July 18, 2012
Germany to Pass Law on Circumcision to Counter Judges' Ruling
By Patrick DonahueGerman legislators will pass a law this year permitting the circumcision of boys in response to global protests by religious groups reacting to a district court ruling that the practice amounts to bodily harm.
Social Democrat Burkhard Lischka, who sits on parliament’s legal-affairs committee, said his opposition party and the environmental Greens reached agreement with the governing coalition to seek draft legislation, probably by October. He said a “broad majority” will approve a resolution in the lower house, or Bundestag, tomorrow.
[Maybe the Japanese should just tell the Greens that killing whales is part of their religion....]
“You have two world religions that view the circumcision of boys as a constitutive path to join a community of faith,” Lischka said today in a phone interview in Berlin.
[If it's to join a community of faith it can wait until the person is old enough to have a faith.]
Jewish, Muslim and Christian organizations this month decried a May 7 Cologne court decision that circumcising boys constitutes battery even if parents consent to it, creating legal uncertainty and the prospect that doctors could be committing a crime by performing the procedure. Chancellor Angela Merkel warned party colleagues this week that Germany risks being branded a “nation of buffoons” if it becomes the only country to prohibit the practice, Bild newspaper reported.
Lischka said the legal situation was “somewhat complicated” by balancing the constitutional right of bodily integrity with freedom of religion. The resolution language will permit circumcision of boys by a trained professional in situations that avoid inflicting “unnecessary pain.”
Justice Ministry spokeswoman Mareke Aden said today that a draft law is planned by the fall and that the issue “can’t be pushed off” amid global scrutiny.
Vacations Interrupted
Bundestag lawmakers are interrupting their vacations to attend an emergency session tomorrow to approve as much as 100 billion euros ($123 billion) in bailout aid for Spain. The legislative process on circumcision will probably begin in late September after parliament reconvenes on Sept. 10.
European rabbis held a three-day emergency meeting last week ...
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Earlier story
"'You have two world religions that view the circumcision of boys as a constitutive path to join a community of faith,' Lischka said today in a phone interview in Berlin."
ReplyDeleteLOL. "Join."
What does religion have to do with anything? FGM is also performed in the name of "religion."
Maybe Germany should institute Sharia law, while we're at it.
"Jewish, Muslim and Christian organizations this month decried a May 7 Cologne court decision that circumcising boys constitutes battery even if parents consent to it, creating legal uncertainty and the prospect that doctors could be committing a crime by performing the procedure."
And, of course, decrying facts make them false.
There is no "uncertainty"; perform surgery when it's medically necessary, as in all other surgery. Performing any other surgery on a healthy, non-consenting infant for profit would most *certainly* land a doctor in jail.
"Lischka said the legal situation was “somewhat complicated” by balancing the constitutional right of bodily integrity with freedom of religion."
Again, with female circumcision, there exists no such "complication."
"The resolution language will permit circumcision of boys by a trained professional in situations that avoid inflicting "unnecessary pain.'"
How about unnecessary complications, such as the hemorrhage and more this boy endured at the hands of a "trained professional?"
What is a "constituitve path" anyway?
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