A ban on circumcision in Germany has shocked the nation’s Jews and Muslims. The right of parents to make decisions for their children is now under the spotlight.
A court ruling in Germany effectively banning circumcision has united Jews and Muslims in anger – and they are backed by the country’s main medical association.
Muslims have warned that the devout will take sons abroad to be circumcised.
Jews have pointed out that attacks on Jewish religious rituals have been an unfortunate part of European history since the Roman times, and say they are dismayed by the latest ban. One Russian rabbi in Berlin to discuss the ban called it “perhaps the most serious attack on Jewish life in Europe since the Holocaust”.
The German government has been stung by the reaction. Chancellor Merkel’s spokesman said that circumcision must be possible in Germany – though he didn’t say whether the law would be changed or clarified by a higher court.
The ruling by the district court of Cologne says circumcision “for the purpose of religious upbringing constitutes a violation of physical integrity”.
The judgement added: “The child’s body is permanently and irreparably changed by the circumcision. This change conflicts with the child’s interest of later being able to make his own decision on his religious affiliation.”
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Why the court decided the circumcision to be illegal:
The four-year-old from the controversial verdict was circumcised in the hospital for days, had a “moth” penis and bleeding. Even the dressing had to take place under general anesthesia.
The case of the pruned year-old boy, the broad debate about the legal situation has caused for religious reasons circumcision was medically apparently more explosive than previously known. The boy was two days after his circumcision with bleeding were admitted to a children’s emergency room, reports the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper,” the letter to a doctor about the treatment was then convenes.
It is apparent that a “urological surgical revision” of the circumcision “general anesthesia” was. After recent surgery was the boy for several days came to a children’s ward, it says in the report. Three dressing changes had taken place “under anesthesia”.
“Uneven, occupies corroded and fibrinous”
In the doctor’s letter further ground that the exposed surface and the glans penis “uneven, eroded, and fibrinous occupied “were. The boy had been ten days in clinical treatment.
The medical details were the Cologne district court was aware, but not yet public, says the “FAS”. One reviewer, who had been commissioned by the Cologne Regional Court had attested to the physician who performed the circumcision, that the interference was “in accordance with the rules of medical science carried out” had been. The bleeding, the experts were, possible complications after circumcisions.
