German Circumcision Ban: Is it a Parent's Right to Choose?

 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."

The case stemmed from a circumcision on a four-year-old Muslim boy who had to be taken to hospital when complications developed. That, unusually, put the case into the legal system and the doctor was prosecuted. As the charge put it, the doctor "physically mistreated another person and injured that person's health by means of a dangerous instrument". In the end, he was cleared. The court decided that circumcision was illegal but that the doctor couldn't have been expected to have known this. It had been done for so long that it seemed legal when - according to the court - it wasn't.

Because the doctor was cleared, there will be no appeal to a higher court, which means the soundness of the rest of the judgement will not immediately be tested. This puts the medical profession in a great dilemma. Dr Frank Montgomery, the president of the German Medical Association, said. "It leaves doctors in a legal quagmire. We are convinced that circumcision is best performed under medical conditions by physicians in a hospital."
"This is obviously no longer legally possible so therefore we have to advise our physicians not to perform these operations because they run the legal risk of being taken to court."

 Already, the Jewish Hospital in Berlin, which has been performing ritual circumcisions for 250 years, has stopped. Its medical director, Professor Kristof Graf said: "We have had to stop planned surgeries in five cases already where they were scheduled for circumcision and the families were completely destroyed and upset about this."  Despite its name, the Jewish Hospital performs ritual circumcisions on Muslims as well as Jews, in fact more of the former than the latter, largely because there are many more Muslims in Germany than Jews.

The rules of ritual circumcision are different for each faith. For Jews, it has to be done on the eighth day after birth (assuming the baby is healthy), but Muslims can wait longer.  So for Jews, the problem is more urgent. Circumcision is already performed by "mohels" - people designated as able to circumcise - but many prefer the safeguards which formal medical facilities provide.

 So , is circumcision of a son a parental right? Just what are the reasons for it...Religious or otherwise?? Or, is it just unecessary mutilation of a baby?