was actually lawful. “In the interests of certainty, the institute recommends that the law be clarified,” Professor Warner said.

Circumcision is a permanent genital modification involving at least a partial excision of the male foreskin, according to the institute.

The report said there was rarely, if ever, a medical reason for the circumcision of a newborn boy.

Yet more than 19,000 Medicare claims were lodged nationally in 2010 for circumcisions on boys under six months of age. The statistics suggest about 13 per cent of newborn Australian boys are circumcised annually.

"Non-therapeutic circumcision is performed for a variety of reasons, including socio-cultural, religious, aesthetic and prophylactic reasons," it said.

Costs of the procedure included significant pain, and a potential reduction in sexual pleasure.

"Trauma from circumcision in childhood can also have a long lasting and significant effect on a person's mental health," the report said.

Benefits could include its cultural significance, particularly in Muslim and Jewish communities, and some reduced exposure to infectious disease.

But the report said the world's leading health policy organisations cautioned against attributing too much significance to circumcision's prophylactic effect for those who live in the developed world.

"No authoritative health policy maker in any jurisdiction with a frequency of relevant health conditions as low as that in Australia recommends circumcision as an individual or public health measure."

The report said the community was split over the merits of circumcising baby boys, but the institute concluded that for reasons of rational reform it should only be legal in the case of "widely and well-received" reasons.

"The law ought to condemn the waning tradition of circumcising incapable boys for secular non-ethnicity related social reasons."

A spokesman for the Attorney-General, Brian Wightman, said the state government was considering its response to the report.

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald

August 10, 2012

Swiss hospital lifts ban on circumcision

(JTA) – A Swiss hospital which briefly banned circumcision announced that it would now allow the procedure.

An announcement by University Children’s Hospital Zurich said on Friday that a three-week moratorium, now ended, was needed to assess the practice’s legal implications.

The hospital’s board “decided future circumcisions would be examined on a case by case basis, subject to consideration for children’s welfare.” If deemed permissible, both parents would have to give their written consent to the procedure.

The president of the Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities, Dr. Herbert Winter, told JTA he was “satisfied” with the lifting of a ban on circumcision. “It is positive that the hospital has also realized that circumcision does not conflict with Swiss law or jurisprudence -- as the Jewish community has often maintained.” Winter also said that the Jewish values are in line with the hospital’s care for children’s welfare.

According to Winter, University Children’s Hospital Zurich is the only institution in the country that had announced a ban on the ritual.

Jewish circumcisions are usually performed by mohalim, or ritual circumcisors, and “only very exceptionally do they occur in hospitals,” he added.

The hospital’s initial ban followed a ruling in June by a court in Cologne, Germany, which said that circumcision was tantamount to grievous bodily harm.

The governor of Vorarlberg province in Austria also has ordered state-run hospitals to stop circumcisions except for health reasons “until the legal situation is clarified.”

Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, president of the Conference of European Rabbis, said he wished to congratulate the Swiss Jewish community on the lifting of the ban.

“We are facing two parallel campaigns: To ban circumcision and to ban shechitah,” he told JTA, referring to the procedure for kosher slaughtering of animals. “Both sometimes display certain anti-Semitic overtones. Keeping shechitah permissible is crucially important. However, circumcision is existential; without it there can be no Jewish community.”

Source: Jewish Telegraphic Agency

August 10, 2012

Bipartisan group expresses ‘deep concern’ over German circumcision ban

WASHINGTON (JTA) – A bipartisan group of 20 Congressmen sent a letter to the German government expressing “deep concern” over a recent German court decision to effectively ban circumcision on young boys.

Howard Berman (D-Calif.), Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), authored the letter, which was addressed to Peter Ammon, the German ambassador to the United States.

The District Court of Cologne court recently ruled that the right of a child to be protected from bodily harm took precedence over the interests of the parents or religious freedom. Accordingly, the court said, the circumcision of a minor for non-medical reasons could be considered a criminal act.

The letter by the congressmen called the June 26 court decision “an affront to religious freedom.”

The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations, which represents about 1,000 congregations, praised the letter. Circumcision, it wrote in a press release, is “a fundamental ritual and sacred rite of passage for both the Jewish and Muslim communities. Throughout history, the prohibition of Brit Milah has been tantamount to rejection of the Jewish community’s existence.”

The letter to the ambassador also “applauded the strong opposition voiced by Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle” and called on them to pass legislation that would safeguard religious freedom.

“Europe has experienced a troubling uptick in measures that violate religious freedom by undermining core religious tenets, such as the Dutch initiative to ban ritual slaughter and this new effort in Germany to outlaw ritual circumcision,” Waxman said in a press release. “We must ensure that Germany follows through on its commitment to resolve this controversy.”

Berman added in the release, “A not so veiled assault on tenets central to religious expression is underway in Europe's courts and legislatures. We must let it be known to our friends in a clear and unequivocal voice that such measures are harmful assaults on religious freedom and should not continue.”

Source: Jewish Telegraphic Agency

August 6, 2012

Norwegian official: Jews, Muslims should replace circumcision with ‘symbolic’ ritual

THE HAGUE (JTA) -- Norway’s ombudsman for children's rights has proposed that Jews and Muslim replace male circumcision with a symbolic, nonsurgical ritual.

Dr. Anne Lindboe told the newspaper Vart Land last month that circumcision in boys was a violation of a person’s right to decide over his own body.

“Muslim and Jewish children are entitled to the same protection as all other children,“ she said, adding that the practice caused unnecessary pain and was medically unbeneficial.

Lindboe, a pediatrician, was appointed ombudsman in June. Her predecessor, Reidar Hjermann, proposed setting 15 as the minimum age for circumcision. According to Jewish religious law, Jewish babies must be circumcised when they are eight days old.

The children’s ombudsman is an independent governmental institution entrusted with safeguarding the rights of minors.

Ervin Kohn, president of the Jewish Community of Oslo, said that Norwegian Jews “will not be able to live in a society where circumcision is forbidden.” He noted that the mandate of Norway’s children’s ombudsman did not extend to devising Jewish rituals. Norway has a Jewish community of about 700.

In June, a spokesperson for Norway’s Centre Party, which has 11 out of 169 seats in parliament, proposed a ban on circumcising babies.

Source: Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Boys in traditional attire attend a ceremony a day

before their circumcision ritual at Eyup Sultan square in Istanbul

August 1, 2012

Austria OKs circumcisions after multifaith appeal

By Michael Shields

Doctors in Austria’s westernmost province have been cleared to resume circumcisions after the Justice Ministry reassured them that they can perform the religious practice without risking criminal charges, officials said.

Spooked by a regional court ruling in neighbouring Germany that the practice supported by Muslims and Jews amounted to physical abuse, the governor of Austria’s Vorarlberg province last week advised doctors to suspend it, triggering a heated debate.

Another state governor came out in favour of a national ban.

Austria’s Catholic, Protestant, Jewish and Muslim leaders united in defence of circumcision on Friday, condemning calls to limit the practice as an attack on religion and demanding that the government clarify its legality.

A letter from Justice Minister Beatrix Karl giving the legal all clear has now helped assuage concerns, a spokesman for Vorarlberg Governor Markus Wallner said.

“We only wanted to get legal certainty for doctors so they can be clear whether they face legal consequences if they perform circumcisions for religious reasons,” he said.

Doctors still have to decide for themselves whether to perform such voluntary operations, which are not covered by the public health system, he added.

A spokesman for Karl said the minister had simply put in writing to Vorarlberg state officials what she and her legal experts have said in public for days.

Austria is home to about half a million Muslims, most of whom are migrant workers from Turkey, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and about 9,000 Jews, down from about 200,000 before the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany in 1938.

Source: Reuters

July 24, 2012

Austrian province suspends circumcisions amid row

By Michael Shields

An Austrian province has told state-run hospitals to stop performing circumcisions on boys, wading into a religiously-charged debate ignited after a regional court in neighboring Germany banned the procedure as physical abuse.

The governor of Vorarlberg province said he had taken the decision to stop circumcisions until such time as Austria could formulate a uniform approach to a practice that is supported both by Muslims and Jews.

"This is a subject that has to be regulated country-wide," a spokesman for Governor Markus Wallner said, confirming media reports that he had advised hospitals in the western province to suspend circumcisions carried out for religious reasons.

Austrian broadcaster ORF said such operations were rare in Vorarlberg.

Germany's lower house of parliament last week passed a resolution protecting the religious circumcision of infant boys after a Cologne court ban outraged Muslims and Jews, sparking an emotional debate that has spilled into neighboring Austria.

Source: Reuters

July 23, 2012

Swiss Hospitals Follow German Ban on Circumcision

Two hospitals in Switzerland have suspended the practice of non-medical circumcision within their walls. The move comes just weeks after a German court in Cologne ruled that parents cannot order circumcisions on their children because it constitutes bodily harm.

Swiss Local News reported Thursday that the Zurich University Children’s Hospital has temporarily halted the practice of non-medical circumcision until its legality can be determined. “We are in the process of evaluating the legal and ethical stance in Switzerland,” Marco Stuecheli, spokesman for the hospital, told AFP last week. Following suit, St. Gallen’s teaching hospital in northern Switzerland said over the weekend that they are considering a moratorium on circumcision, with a senior hospital official pledging a final decision by summer’s end, reported Beobachter magazine.

It is unlikely that the hospitals’ decisions will have strong repercussions on the practice in Swiss Jewish or Muslim communities, because circumcisions are often practiced outside of medical facilities, a fact that accounts for the Zurich Children’s Hospital low average of only one or two circumcisions per month. Instead, Jewish parents circumcise in religious ceremonies staged in synagogues, with the procedure carried out by community specialists called “mohels” in Jewish tradition. In Switzerland, the prerogative to practice circumcision belongs to each individual hospital, according to the Swiss Society for Pediatric Surgery.

In Germany, the controversial ban may be overturned, following outrage from Jewish and Muslim organizations which prompted vehement responses from German lawmakers, notably German Chancellor Angela Merkel who said the ban risks making Germany a “laughing stock.” Germany’s lower house of parliament also passed a ruling by an overwhelming majority, according to Reuters, to protect circumcision in defiance of the Cologne district court’s decision.

Source: The Algemeiner

June 26, 2012

Religious circumcisions are crimes says court

Religious circumcisions are bodily harm and thus a crime, a German court ruled this week, in what was dubbed a precedent-setting decision.

Non-medical circumcision is a "serious and irreversible interference in the integrity of the human body,” the Cologne district court ruled.

This criminalises religious circumcisions performed by Jews and Muslims, the Financial Times Deutschland newspaper said on Tuesday. It says circumcision should be considered a crime of bodily harm.

Thousands of very young boys are circumcised in Germany each year, mainly for religious reasons.

In the United States most boys are circumcised shortly after birth - regardless of their religion, though the practice has declined in recent years and anti-circumcision protest groups have sprung up.

German doctors performing circumcisions that are not medically necessary have until now operated in a grey legal area. Until now they could claim that they were unaware that performing a circumcision is a crime.

Even if a physician was later found guilty by a court, there was a legal loophole and he could claim that the law was improper and avoid punishment. That is no longer the case, the Financial Times Deutschland said.

"The ruling is enormously important above all for doctors because it's the first time that they have a legal certainty," Holm Putzke of the University of Passau told the paper. He has been calling for prohibition for years.

“The court has, in contrast to many politicians, not allowed itself to be scared by the fear of being criticised as anti-Semitic or opposed to religion,” Putzke said.

"This decision could not only affect future legal rulings but in the best case it could lead to a change of consciousness among the affected religions when it comes to respecting the basic rights of children."

Jewish and Muslim groups have fought for years against a criminalisation of circumcision. They did not have any immediate comment on Monday's ruling, saying they needed to review it first, the paper said.

The court ruling is likely to be highly controversial – experts expect the matter will end up being decided by the Federal Constitutional Court.

The Cologne decision came after a Muslim doctor performed a circumcision on a four-year-old boy. Two days later the mother brought the child to the emergency room because he was bleeding.

The prosecutor's office learned of the situation and filed charges against the doctor. The doctor was found not guilty in the first instance, but the prosecutor appealed.

Source: The Local

June 13, 2012

Ban ritual circumcision of boys: Centre Party

“In my view, this is a custom that we cannot accept in a modern, civilized society. Our aim is to prioritize the rights of small children. Fortunately, it has become forbidden to circumcise girls, now it’s time for boys to get the same legal protection,” Klinge told newspaper Dagbladet.

Although the Centre Party is itself a junior partner in Norway’s Red-Green coalition government, the politician also criticized the government’s decision to consult experts on the possibility of introducing circumcision into the public healthcare system, a move she fears would legitimize the practice.

She stressed that she was not opposed to circumcision in cases where it was deemed a medical necessity.

“But circumcision based on ritual and religion is actually about holding down a newborn baby boy and cutting off part of a healthy sexual organ, with all the consequences that this might have for an individual’s future health and sex life,” said Klinge.

With this in mind, performing a circumcision on religious grounds ought to be made a criminal offence, she added.

Jan Helge Solbakk, a professor of medical ethics at Oslo University, agreed with Klinge’s criticism of the practice.

“It represents an irreversible operation on a boy who is not in a position to protect himself, and as such is in breach of basic human rights,” he told Dagbladet.

Source: The Local

June 8, 2012

11 New York infants infected with herpes through ritual in Jewish circumcision

The practice of "oral-genital suction" performed during some Orthodox Jewish circumcision ceremonies could leave the infant with a potentially fatal herpes virus infection, health officials warn.

New York City and federal health authorities issued a public advisory Thursday cautioning against the sucking practice because it has been linked to 11 infants becoming infected with the herpes simplex virus type 1 since 2000. Ten of the infected newborns were hospitalized, two developed brain damage and two died, the health officials said.

A newborn can become infected when the adult performing the circumcision places his mouth on the circumcision wound to siphon blood away from the cut. The ritual is only embraced by a handful of sects within the Orthodox Jewish community, according to New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley.

"There is no safe way to perform oral suction on any open wound in a newborn," Farley said in a news release. "Parents considering ritual Jewish circumcision need to know that circumcision should only be performed under sterile conditions, like any other procedures that create open cuts, whether by mohelim [the circumciser] or medical professionals."

A report on the infections also appears in the June 8 issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Almost 80 percent of adults carry the herpes simplex virus type 1, which is usually spread orally through common activities and is different from the sexually transmitted type 2 version of the virus. The common cold sore is a typical sign of infection with the herpes simplex virus type 1, but most people don't know they are infected because they have no history of symptoms, officials said.

In six of the 11 circumcision cases, health care providers confirmed that the suction ritual had taken place, although there was evidence of a connection in the other five cases. The ritual more than tripled the risk of infection among newborns getting circumcised, the CDC report stated.

Source: Fox News

March 3, 2012

Baby dies in circumcision

THOMAS ZAMBITO

A two-week old boy died at a Brooklyn hospital in September after contracting herpes through a religious circumcision ritual that ignited controversy in 2005 after another infant died, the Daily News has learned.

The unidentified infant died Sept. 28, 2011, at Maimonides Hospital, according to a spokeswoman for the city Medical Examiner, who confirmed the death after a News inquiry.

The cause of death was listed as “disseminated herpes simplex virus Type 1, complicating ritual circumcision with oral suction.”

City officials declined to comment Friday.

It’s unclear who performed the circumcision.

In 2004, city health officials revealed that a baby boy died after a circumcision carried out by a Rockland County rabbi who specializes in the centuries-old, ultra-Orthodox ritual known as metzizah b’ peh.

Under the practice, the rabbi or mohel removes blood from the wound with his mouth — a practice city health officials have criticized, saying it carried “inherent risks” for babies.

In 2004, three infants circumcised by Rabbi Yitzchok Fischer were determined to have contracted herpes, city officials said.

Among them were twins circumcised in October 2004 after Fischer performed the religious ceremony known as a bris.

tzambito@nydailynews.com

Source: NY Daily News

February 19, 2012

Swedish docs in circumcision protest

Circumcision of young boys for religious and non-medical reasons ought to be banned in Sweden, urged the Swedish Paediatric Society (Svenska barnläkarföreningen, BLF).

In a statement submitted to the National Board of Health and Welfare, the society called the procedure an assault.

"We consider it to be an assault on these boys," Staffan Janson, chairman of BLF's committee for ethical issues and children's rights, said to newspaper Göteborgs-Posten (GP).

Removing small boys' foreskin for reasons other than medical is controversial in Sweden.

After discussing the matter for several years, BLF has now concluded that the procedure ought to be banned on the grounds that the children are unable to form a decision in the matter.

According to BLF and Staffan Janson, circumcision is an attack on boys' integrity.

"It's such a complicated and difficult question, but even so, we've decided that this is a procedure to be done away with," Janson said.

"It's a mutilation of a child unable to decide for himself."

Not everyone agrees that circumcision is an assault, however.

"Parents decide things for their children all the time," Omar Mustafa, head of the Islamic Association in Sweden, said to GP.

"Allowing parents to decide over this matter isn't stranger than allowing them to decide whether their child is to be vaccinated or not," he continued.

Source: The Local - Sweden's News in English

January 2, 2012

Circumcision assault case brings fine – conviction but no punishment for parents

Legal status of non-medical circumcisions remains murky.

Helsinki District Court imposed a fine on a man convicted of assault and battery on Friday for performing circumcisions on two Muslim boys. The parents of the boys were convicted of incitement to assault and battery, but no punishment was meted out.

The man who performed the circumcisions said that he had done so thousands of times in Turkey and Iran. However, he lacked the licences required for performing such procedures in Finland.

One of the boys suffered a painful infection.

Finland does not have legislation on religiously mandated circumcisions.

In 2008 the Finnish Supreme Court ruled that religiously mandated circumcisions are not illegal if they are performed according to proper medical procedure.

In its Friday ruling, Helsinki District Court stated that it would be a misinterpretation of the Supreme Court’s earlier decision to see it as authorising non-medical circumcisions.

After the Supreme Court’s ruling, Finland has signed the Convention on Human rights and Biomedicine of the Council of Europe.

Under the convention, procedures affecting a person’s health must be performed according to applicable professional obligations and requirements. Surgical procedures can be performed on someone incapable of giving informed consent only if there are immediate benefits.

The court ruled that circumcision is a procedure that the person who undergoes it should give consent to. Another prerequisite would be that the person performing the procedure should be a medical or health care professional with a licence in Finland or elsewhere in the European Union.

The court sentenced the man who performed the circumcisions to 60 income-linked “day fines”, which in his case amounted to EUR 360. He and the parents were also ordered to pay EUR 3,000 in compensation to one of the two boys, and EUR 500 to the other.

Source: Helsingin Sanomat

October 2, 2011

Jerry Brown signs bill prohibiting circumcision bans

Gov. Jerry Brown has signed a bill prohibiting cities and counties from banning male circumcision, his office announced today.

Assembly Bill 768 by Assemblyman Mike Gatto, D-Los Angeles, was inspired by a San Francisco ballot measure designed to prohibit child circumcision there. A judge in July ordered the circumcision ban off the November ballot, but Gatto's bill proceeded through the Legislature, where it passed with unanimous votes.

Gatto argued that such bans were an affront to the exercise of "personal, medical and religious freedom."

San Francisco's first-of-its-kind initiative drew national attention for targeting circumcision, removal of the male foreskin, a practice that has biblical roots and that many believe was commanded by God in a covenant with Abraham. Opponents of circumcision liken it to "genital mutilation" - the forced removal of a healthy body part from an unconsenting child.

U.S. circumcision rates have been declining for several years. Today, about half of all boys born in hospitals are circumcised, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Source: The Sacramento Bee

September 14, 2011

Doctors campaign against 'risky and painful' circumcision of boys

The Dutch doctors federation KNMG has again called on ministers, MPs and human rights organisations to speak out against the practice of circumcising young boys.

Between 10,000 and 15,000 boys are circumcised in the Netherlands every year, often on religious grounds and without anaesthetics, the organisation says. This is against human rights.

The intervention is not without risk and is increasingly being seen as 'not normal', the organisation says.

It is not calling for an outright ban because of fears this would drive the practice underground and lead to more complications.

In particular, the KNMG says insurance companies should ask if they should be using public funds to pay for an unnecessary operation.

Source: DutchNews.nl

July 28, 2011

It’s official: Circumcision ban off November ballot in San Francisco

By Dan Schreiber

San Francisco’s circumcision ban is officially off the November ballot, after a judge ruled Thursday that state law expressly preempts local jurisdictions from regulating health care professionals.

A San Francisco Superior Court judge upheld a tentative ruling from Wednesday that sided with the Jewish Community Relations Council and other individuals suing The City and San Francisco resident Lloyd Schofield, who gathered more than 12,000 signatures to get the ban on the ballot.

If passed by voters, circumcision on males under 18 in San Francisco would have been a misdemeanor punishable by a $1,000 fine and up to a year in jail. Schofield calls male circumcision is a brutal practice, just as deplorable as widely condemned female circumcision practices.

The procedure is held in spiritual importance by members of the Jewish and Islamic faiths, which came into public debate when campaign material for the ban included arguably anti-Semitic comics depicting Jewish circumcision practitioners as villains.

Abby Porth, associate director at the Jewish Community Relations Council, said she welcomes Thursday’s decision by Loretta M. Giorgi. She said her organization’s opposition was about combating negative attention on male circumcision and not so much over fear the ban might be approved by voters.

“Even if it made the ballot, we don’t believe it would have passed,” Porth said.

Source: The San Francisco Examiner

May 5, 2011

Queens Toddler Dies After Routine Circumcision

His family wants answers from hospital officials and doctors

By Paul DeBenedetto

A Queens toddler died on the operating table this week after a routine circumcision -- a tragedy his family thinks was the result of the wrong analgesic.

Hospital officials say it "could take weeks" to get results of an autopsy for the 2-year-old boy, Jamaal Coleson Jr.

A spokesman from the medical examiner's office told NBC New York that an initial autopsy was inconclusive and that the baby's remains are "pending further testing," which could take weeks. But Coleson's family wants answers sooner.

"I want to know what happened," the boy's uncle, Jabbar Coleson, 23, told the New York Post from his hometown of Atlanta. "He was so sweet and energetic and so happy, a very happy child. I am very upset and I am glad I am a couple of hundred miles away. I have time to calm down and say my prayers."

Coleson Jr. died on Tuesday, just 10 hours after what the boy's uncle called a routine procedure at Beth Israel Hospital in Manhattan.

Jabbar Coleson told the paper that his nephew was supposed to receive a local analgesic but instead received a general. The child "woke up and laughed and called for his mother and then went critical." He was declared dead later that night at 8:35 p.m.

In a statement, the hospital said it reported the case as an "unexpected death" to the state Department of Health, and will conduct an internal review.

"This is a devastating event for his family as well as for the staff at Beth Israel who tried to save his life," the statement read.

Source: NBC New York

April 27, 2011

Circumcision ban in San Francisco considered

By Gabrielle Saveri

SAN FRANCISCO— A group opposed to male circumcision said on Tuesday they have collected more than enough signatures to qualify a proposal to ban the practice in San Francisco as a ballot measure for November elections.

But legal experts said that even if it were approved by a majority of the city's voters, such a measure would almost certainly face a legal challenge as an unconstitutional infringement on freedom of religion.

Circumcision is a ritual obligation for infant Jewish boys, and is also a common rite among Muslims, who account for the largest share of circumcised men worldwide.

The leading proponent of a ban, Lloyd Schofield, 59, acknowledged circumcision is widely socially accepted but he said it should still be outlawed.

"It's excruciatingly painful and permanently damaging surgery that's forced on men when they're at their weakest and most vulnerable," he told Reuters. His group submitted about 12,000 signatures supporting his proposed ban, said Rachel Gosiengfiao, campaign services manager for the city's Department of Elections. The agency has 30 days to verify the petitions. He needs 7,200 valid signatures to qualify.

Measure would make circumcision a misdemeanor

The measure, which would only apply in San Francisco, would make it a misdemeanor crime to circumcise a boy before he is 18 years of age, regardless of the parents' religious beliefs. The maximum penalty would be a year in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Schofield, who would not discuss his current occupation but previously worked for hotels in the San Francisco Bay area, has found allies for his cause in the anti-circumcision groups Intact America and the National Organization of Circumcision Information Resource Centers, according to his group's website.

However, some experts said it was doubtful such a measure would withstand legal scrutiny if challenged.

"The practice of Judaism requires a boy to be circumcised. I suspect the California courts would ultimately require the city to demonstrate the practice is harmful," said Jennifer Rothman, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.

"I don't think there's sufficient medical evidence that it is, which would place the law's constitutionality in question."

But Josh Davis, professor and associate dean for faculty scholarship at the University of San Francisco School of Law, said the U.S. Supreme Court has previously indicated in rulings that "religions don't get a free pass."

"So if circumcision is the harm that's being targeted — because circumcision is perceived as causing harm, and not because it is a religious practice — it might well be a constitutionally valid law," he said.

Schofield's proposal would make exceptions for boys who need a circumcision for health reasons.

Nevertheless, Davis and Rothman both said voters would be likely to reject the measure at the polls.

"I think that people are very likely to react to it as interfering with religious practices," Davis said.

Source: MSNBC.com

April 8, 2011

More details emerge about Portland mom who is accused of trying to circumcise her baby at home

By Aimee Green, The Oregonian

The 29-year-old mom told a Portland police detective that she’d been inspired to circumcise her baby after reading the Old Testament.

The only problem was, her son was already three months old. And she was aware that pediatricians at OHSU Doernbecher Children's Hospital wouldn’t circumcise him because he was too old, she told police.

According to papers filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court this week and obtained by The Oregonian, the prosecution publicly outlined its case for the first time:

Keemonta Peterson told police she watched some YouTube videos about circumcisions. Then around midnight on the morning of Oct. 24 - using a box cutter as a scalpel and a pair of pliers as a tourniquet - she began the procedure. She had no experience.

When the bleeding wouldn’t stop, she tried to stitch her baby up. Her 13-year-old son watched on in distress. After two hours of uncontrolled bleeding, Peterson decided she needed help and called 9-1-1 to her home near East Burnside Street and 127th Avenue.

Medics rushed the infant to OHSU, where he was initially listed in critical condition.

Deputy district attorney John Casalino offered these details in a memorandum opposing Peterson’s attempt to get out of Multnomah County jail this week. Peterson had been locked up since her arrest March 8.

The unemployed mother of four was being held in lieu of $550,000 bail, under accusations of first- and second-degree assault and first-degree criminal mistreatment. To be convicted of first-degree assault, a judge must find that Peterson caused “serious physical injury to a child under six years of age.”

According to the prosecutor’s motion, a doctor described the baby’s condition upon arrival as life threatening, and the pain as immense.

Today, the boy appears to have recovered, with no apparent permanent injury.

At a hearing Tuesday, the prosecutor tried to persuade a judge not to make it easier for Peterson to get out of jail pending trial. But Peterson’s attorney, Scott Raivio, argued her bail should be reduced. His arguments were supported by a Close Street Supervision deputy, who noted Peterson has strong family support and had been attending mental-health counseling three times a week before she was booked in jail.

Judge David Rees lowered Peterson’s bail to $5,000. She posted $500 — the required 10 percent — and was released Wednesday to the supervision of the deputy. She must check in regularly, among other conditions.

She has been allowed to see her four children, who are staying with family members, during supervised visits.

According to the prosecution, Peterson said she has concerns about her mental health. She told the Oregon Department of Human Services that in the past she has been overcome with paranoia, and she and her children would stay inside. A month after the botched circumcision, she said she suffered “auditory hallucinations” and manic episodes that prevented her from sleeping for days.

She told authorities that she follows the “Hebrew” religion, but doesn’t attend services at any particular establishment.

An OHSU spokeswoman said it's true that pediatricians at OHSU won't perform circumcisions on boys older than four weeks because of the increased pain, need for general anesthesia and greater risk of bleeding. But urologists at the hospital will perform the procedure on boys older than four weeks. Peterson's trial is tentatively scheduled for June.

Source: The Local - Sweden's News in English

December 14, 2010

Man jailed for illegally circumcising young boys

A Swedish court has sentenced a man to prison for performing illegal circumcisions, the first-ever conviction under the country's laws on the circumcision of boys.

A 50-year-old Egyptian citizen was sentenced by Södertorn District Court on Monday to two months in prison for illegally removing the foreskin from small boys.

The man was on trial for having circumcised nine boys without a licence to do so issued by the National Board of Health and Welfare.

The case marked the first time that Sweden's law on circumcising boys had been tested in court since coming into force nine years ago.

He was also convicted for assault for having circumcised a boy from Tierp in eastern Sweden without sufficient anaesthesia and two counts of causing bodily harm involving two brothers from the Stockholm suburb of Botkyrka who suffered tissue damage, pain and loss of circulation from a bandage that was used as a tourniquet.

During the trial, a film was shown to support allegations that the boy from Tierp wasn't sufficiently anesthetized during the procedure.

In addition to serving time in prison, the man must also pay 14,600 kronor ($2,140) in compensation to a boy from Tierp, as well as 4,600 kronor to the two other boys, the local Arbetarbladet newspaper reported on Tuesday. According to the Swedish law, which came into force in 2001, only people with a special licence issued by the health board can perform circumcisions for non-medical reasons and only on children younger than two months old.

Doctors can also carry out the procedure, including on older children.

The 50-year-old previously had a licence to perform circumcisions, but the health board revoked it because of doubts about his abilities.

The health board doesn't think Sweden's law works, estimating that only one-third of the roughly 3,000 boys circumcised for religious reasons in Sweden each year have the procedure performed by people with authorisation.

Source: The Local - Sweden's News in English

November 19, 2010

'Intactivists' to San Francisco: Ban circumcision

(CNN) -- In the California city that banned Happy Meal toys, outlawed sitting on sidewalks during daylight hours and fined residents for not sorting garbage into recycling, compost and trash, Lloyd Schofield wants to add a new law to the books in San Francisco: A ban on all male circumcisions.

Those who violate the ban could be jailed (not more than one year) or fined (not more than $1,000), under his proposal. Circumcisions even for religious reasons would not be allowed. At this point, Schofield's proposal is an idea that would have to clear several hurdles to be considered.

Schofield and like-minded advocates who call themselves "intactivists" seek to make it "unlawful to circumcise, excise, cut, or mutilate the whole or any part of the foreskin, testicles, or penis" of anyone 17 or younger in San Francisco.

The circumcision debate has passionate advocates on each side.

Your thoughts on circumcision

In some families, it's a cultural or religious tradition, or parents want sons to look like their fathers. Other parents decry it as mutilation. Medical evidence has shown mixed risks and benefits. Apart from the San Francisco proposal, circumcisions are under scientific scrutiny.

While widespread in the United States, circumcision rates could be falling, according to recent surveys. About 65 percent of American male infants born in hospitals were circumcised in 1999, according to latest data available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

While nationally the circumcision rate has remained steady, the most dramatic decline occurred in the West, where it fell from 64 percent in 1974 to 37 percent in 1999. Earlier this year, there were unconfirmed estimates that the circumcision rate had fallen to fewer than half for boys born in U.S. hospitals, The New York Times reported last summer, citing a federal report at the International AIDS Conference.

The American Academy of Pediatrics task force on circumcision has been reviewing recent research before it issues an official new position on the issue, probably next year, one panel member said.

"In the past, we've said newborn circumcision has benefits and risks," said Dr. Douglas Diekema, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington. "Given the fact that neither the risks nor benefits are particularly compelling, this is a decision to be made by parents." The American Academy of Pediatrics currently holds that there is evidence of circumcision's potential benefits, but not enough to recommend routine newborn circumcisions.

Both anti- and pro-circumcision forces have pushed their positions based on medical and quasi-health claims. Fifty years ago, people advocated circumcisions because of the false notion that it reduced masturbation, Diekema said.

"There have always been people opposed to it," he said. "One of the differences between today and 50 years ago is two primary things: Advocacy groups are better organized. They are much more vocal and the internet has allowed that expression in that way."

In San Francisco, Schofield's proposal is not a lone effort. He is part of the Bay Area intactivist group, which calls the procedure "male genital mutilation" and likens it to cutting female genitals.

Schofield's proposal has a long way to go, requiring 7,168 signatures by April next year to appear on the November 2011 ballot. Throughout the country, there have been similar measures, including a failed effort in Massachusetts earlier this year.

"It's up to the choice of the individual -- not the parents, society or religion," Schofield said. "This is a choice for body integrity. Just as females are protected from having a drop of blood drawn from their genitals, baby boys deserve the same protection."

Intactivists also say:

-- Circumcisions are not medically necessary and violate the child's body.

-- It requires a medical procedure, which carries risk of complications and pain.

-- Foreskins are part of the natural body to help protect the penis.

Proponents say:

-- Circumcision can reduce the risk of penile cancer, a rare disease.

-- It is part of traditional, religious practices in Jewish and Muslim faiths.

-- Men who are circumcised are less likely to get sexually transmitted infections such as genital herpes and human papillomavirus, according to a study of adult African men published 2009 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Public health efforts have sought to increase circumcision rates in Africa to reduce STIs such as HIV/AIDS. It's unclear how circumcision lowers infection rates, but researchers speculate that the foreskin could foster a more favorable environment for viruses.

It's also possible to develop swelling and tenderness if the foreskin is not properly cared for.

"There are numbers of patients who had no clue what had to be done, because they didn't handle their foreskin correctly and they ended up getting adhesion," said Dr. Michael Brady, a professor of pediatrics at the Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. "That can happen; it's not a myth."

But Brady added, "That by itself, is not reason to circumcise an infant."

Dr. Emily Blake, an obstetrician-gynecologist and mohel in New York, said a ban would limit the rights of doctors and patients, cause an undue burden on families with newborns and stand in the way of religious freedom.

"It is part of our commitment to God. We believe we do it in a very humane, loving, supportive way," said Blake, who performs religious and non-religious circumcisions for boys, as well as naming ceremonies for girls. "There are certainly many places in the world where a ban on circumcision is one of the prongs of an anti-Semitic movement -- anti-Jewish and also anti-Muslim."

A circumcision ceremony might involve just a few people, or a few hundred, along with food, readings and prayers. Babies are comforted with sugar, topical anesthetic and pain relievers, and many sleep through the circumcision, Blake said.

Removing the foreskin from a male is not an equivalent to removing the clitoris from a female, Blake said, in terms of pain or long-term effects.

"I think it's harder on the parents. We make this into a very scary, terrifying thing. Most babies do incredibly well,'" Blake said. "I've done a great job if the parents cry more than the baby does."

Most parents come to the doctor's office having already decided whether to circumcise, Diekema said. Only a small percentage of parents are undecided.

Amy Jo Jones of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, made the decision to have her two sons circumcised and it "wasn't about vanity."

After reading into the topic, Jones, writer and blogger who contributes to The Stir said: "The deciding factor for us was I wanted my son to be like his father. I didn't want him grow up and feel his body was different. It's not about how it looks or doesn't look. I knew there were some medical advantages, although it's not considered medically necessary. The deciding factor was for him feeling comfortable with body and like that of his dad."

Jesse Sterling of Albany, California, decided to not to have his 10-month-old son circumcised.

Despite his Jewish background, he said the surgery would have "put my baby through a painful situation because of some beliefs. At this point, people do it because it's a habit." Sterling, who was not circumcised, said he was teased as a kid in school for how it looked.

"Ever since then, I was like, 'Whatever. I don't care.' Don't try to sway me, other than informing me more thoroughly," he said.

Source: CNN

Florida Woman Sues Hospital After Son Circumcised Against Her Wishes

Dutch doctors urge ban on circumcision

Circumcision on kitchen floor gets dad a year in jail

Circumcision ban bill

Plan to ban circumcision a longshot

Advocates eager for State House hearing

Ritual circumcisions 'illegal'

Exclusive by Stephen Moyes (stephen.moyes@mirror.co.uk)

DOCTORS performing ritual circumcisions on children face financial ruin, disciplinary action and even jail.

A test-case being brought by a 20-year-old man circumcised as a baby could, if successful, open the floodgates to claimants.

The unnamed man is to sue a GP still practising in Greater London for physical and psychological damage.

He will argue that circumcision on a child without a medical requirement is mutilation.

His father took him to be circumcised shortly after birth in accordance with his own religious beliefs.

Now the father is mortified at the mental and physical state of his adult son, and is supporting the case.

The father has documents that prove which GP carried out the circumcision.

Performing surgery on a person without adequate consent constitutes battery in law, which can be prosecuted in the civil courts.

But given the lack of consent the surgery also constitutes an assault which can be prosecuted under criminal law - meaning a guilty verdict could lead to a prison term.

The test-case is being supported by a legal firm, leading urologist, child protection agency and circumcision awareness body The National Organisation of Restoring Men (Norm).

Norm spokesman David Smith said: "Surgery is defined as 'manual or instrumental treatment of injuries or disorders of the body'. If no injury or disorder is present, then it can't be surgery.

"Circumcision is a mutilation, which is defined as 'to injure, to make imperfect by the removal of a part'. It is shocking that the NHS is responsible for mutilating children.

"We support a man's right to choose a ritual circumcision for himself, but not for anyone else.

"Adult circumcision is a straight-foward operation which can be undertaken in under 30minutes under local anaesthetic. There is no excuse for forcing it on children.

"There is growing belief by many people that the only way to make doctors put their scalpels down is to take legal action. This is not about money, it's about protecting the next generation."

Some doctors privately charge up to s350 for 'forced circumcision' of a baby brought to them by their parents.

Legal action can only be brought when the child reaches 18. There is then a three-year legal window in which they can take action against the GP.

Circumcision is a surgical procedure that can be performed on men and women and is done for a variety of reasons, some of them cultural or religious.

The General Medical Council does not have a public position on the issue of ritual male circumcision on children who cannot give informed consent.

A spokeswoman said: "We do not have general authority to determine public policy on issues that arise within medical practice - these are matters for society as a whole to determine, through the parliamentary process."

Katy Swaine, legal director of Child Rights Alliance for England, told the Mirror: "The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has made clear that female genital mutilation violates childrens rights and this position has been reflected in the banning of such procedures under UK legislation.

"The carrying out of circumcision procedures on young male children must also be examined in the context of childrens rights under the treaty - not least given the requirement for nondiscrimination in the application of treaty rights.

"A body of medical opinion has for some time supported the view that most male circumcision procedures do not have a medical basis. As such, given the invasiveness of the procedure and the negative consequences suffered by some individuals, there is a strong argument that it should not be carried out without informed consent from the individual who is to undergo the procedure.

"It is only a matter of time before these issues are raised in the courts by those who have undergone the procedure as children and have suffered negative consequences. In the meantime it behoves the NHS, Department of Health, professional medical bodies and communities to examine this issue seriously, acknowledging and addressing its implications for childrens rights."

The individual bringing the test-case is collating evidence and financial and legal support and will launch it next year.

A solicitor close to the case said: "The action being brought against the doctor is more likely to lead to financial damage rather than prosecution, but it is complicated and nothing can be ruled out.

"Doctors performing 'forced circumcision' on a small minority of children are acting in defiance of general medical council and are effectively medical rebels.

"Most urologists will only perform a circumcision on someone who needs it, just like any form of amputation.

"This is not a straightforward case. Parents have the right to give consent but only when in the best interests of a child. I don't think any act involving cutting off half of a child's penis is in their best interests."

Source: The Daily Mirror (U.K.)

Chiefs apologise to forced initiate

TRADITIONAL leaders have apologised to a teenager forced to undergo traditional circumcision after he took the matter to court, where it was ruled unconstitutional yesterday.

Bhisho High Court judge Yusuf Ebrahim ruled that circumcision without consent was illegal and went against an individual’s constitutional rights.

He made the ruling during the unprecedented court battle between a father and his son.

The son claimed to have been been forced to undergo traditional circumcision against his religious beliefs.

Bonani Yamani, a second year microbiology student at the University of the Free State, was forcefully circumcised after he was abducted by his father Lindile Yamani and 10 other men at his KwaMasele village near King William’s Town on March 3, 2007.

This was three months after he had returned from East London’s Frere Hospital, where he had been surgically circumcised in November 2006.

Yamani refused to go with the men, telling them that he had already been circumcised, but the men mocked the circumcision and took him to the bush were they circumcised him again.

Yesterday Ebrahim said that forced circumcision was against the Constitution and it was unfair for anyone to be discriminated against based on their religious beliefs.

Following an apology from Eastern Cape Contralesa, Yamani gave his consent for a settlement and withdrew his complaint.

The chairperson of Eastern Cape Contralesa, Nkosi Ngubo Mgcotyelwa, apologised to Yamani for remarks made by his predecessor, Chief Mwelo Nonkonyana, that people such as Yamani, who refused traditional circumcision, should be ostracised by the community. — thanduxoloj@dispatch.co.za

Source: Daily Dispatch (South Africa)

Man sentenced in child circumcision case

Source: WBTV.com

Swedish doctors refuse to circumcise boys

Source: The Local - Sweden's News in English

Routine operation may be a crime

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald

"Intactivists," demonstrating yesterday, want a federal ban on newborn circumcision.

Rallying in the Name of the Unkindest Cut?

Sharp Rhetoric Abounds In Circumcision Debate

Source: The Washington Post

Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuade

In Osun, controversy trails move by House of Assembly to outlaw tribal marks, circumcision

By Tunde Odesola

When did it become an offence for parents to circumcise their children? That is the question many parents in Osun State may soon be asking law enforcement agents if the state government put teeth into the Child Rights Act recently passed by the House of Assembly. Under the law, no parent or guardian has the right to “tattoo or make a skin mark on a child. A person who tattoos or makes a skin mark on a child commits an offence under this Law and is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding five thousand naira or imprisonment for a term not exceeding one month or to both such fine and imprisonment.”

Skin mark, in the eye of this law, means any form of genital mutilation or facial mark. But religion appears the biggest challenge of this law.

Logic and the rights of the child appear to play little part in determining the acceptability of genital mutilation in our society. Article 24(3) of the United Nations convention on the rights of the child commits all ratifying states to taking all effective and appropriate measures with a view to abolishing traditional practices prejudicial to the health of children.” And article 19(1) says, “States shall take all appropriate legislative administrative social and educational measures to protect the child from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse.”

Anti-circumcision exponents, Y Hofvander and J Smith, in their respective works against circumcision, contend that it cannot be in the best interest of a child to be subjected, without its consent, to an irreversible surgical procedure, often without anesthetic.

In the US and UK, female genital mutilation is expressively barred by law but the same cannot be said of male circumcision which is approved if the two parents consent on religious or cultural grounds.

Among some ethnic groups, an individual receives his or her first marks at the age of 14, signifying transition from childhood to adulthood.

Commenting on circumcision and facial marks for children, the Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade, threw his weight behind the abolition of the age-long practice, saying it has outlived its usefulness. The traditional ruler of Ile-Ife, which is widely held as the cradle of the Yoruba traditional and cultural practices, held that practices that were harmful or capable of inflicting pain on people should be expunged. Sijuwade, who spoke through his Media Executive, Chief Funmi Olorunnisola, recalled that facial marks were basically used for identification purposes, adding that emerging trends in the 21st Century had evolved modern means of identification.

But world acclaimed Ifa priest and Awise of Osogbo, Chief Yemi Elebuibon, disagrees with the opponents of circumcision and facial marks. He said, “Tattoo is a form of identification and beautification practised by Europeans, Australians and Americans. It is unfortunate that western values have continued to erode our tradition and culture. It smacks of inferiority complex to canvass abolition of facial marks or circumcision. What government should do is ensure the use of hygienic needles and maintain best practice during the act of facial mark or circumcision. Facial marks are rooted in the history and socio-cultural heritage of our people. We should not forget our history in order for us not to go astray. Panegyrics extolling facial marks are fast dying. The whites still hold on to their tradition and culture.”

A frontline traditional ruler in Osun State, the Owa of Igbajo, Oba Olufemi Fasade, said the Child Right Act would be put to the test in the law courts by parents and guardians. According to the Owa, parental discretion, rather than law, should be employed in determining male circumcision, noting that the art of facial marks was gradually dying a natural death.

He said, “Culture differs from clime to clime. For instance, the burial of kings has its rites; if a government enacts a law to prohibit the rites associated with burial of kings, it might fail because people have their cultural differences and leanings regarding this matter. Facial mark art is dying a natural death because people no longer feel the need for it. Traditional circumcisers could seek legal protection for their profession by challenging the Act if they believe that their trade is under threat.”

The Oludo of Ido-Osun community in Osun State, Oba Aderemi Adedapo, said facial marks were used in the slave trade era to distinguish slaves from freeborn. He said, “Health and economic developments have rendered some traditional and cultural practices ineffectual. Polygamy, which was rife in those days, is fast going out of fashion even among traditional rulers. Polygamy was rife because of agrarian farming practices. People nowadays investigate genotypes before they get married. People ate any type of food with their bare hands, but all these are fast changing. Fingerprints and holograms are examples of modern day identification.@

A US-based Nigerian medical doctor, Yemi Oladimeji, who owns five dialysis centres in Maryland, USA, said, “There are short term risks of bleeding and infection associated with any surgical procedure. Longer term potential complications include pain on erection, penile disfigurement, and psychological problems. A recent report shows that the non-circumcised adult penis is more sensitive than the circumcised penis, largely because the five most sensitive areas in the male organ are removed during circumcision. This implies a reduction in future sexual sensitivity for circumcised adults. Far from being a harmless traditional practice, circumcision damages young boys.”

Oladimeji said renowned researchers and crusaders against circumcision such as Williams Kaplia, Peterson S, and Sorrells M, in their various works, contend that male child circumcision has continued unchecked throughout the world.

The kidney expert said circumcision phenomenon was a direct tussle between the primacy of parental religious conviction and the primacy of the human rights of the child, the preservation of its bodily integrity, and its right to self determination. Debunking the insinuations that circumcision prevents penile cancer, masturbation, blindness and insanity, Oladimeji said the claims relate to adult sexual behaviour and not genital anatomy or best interest of a child.

“There may be a case that male circumcision reduces HIV risk in sexually active adults, but the decision about whether to have this procedure should be left until the person is old enough to make his own informed healthcare choices,” Oladimeji contended.

The President, Association of Resident Doctors, Ladoke Akintola University Teaching Hospital, Osogbo. Dr Mobolaji Olaoye, said traditional practices like circumcision and facial marks could cause children to bleed to death. “It is high risk to give facial marks or scarify babies, because they could easily bleed to death,” he said.

A nurse in LAUTECH, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said several cases of infection in children resulted from scarification and circumcision, adding that the act disfigures rather that beautifies.

A Muslim parent, who spoke with our correspondent, said, “I have facial marks but I didn’t give my five children any facial marks because facial marks have outlived their usefulness.”

Predicting that Christian parents will defy the law against male circumcision, a pastor of one of the pentecostal churches in Osogbo, Dr Soji Olabisi, said, “The law against male circumcision is a law against God’s commandment. True Christians will resist the law.”

Will Christians and Muslims in the state bow to temporal law, in the face of God’s injunction to circumcise the male child on the eighth day? Time will tell.

Source: Punch

Furor over Proposed Ban of Circumcision in Denmark

Jews and Muslims in Denmark are in an uproar about a bill to ban circumcision for boys under the age of 15, according to Yediot Ahronot. The country's National Council for Children and Ethics Council have both endorsed the proposal and only the parliament's medical committee can prevent it from being heard.

The National Council for Children argued that, "Circumcision is the irreversible damage to a child's body before he is given the chance to object." It also said the ban was a matter of equality, in the wake of a five-year-old ban on female circumscion.

Denmark's Chief Rabbi Bent Lexner – who is also a certified mohel (circumciser) in the community – told Yediot Ahronot, "The comparison between circumcision and the intentional mutilation of the female sex organ in certain societies is simply complete nonsense." He added, "If the law forbidding circumcision is ever passed in Denmark, Jews will have to leave the place they have been living in for hundreds of years."

Judaism specifies circumcsion when a boy is eight days old, unless medically dictated otherwise. Islam does not specify a date, but allows it through puberty.

Source: Israel National News

November 18, 2008

Politicians eyeing circumcision ban

Several parliamentary parties are considering creating legislation that would spare all children from circumcision - not just girls

A proposal to ban circumcision for boys may be on its way to parliament after intense discussions by MPs over the past week, reports Kristeligt Dagblad newspaper.

Although circumcision of girls was outlawed in response to the practice being common among immigrants from some Muslim countries, boys may still be circumcised if a certified physician is present.

Jewish traditions calls for the circumcision of newborn boys, and many Muslims and Christians support the practice as well. But both the Ethics Council and the National Council for Children have recently criticised the practice, stating that a boy should be able to decide for himself if he wants the procedure performed when he reaches the age of 15 - the legal age in Denmark for a child to have sole jurisdiction over his own body.

While the Social Democrats, Red-Green Alliance and Liberal Alliance have come out in support of a ban, the Danish People's Party called it 'tyranny'.

'It's completely ridiculous to compare the circumcision of girls - which is a barbaric mutilation - with that of boys, where it's just the removal of a skin flap,' said the party's Jesper Langballe.

But the party's own health spokeswoman, Liselott Brixt, said she supports a ban.

'A lot of parents want it done to their children because they themselves had it done. But we're living in the present and it isn't fair to expose healthy children to religious circumcision.'

Medical wisdom is mixed on the supposed benefits of male circumcision, some studies claiming it prevents disease while others indicate normal hygiene procedures sufficiently negate the need for the practice.

The American Academy of Pediatrics does not support male circumcision, indicating any health advantages from it are minimal.

Source: The Copenhagen Post

October 6, 2008

February 6, 2008

Source: WBTV

January 25, 2008

Oregon court rejects circumcision case

Salem, Ore. -- The Oregon Supreme Court Friday blocked a Jewish convert from having his 12-year-old son circumcised until the boy's own wishes have been determined.

The state high court sent the case back to a trial court, The Portland Oregonian reported.

The child's parents, James and Lia Boldt, are divorced. The father argued that having custody of his son gives him the right to make medical decisions for the boy.

Lia Boldt argued that circumcision is dangerous. She said that the boy was afraid to disagree with his father.

Lower courts ruled in the father's favor. But the state supreme court found that there had been no adequate finding of what the 12-year-old actually wants.

"In our view, at age 12, M's attitude regarding circumcision, though not conclusive of the custody issue presented here, is a fact necessary to the determination," Chief Justice Paul De Muniz wrote. "Forcing M at age 12 to undergo circumcision against his will could seriously affect the relationship between M and his father, and could have a pronounced effect on father's capability to properly care for M."

Source: United Press International

December 9, 2007

Doctors back call for circumcision ban

The Australian Medical Association has backed a call for laws banning the non-essential circumcision of infant boys.

Source: Australian Broadcasting Corporation

September 21, 2007

Frankfurt court finds circumcision an unlawful personal injury

A regional appeals court in Frankfurt am Main found that the circumcision of an 11-year-old Muslim boy without his approval was an unlawful personal injury.

The Sept. 20 decision opened the way toward financial compensation for the boy.

The case may have repercussions for the practice of ritual circumcision in Germany by Muslims and Jews. The court suggested, in part, that it was a punishable offense to subject one's child to teasing by other children for looking different.

The boy, now 14, plans to sue his father for 10,000 Euro (about $14,000), according to a report by the German ddp press agency.

Reportedly, the boy, whose parents are divorced, was visiting his father during a vacation when his father forced the ritual circumcision. The boy lives with his mother, who had always rejected circumcision. Muslim boys are traditionally circumcised at elementary school age.

According to the court, circumcision can "be important in individual cases for the cultural-religious and physical self-image," even if there are no health disadvantages involved. So the decision about whether or not to go through with a circumcision is "a central right of a person to determine his identity and life."

The court did not give an age minimum at which their parents must seek a child's permission to perform a circumcision . The amount of damages depends, said the court, on the extent to which the boy suffered long-term physical or emotional damage, or "whether his peers would tease him for looking different."

Source: JTA

August 13, 2007

Children's commissioner wants circumcision banned

Tasmania's Children's Commissioner, Paul Mason, wants the State Government to ban the non-medical circumcision of young boys.

Female genital mutilation is illegal in Tasmania.

Mr. Mason said it's unfair that boys aren't given the same protection.

"We're discriminating against the little baby boys themselves, because they're not safe whereas the little girls are," he said.

He said circumcision is an abuse of human rights and should be outlawed until the person is old enough to decide for themselves.

"It's a permanent procedure, they get no choice."

"It's painful, even under anaesthetic," said Mr. Mason.

Mr. Mason has prepared a report on the issue for the Council of Obstetric and Paediatric Mortality and Morbidity.

The Council will forward a recommendation to the State Government.

A spokesman says the Government is not currently considering laws in relation to the issue.

Source: Australian Broadcasting Corporation

July 1, 2007

Controversial Children's Act takes effect today

The Children's Act has come into effect today

The Children's Act has come into effect today, giving children from the age of 12, among others, the right to access medical services such as HIV treatment and contraception without parental consent.

Approved by the President, these sections of the act do not require regulations before being released. Only sections that do not require regulations are enforced. They include the right for children from age 12 to get HIV treatment and contraception without consent. Twelve-year-olds can also have pregnancies terminated if they wish.

Musa Mbere, from the department of social development, says: "The reason behind that is to make sure that our law is aligned in terms of age, when children can access contraceptives. Children become sexually active at an early stage. It's a reality that we're dealing with. Secondly, children are abused at a very young age."

Younger age for sexual activity

Concern has been raised that the act might promote sexual activity at a young age. Joan van Niekerk, the national coordinator of Childline, says: "Certainly, one would question the advisability of giving children access to contraception from a very young age. But the reality is… that the age at which children become sexually active is getting younger and younger."

Source: South African Broadcasting Corporation

April 27, 2007

Three-year fight - The father, a convert to Judaism, sees it as a matter of religious observance

ASHBEL S. GREEN

The Oregonian

A former Medford man who converted to Judaism wants his 12-year-old son to do the same. That requires circumcision -- something the mother adamantly opposes.

The divorced couple has been battling over the issue for three years, including whether the boy wants to undergo the procedure. So far, Oregon courts have squarely sided with the father, who has custody.

That doesn't surprise Kathy T. Graham, associate dean for academic affairs at Willamette University College of Law.

"The primary custodial parent is the one that makes the decisions about religion and education and about matters of child-rearing," Graham said.

Other family law experts agree, but say the courts should at least look into the situation to make sure the surgery is in the best interests of the child.

"You're talking about not just religious instruction or whether you're going to send the child to parochial school or public school," commented Lawrence D. Gorin, a Portland attorney. "This is a matter of permanent change of bodily structure. And it's irreversible."

The mother is running out of legal options.

The Oregon Supreme Court has been briefed, but has not decided whether to take the case.

Mark Johnson, a Portland lawyer commenting on the case, said the court shouldn't let the case be decided based only on the legal papers filed on behalf of the mother and father.

"Frankly, the child should have a lawyer," Johnson said.

The Oregonian is not identifying the family members, in order to protect the privacy of the minor.

The couple married in the early 1990s. She filed for divorce in 1998.

The man started studying Judaism in 1999 and eventually converted. He now lives near Olympia . The child initially lived with his mother, but the father later gained custody.

In court papers, the father claims the boy gradually concluded that he also wanted to convert to Judaism and understood that this required circumcision.

The father also claims as the custodial parent he had a constitutional right to raise his son in his religion.

The father made an appointment for a circumcision in 2004.

The mother responded by going to court, saying her son told her that he was afraid to defy his father, but didn't want the procedure.

She asked for a hearing where she could present evidence that the circumcision would be dangerous. She also sought custody of her son.

But Jackson County Circuit Judge Rebecca G. Orf sided with the father.

"I am still of the opinion that the decision of whether or not a child has elective surgery, which this appears to be, is a call that should be made and is reserved to the custodial parent," Orf said in a hearing.

More than a million U.S. infants are circumcised each year, but circumcising adults or teens remains relatively rare.

Despite her ruling, Orf ordered the boy not be circumcised until the legal proceedings were done.

The Oregon Court of Appeals affirmed Orf's decision without an opinion, often an indication that the three-judge panel found no merit to the appeal.

The lawyer for the mother has asked the Oregon Supreme Court to take the case, and gained an ally called Doctors Opposing Circumcision, which filed a brief last week.

There is no schedule for when the court will decide whether to review the case.

The mother's attorney declined to comment.

The father, an attorney who is representing himself, did not return a phone call seeking comment.

Oregon legal experts agree that judges generally defer to the choices of custodial parents.

"Judges traditionally have stayed away in getting involving decisions about the day-to-day upbringing of the child," said Gorin, the Portland attorney.

Still, there are limits.

"It may be that the religious belief is to engage in human sacrifice or kill animals, but we don't do that," he said.

But Julie H. McFarlane, a supervising attorney with the Portland-based Juvenile Rights Project, said that the child's consent for a medical procedure is not required until he turns 15.

"I think the dad has the legal right as the custodial parent to make those kind of religious or medical decisions," McFarlane said. "It's not much different from cosmetic surgery."

The bottom line, McFarlane said, is that "when you lose custody, you lose a lot of those things that go with custody -- deciding whether the kids go to school and the rest of the day-to-day parenting decisions."

Andy Dworkin of The Oregonian contributed to this report. Ashbel "Tony" Green: 503-221-8202; tonygreen@news.oregonian.com

Source: The Oregonian

October 24, 2006

By Judy Peres, Tribune staff reporter

In a case that has been closely watched by anti-circumcision groups nationwide, a Cook County judge ruled Tuesday that the medical benefits of the procedure are not clear enough to compel a 9-year-old Northbrook boy to be circumcised against his will.

The boy's mother and her new husband had claimed the operation was necessary to prevent recurrent episodes of redness and discomfort. The boy's father sought a court order barring the circumcision, which he called an "unnecessary amputation."

The mother has sole custody, but their 2003 parenting agreement gave her ex-husband a say in non-emergency medical decisions. The Tribune is not naming the parents in order to protect the boy's privacy.

In a written opinion handed down Tuesday, Circuit Court Judge Jordan Kaplan said, "The evidence was conflicting and inconclusive as to any past infections or irritations that may have been suffered by the child.

"Moreover," he continued, "this court also finds that the medical evidence as provided by the testimony of the expert witnesses ... is inconclusive as to the medical benefits or non-benefits of circumcision as it relates to the 9-year-old child."

Kaplan said the boy, as a minor, cannot make his own medical decisions but had indicated in a written statement that he does not want to be circumcised.

"The injury to the child as a result of an unnecessary circumcision would be irreversible," Kaplan wrote, adding that his order would remain in effect until the boy turns 18 and can decide for himself whether or not he wants to undergo the procedure.

Because there are no U.S. precedents, other courts could look to this ruling in future cases, said George Hill of Doctors Opposing Circumcision.

Geoffrey Miller, a law professor at New York University, called the ruling a "significant victory" for the growing "intactivist" movement, which has argued circumcision is harmful and violates the rights of children, who can't give informed consent.

Miller conceded Tuesday's decision was "limited by the facts of the case," including the agreement that gives the father the right to be consulted on medical care. Nevertheless, he said, "The fact that a non-custodial parent was able to prevent a custodial parent from having this procedure done is a sign that courts are more receptive to arguments against circumcision than they were in past years."

The father, a 50-year-old building manager from Arlington Heights, said he was relieved by the decision and "so happy."

His lawyer, Alan Toback, said, "We always thought it was not in the child's best interest to have a circumcision at age 9 that was not medically necessary, and the judge agreed."

The mother was not in court Tuesday, and her lawyer, Tracy Rizzo, also was not there because of the death of her father, famed Chicago private investigator Ernie Rizzo. The mother was represented instead by Gail O'Connor, who said, "We're disappointed, of course, but we will abide by the injunction."

Circumcision, in which the foreskin of the penis is surgically removed, usually before a newborn leaves the hospital, was extremely common in the U.S. during the last century. But the percentage of U.S. babies being circumcised has gone from an estimated 90 percent in 1970 to about 55 percent today. In most other countries, circumcision is performed only for religious reasons.

The boy, who never appeared in court, was represented by attorney David Pasulka, who recommended against circumcision at this time.

The eight-month dispute took some nasty turns. Rizzo charged that the father did not care about the boy's health but feared his ex-wife and her new husband were trying to convert the boy to Judaism.

The father's attorneys hinted that the mother's aim was to spite her ex-husband and please her current husband, who is Jewish.

The boy's stepfather and stepbrother are both circumcised, while the biological parents are Catholic immigrants from Eastern European countries where circumcision is rare.

But Kaplan said he did not address "issues of ethnicity or religious beliefs relative to circumcision" because the parents did not raise them in their legal pleadings.

Dan Strandjord, a self-proclaimed "intactivist" who attended every hearing in the case, was elated Tuesday. "I believe this is a human rights issue," said Strandjord.

Source: Chicago Tribune, Chicago, Illinois

Dusseldorf - A 77-year-old Turkish national who performed ritual circumcisions on seven boys was convicted Tuesday in Germany of causing dangerous bodily harm and fined €2 100 (about R20 000).

Prosecutors told the state court in Dusseldorf that circumcision was only allowed in Germany for medical reasons and could only be performed by surgeons. Traditional Turkish Muslims practise circumcision on boys aged 6 to 11 as a manhood initiation ritual.

The accused did not attend the trial, a re-hearing in an appeal court, two years after he had been fined the same amount.

At the original trial, the accused agreed he had performed the circumcisions at the request of parents in several cities. Police who seized the surgical instruments at his home described them as dirty and university scientists said he did not follow hygiene rules. - Sapa-dpa

Source: Independent Online - Cape Town, South Africa

Finland’s first court ruling on male child circumcision was handed down by a Finnish court on Friday. A Muslim mother faced charges of assault in Tampere District Court for having her four-year-old son circumcised. The incident was reported to the police by the boy’s father, who had not been consulted. The court found that the mother’s action was illegal. However, it did not assign any punishment. The mother defended her action by saying that she thought that circumcisions performed by doctors were legal in Finland. The case will now go to the Court of Appeals.

The mother said that the procedure is part of the family’s religion and cultural heritage. The court found that interfering with personal inviolability could be allowed only in cases specifically permitted by law. "There is a perception in Finland that only girls’ circumcisions are banned by law. There is no specific legislation about them; both types are illegal under the same criminal law. After all, in both procedures, part of healthy genitalia is removed without medical foundation, or competent consent", says local prosecutor Jouko Nurminen. Nurminen says that the "misconception" may have arisen in connection with the drafting of the new constitution, at which time only the circumcision of girls was part of the debate. In its decision, the court notes that not even a long religious tradition justifies protecting the bodily inviolability of boys to a lesser degree than that of girls.

A working group of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health proposed a few years ago that circumcisions performed under medical supervision in hospitals should be allowed. The working group wanted to avoid complications from operations performed at home, and to reduce the suffering of the child.

Legislation is somewhat vague on the matter, and practice varies in Finland. For instance, a report drafted by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health in 2004 notes that male circumcision is permitted in all countries. "There is no legislation on male circumcision, but there is also no prohibition. The operations have been performed on the basis of common law", says Riitta-Maija Jouttimäki, a lawyer for the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health.

Source: Helsingin Sanomat - Helsinki, Finland

By Janine Stephen

A group of men caused a stir in parliament on Tuesday by calling for an end to all circumcision of baby boys - or anyone under 18 years old.

The National Organisation of Circumcision Information Resource Centres South Africa (NOCIRC-SA) is fighting for boys' rights to retain their foreskins. They say that circumcision without consent is a "violation of a child's rights".

They are supported by a number of other local and international organisations, including the International Coalition of Genital Integrity, Doctors Opposing Circumcision and the National Organisation of Restoring Men (NORM).

The select committee on social development was holding public hearings into the Children's Bill, which outlaws female genital mutilation and virginity testing.

Under the proposed Bill, which has already been approved by the national Assembly, anyone who practises female genital mutilation or virginity testing is guilty of an offence and can be imprisoned for up to 10 years.

"Male circumcision should not be isolated from female circumcision," Dean Ferris of NOCIRC said.

This is unlikely to go down well with Jewish, Islamic and Xhosa groups, all of which see circumcision as an essential part of their cultures.

According to a Children's Institute discussion paper on the Children's Bill, if a child is old enough to give consent, then the boy has the right to say no. Forcing a child to be circumcised is a criminal offence. The bill is silent on the age for consent.

However, circumcising baby boys who are too young to give consent, is not outlawed.

A written statement submitted to the select committee by NORM states that: "As children, we were unable to voice our objections to halt these ritual genital mutilations that were carried out on us in hospitals and beyond.

"We are now able as adults to loudly and unreservedly condemn such sexual abuse."

Ferris said that the South African Medical Association has said that there is no need for circumcision from a medical point of view.

"It's a human issue," said paediatrician Dr Daniel Sidler. "It's about the integrity of the genitals. We're fiddling with normal and healthy genitals."

Source: Scotsman.com - Edinburgh, Scotland

STAMFORD, Conn. -- An Oxford couple on Wednesday sued a doctor who they say partially amputated their son's penis during a circumcision at St. Vincent's Hospital in Bridgeport.

Immediately after his injury last June, the day-old boy was transferred to Yale-New Haven Hospital where he underwent reconstructive surgery.

"We are bringing this case because we already know this baby has suffered a horrible, life-altering physical injury, but we are still learning about the long term ramifications of the injury," said Ernest Teitell, one of the boy's attorneys. "What happened will profoundly affect him as he grows older."

Circumcision, often performed for religious reasons, involves removing foreskin from the penis. The American Academy of Pediatrics says most complications from the procedure, such as bleeding, are usually minor.

Robin Biondo, the boy's mother, said Dr. Daniel S. Gottschall cut off 40 percent of the tip of her son's penis.

"It was a very difficult thing to go through to see your new born child laying there and wondering how much pain he was in and how this is going to affect him," Biondo said.

In 2001, a jury in California awarded $1.42 million to a 7-year-old boy for a botched circumcision. In another case, the late David Reimer, a Canadian, was born as a boy but raised as a girl after a botched circumcision.

The lawsuit, filed in Bridgeport Superior Court, seeks unspecified damages from Dr. Gottschall, who performed the surgery last June, and his medical and surgical group, Alliance for Women's Health.

Gottschall said he has performed more than 1,000 circumcisions without a problem.

"There was a slight tip that was removed, recognized and repaired," Gottschall said. "We believe there was a congenital deformity of the penis that made the injury more likely. Because of my diligence, the boy had the repair that was necessary."

The boy, now nine months old, spent about 10 days in the hospital, according to his mother.

"We were always told it was uncharted territory because they had never seen anything like this before," Biondo said.

The boy's attorneys said the lawsuit was brought in part "because the family wants to make sure something this awful doesn't happen to another child when their parents decide to have them undergo this same procedure."

Source: The Advocate - Stamford, Connecticut

(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

NEW YORK, NY - City health officials are trying to stop a Rockland County rabbi from performing circumcisions, after a baby boy died from herpes he allegedly contracted from the rabbi during a circumcision.

The city Department of Health said Wednesday it is seeking a permanent injunction against Rabbi Yitzhok Fischer. The DOH says Fischer uses an ancient religious custom of using his mouth to suck the infant's blood after cutting the foreskin.

According to court papers filed in Manhattan, a 3-week-old boy died from herpes 10 days after he and his twin brother were circumcised by Fischer in October. The boy’s twin was also infected with the virus.

In addition, a Staten Island boy was also reportedly infected with herpes after a circumcision performed by Fischer in 2003.

DOH officials say Fischer did not comply with an order given in November to stop performing circumcisions and to have his blood tested.

“Infants, particularly under the age of six months, are highly susceptible to infections. They do not have a functioning immune system," said Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Frieden.

Fischer's attorney says his client is cooperating with the city in an effort to determine what he says is “the true source” of the infection.

Source: NY1 News - New York, NY

Man sentenced to 36 months for circumcision attempt

RIDGEFIELD, Wash. - A Clark County father of nine has been sentenced to 36 months in prison after trying to circumcise his eight-year-old son with a knife. A jury found Edwin Baxter guilty of assault last week. The judge formally sentenced him today.

In September, Baxter used a three-inch serrated hunting knife but called 9-1-1 when his son's bleeding would not stop. The boy had to get several stitches.

The Ridgefield, Washington, man says he was inspired to do the circumcision after reading the Bible. He says he did not mean to hurt his son.

(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Source: KATU 2 News - Portland, Oregon

October 4, 2004

Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Dutch MP wants ban on male circumcision

HILVERSUM, THE NETHERLANDS - A Dutch Member of Parliament, Hirsi Ali, has told a Dutch television programme that the government should consider making the circumcision of boys an offence. The MP, who is often in the news for her controversial views on integration, says circumcision can have long-term damaging effects.

The operation, in which the foreskin of the penis is removed, is carried out on tens of thousands of Islamic and Jewish boys in the Netherlands each year for religious reasons. The Dutch government recently outlawed female circumcision.

Source: Radio Netherlands - Hilversum, The Netherlands

Father charged with assault for trying to circumcise son

RIDGEFIELD, WASH. - A Ridgefield, Washington, man faces assault charges after trying to circumcise his eight-year-old son with a kitchen knife.

The boy had to get several stitches, after his father called 911 because the child was bleeding so much.

Thirty-three-year-old Edwin Baxter appeared in Clark County Court yesterday. Baxter could get ten years in prison.

Baxter says he was inspired to do the circumcision after reading the Bible.

Baxter lives with his wife and nine children in a two bedroom rental home. Baxter was once convicted of domestic violence in 1993.

(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Source: KATU 2 News - Portland, Oregon

August 10, 2004

Circumcision completed, despite mom's opposition

By Cherryh Cluckey, The Examiner

Three-year-old Ethan Azar is recovering well from his recent circumcision, said his father, Ray Jagoda.

"It was quick and done under anesthesia," he said.

A doctor performed the procedure last week despite opposition from the boy's mother.

Camille Azar, Independence, was denied an order to protect a child from medical harm from the Jackson County Circuit Court several weeks ago and was then denied a writ of prohibition from the Court of Appeals.

She petitioned the Missouri Supreme Court to intervene in July. The court was to determine whether the circuit court should listen to the case instead of dismissing it.

However, Jagoda went ahead with the surgery.

"It was for religious reasons and we found it was medically necessary," he said. "...Or Ethan would have had future problems if we didn't do it."

Camille Azar disagreed.

"That's not true," she said. "Saying it was medically justified is a fabrication to justify what he did."

Jagoda would not reveal where the surgery was done or who performed it, conditions the doctor had requested.

Camille Azar said she is angry for her son.

"He will not be able to function normally the way nature intended," she said. "There were experts who tried to talk (to Jagoda about the negative side of circumcision). Two were even world experts, but he refused."

Jagoda said he was under no legal obligation to wait for the circumcision.

"I just had to find someone who had not been intimidated by Camille," he said.

Jackson County Circuit Judge Christine Sill-Rogers gave Jagoda full custody of Ethan in May; Azar gets supervised visits. They had been sharing custody, but Azar previously had full custody.

July 15, 2004

Mother seeks high court order to block circumcision

By Steve Rock, The Kansas City Star

Kansas City, MO - A Lee's Summit woman is asking the Missouri Supreme Court to prevent the “unneeded and irreparable'' circumcision of her almost 3-year-old son.

The attorney for Camille Azar filed a petition for a writ of prohibition Wednesday with the Supreme Court, effectively asking the state's highest court to reverse a decision made in Jackson County Circuit Court. Ultimately, Azar hopes to stop Ray Jagoda, the child's father, from having their son circumcised.

The child turns 3 in September and, according to the petition, is “aware of his own body.”

“The potential for psychological harm from non-infant circumcisions is well established and great,” the petition states.

Michael Whitsitt, the attorney for Jagoda, said Wednesday he had no comment about the latest development in the case.

Jagoda and Azar never married, and Jackson County Circuit Judge Christine Sill-Rogers granted full custody to Jagoda earlier this year. Azar, who was the child's primary caregiver until he was about 29 months old, has appealed that ruling.

Her immediate concern, she said Wednesday, is preventing a circumcision that she deems unnecessary and potentially harmful. According to the petition filed with the Supreme Court, “Mr. Jagoda has indicated that he is determined to circumcise the child immediately, with or without a doctor, with or without anesthesia.”

Azar said Wednesday that, according to studies she has read and experts she has spoken with, her son's age might be the worst for a child to be circumcised.

“This is the most frightening age and damaging age psychologically,” she said. “I have to protect him.

“He knows his body very well. He's aware enough to understand what his body is like now but not able to understand why part of that would be taken away. Kids this age see the operation as a punishment, a mutilation, a castration.”

Azar said she is generally opposed to the idea of circumcision. If her son were old enough to decide for himself, she said, she wouldn't object.

So she's taking her fight to the state's highest court.

According to legal rules, Whitsitt has 10 days to file suggestions and oppositions.

“Circumcision … would be the removal of perfectly healthy tissue from a person not legally competent to object,” the petition states. “Circumcision is non-reversible amputation. It is the permanent destruction of living, non-threatening, sensitive tissue.”

December 4, 2003

Denmark: National Council for Children calls for ban on male circumcision

The National Council for Children has called on lawmakers to make male circumcision illegal.

While media reports of female circumcision in Denmark have caused a public outcry and prompted lawmakers to amend existing legislation, this unacceptable practice is still a lot less common than the circumcision of boys, the chairman of the council told Danish media this morning.

Source: DR Nyheder Online - Denmark