A petition has been launched in the UK to prevent boys under 18 from being circumcised without consent.The following link should take you there,Goverment petition
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UK goverment petition to protect under 18's
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I agree with it, but I see problems. Circumcision is really, in my opinion, something that someone should have the right to do to their own body, for someone else to make that decision for you is just wrong. This is really touchy because if this actually got through I can imagine that it would tack on a little "...except in accordance with religious beliefs." Now, although this seems pretty harmless, its just allowing Jews and Muslim and so on to practise their faith. But this may give cause for objections against the laws that prevent Female Genital Mutilation. The argument could be raised that if male circumcision can be given religious leeway, then so can female circumcision.
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Spot on, I agree completely.
As for religious objections, I don't believe anyone gives a fig about how the Muslims feel about it or there wouldn't already be a ban against Muslims doing it to girls.
The religious hang up with the boy issue is the Jews and always has been, otherwise what country would permit body modification and mutilation on a non-consenting, minor child at the parents' religious whim? Although a minority, many Jews hold very influential positions, plus politicians cringe when the term anti-semite is bandied about, which is what Jewish organizations start screaming and throwing about any time they aren't having their way.
In the EU, Sweden and France are already moving in this direction. They ban any circumcision of boys by anyone other than a licensed surgeon, no muslim barbers or Jewish mohels. Of course, no hospital in the EU is going to perform a circ on a minor boy without medical necessity, so the effect is the same.
I applaud the petition but I think an EU law equalizing the protection given to girls would be easier to pass and would be a force for good across all the EU.
There have been several cases here in The Netherlands where a Turk boy in his mid-teens, who has remained uncut, has feared a forced circumcision by relatives and has requested protection from the government which, of course, he was granted. But no law to ban it here yet. :frowning: