Ritual Circumcision Ban Proposed By Scandinavian Doctors Association; Religious Groups Say It Is An Attack On Their Beliefs

Circumcising children right after they were born or during early age could pose danger on the patients' health, a group of Scandinavian doctors said, suggesting that such activity should be banned. Instead, they want kids to undergo such operation at the age of 12, with the kids' informed consent.

Circumcision is treated as a ritual by both Muslims and Jews. Islam followers do it to their boys right before they reach the age of 10 while Jewish people do it eight days after they were born. However, according to a large medical association in Sweden and Denmark, non-medical circumcision could endanger the health of the boys and "amounted to abuse and mutilation."

"We are not religious experts, but for medical reasons, we cannot approve a procedure that removes tissue from the genitals in which the risk is so great for serious complications," said the Swedish association's ethics officer, Thomas Flodin.

Medical experts in two Scandinavian countries also proposed that circumcising children should only be performed in a legitimate medical facility.

The circumcision law in Sweden has been long up for debate between the government and the Muslim and Jewish groups. In 2001, the Parliament of Sweden enacted a law that requires guardians to have their sons circumcised with the presence of a medical doctor or an anesthesia nurse to accompany the circumciser and for anaesthetic to be applied beforehand. Jewish groups called this "the first legal restriction on Jewish religious practice in Europe since the Nazi era."

Mark Movsesian over at First Things thinks this proposal is one way to send Jews and Muslims out of Europe. He wrote:

To put it mildly, a ban on the non-therapeutic circumcision of boys would cause some hardship for Jews and Muslims. At the very least, parents who wished to have their sons circumcised for religious purposes would need to have the circumcisions performed outside their countries-assuming a ban on circumcisions would not also prohibit parents from transporting children for such purposes. Most likely, a ban would simply cause Jews and Muslims to leave Scandinavia in large numbers. In fact, opponents of the ban allege that is its goal.

While many Jewish and Muslim parents disagree with the proposal, Erik Ullenhag, Sweden's minister of integration, insists that the previous law will not be changed.

"I have never met any adult man who experienced circumcision as an assault," Ullenhag said, according to JTA.

"The procedure is not very intensive and parents have the right to raise their children according to their faith and tradition."

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