ESSEN, GERMANY: Hospital deters parents from cutting

The Jewish Post
July 21, 2015

German hospital working to deter parents from circumcising

Despite legislation enshrining the right to circumcision [or rather, to circumcise], the ritual still faces opposition in Germany, according to a local media outlet, which reported that a hospital in Essen is trying to convince parents to forgo the procedure for their sons.

The DerWesten.de news website cited Dr. Peter Liedgens, the director of pediatric surgery at Elisabeth Hospital, saying that he has managed to persuade three quarters of parents at his hospital to rethink circumcision. As a result, only 11 circumcisions were performed in the first quarter of 2015, down from 70 during the corresponding period the previous year.

The website also claimed that now the hospital would cease to perform any childhood circumcisions. However, a hospital spokesman clarified to The Jerusalem Post that, while it still performs circumcisions and has no plans on stopping, it performs them only on children above the age of one and only under general anesthesia.

“Circumcisions are performed only by our pediatric surgeons and not by ritual circumcisers on hospital grounds. So the new policy doesn’t really change anything concerning this procedure,” explained spokesman Thomas Kalhöfer.

Asked if the hospital would actively try to deter religious families from circumcising their children, Kalhöfer said that, “We respect the religious grounds of families asking for circumcision, and we don’t actively want to persuade them to desist.

“Our surgeons are arguing from a medical standpoint according to the new medical guidelines of the German Society of Pediatric Surgeons, who recommend to perform circumcision only for medical reasons,” he said, adding that the hospital’s policy toward circumcision has been in place since the beginning of the year.

In 2012, a court in Cologne ruled circumcision a form of bodily harm subject to criminal penalties, causing an international furor and vehement protests from Jewish organizations and the State of Israel.

While the Bundestag moved swiftly to pass legislation enshrining the right of German citizens to undergo circumcisions [no, to genitally cut non-consenting minors - the right of adults to be cut was never restricted], several German medical associations came out strongly against the practice.

“There is no reason from a medical point of view to remove an intact foreskin from underage boys or boys unable to give consent,” the German Pediatric Association asserted in a 2012 statement.

Jewish groups have expressed growing concern over circumcision in recent years, in the face of campaigns to ban the practice in several countries and a 2013 resolution by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, which described circumcision as a “violation of the physical integrity of children.”

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, “The health benefits of newborn male circumcision outweigh the risks, but the benefits are not great enough to recommend universal newborn circumcision,” and “the final decision should still be left to parents to make in the context of their religious, ethical, and cultural beliefs.”

“The Simon Wiesenthal Center calls upon authorities to insist that the religious rights of Jews and Muslims be protected,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the center.

While Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt of the Conference of European Rabbis mused that “the decision of the hospital is not based on questions of the legality of circumcision, which is guaranteed by German law, but on the fact that less and less Muslims are interested in this procedure, a fact showing the assimilation of Muslims into a post Judeo-Christian Europe.”

However, the hospital’s policy does show “a certain bias,” he said, adding that “for Jews the address for Brit Mila [circumcision] should be the synagogue and not the hospital.” 

BERLIN : Turkish circumcision play misses the point

Worldcrunch
October 23, 2014

Foreskin, The Play: Circumcision As Art For A Turkish Playwright

A Turkish immigrant playwright in Germany explores the meaning and theater of a religious rite that divides modern society.
by Igal Avidan
BERLIN - A quiet New Year's Eve in the maternity ward of a Berlin hospital. The doctor, a woman of Turkish descent, pours sparkling wine for herself and a blonde nurse. But the quiet ends when a fit, young, undershirt-clad macho man arrives pushing his pregnant wife Ela in a wheelchair. His name is Abraham B. Schneider. Pronounced in German, B. Schneider comes out as Beschneider, meaning "circumcisor."

His brother-in-law, an elegantly dressed real estate mogul named Mohammed Habibi Nassir, enters with them. Before the baby boy is even born, both men are vigorously insisting that he must be circumcised, after being pressured to do so by Ela's domineering Turkish mother Elif. When the only German family member, Christian Eichelmann [another pun, Eichel meaning "glans"] arrives, the other men try to bribe him into a pro-circumcision stance. Eichel, though, feels he has to defend "Europe's last firewall" and "the oppression of the German majority."

Is this comedy playing at a Berlin theater payback for the national debate that took place two years ago about forbidding circumcision? At the time, a German court ruled that when carried out for purely religious reasons, circumcision was an act of bodily harm. After further discussions and deliberations [and direct pressure from Israel's President Shimon Peres], the country's national parliament passed by a wide margin a regulation stating that parents had the right to have their sons circumcised shortly after birth, but only if certain standards are observed and if a religious circumcisor can carry out the procedure.

Lead dramatist Tunçay Kulaoglu claims the idea for the play, which is called Vorhaut ("Foreskin"), actually predated all that. It was the product, he says, of a barroom powwow among the actors, who, when the topic popped up "out of the blue," started swapping their own circumcision stories. "We were curious since this was hardly a daily subject of conversation. So we asked each other, 'Hey, how was it with you?'" Bremen-based director Miraz Bezar recalls.

... Did he want to be circumcised? "I was eight years old at the time," he says. "Working on the play, we had heated discussions about when a boy is fully able to decide that for himself."...
Those personal experiences inspired certain aspects of the play. ...

Other elements of the work, however, were drawn from the 2012 national debate on circumcision, which occurred after the actors came up with the original idea, ...

COLOGNE: 2nd anniversary of historic genital autonomy ruling marked.

May 7, 2014

World Day of Genital Autonomy commemorated in Cologne

by Hugh Young
The second anniversary of a historic court ruling against male genital cutting has been commemorated where it happened.

A crowd gathered outside the Cologne district courthouse to mark two years since the court ruled that infant circumcision was contrary to Germany's Grundgesetz (Basic Law).

intaktiv e. V.

This followed the botched circumcision of a four-year-old boy of Muslim parents, putting him in hospital for ten days, and requiring corrective surgery under general anaesthetic.

The Grundgesetz was put in place in Western Germany in 1949, and later the whole country, at the same time as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Both were written in reaction to the horrors of the Nazi regime, such as the evil medical experiments on children by Dr Josef Mengele.

Under pressure from religious interests, the ruling was overthrown by a law whose constitutionality is still to be tested.

At the gathering, messages from genital autonomy organisations were read outside the courthouse, before the crowd of about 50 people marched to Cologne Cathedral for more speeches. Visitors came from France, Switzerland, Austria and Panama. The mood of everyone there was described as "good humoured". A similar event was taking place simultanously in London.

NORM-UK

Organisers plan to repeat the event annually.

GERMANY: Circumcision law has failed

Deutche Welle
December 12, 2013

German circumcision law still under fire

A year ago Germany, after a long and heated debate, passed a controversial new circumcision law. It was meant to be a Solomonic solution, but critics say that the new rules do not guarantee children's well-being.

A ruling by a Cologne regional court in the spring of 2012 set off a fierce debate over the Jewish and Muslim ritual of circumcision. The court decided that non-medical circumcision amounted to bodily harm. Both supporters and critics of the practice discussed the issue at length on television and op-ed pages, employing both medical and ethical arguments. The main question remained: how to reconcile freedom of religion and parents' rights to choose how to raise their children on the one hand, with the children's well-being on the other.

A law was passed that was meant to answer that question. Paragraph 1631d of the code of civil law declared that the circumcision of a male child is legal and must be done in accordance with "the rules of the medical profession" - as safely as possible and with appropriate and effective pain relief. Parents need to be informed of the procedure's potential risks, it must not pose a danger to the child's well-being, and the wishes of children old enough to express them also need to be taken into account. Representatives of Germany's Jewish and Muslim communities said they were satisfied with these conditions.

Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, who introduced the bill, said the regulation re-established what was regarded as the status quo before the Cologne court's ruling.

But a year after coming into effect, the law is now a complete failure - at least according to critics, who say circumcision represents a violation of a child's physical integrity. Boys, critics said, often do not undergo the procedure under safe conditions and without appropriate pain relief.

"This law has legalized many questionable means of children's foreskin amputation," said Christian Bahls, head of the Mogis association, which advocates the physical integrity and sexual self-determination of children.

Bahls refers to a case in Berlin in which the Jewish method of Metzitzah B'Peh was carried out - where the circumciser sucks the wound with his mouth, and not with a pipette or a small tube. Because of the danger of infection, the Israel Ambulatory Pediatric Association (IAPA), among other associations, has already rejected the practice.

Mogis pressed charges against the boy's father, a rabbi, as well as his wife and the circumciser. But prosecutors dropped the case because no criminal responsibility could be proven against the parents, and the circumciser lived abroad and so was outside German jurisdiction.

Bahls says this outcome shows that the new law does not protect children's well-being properly. Prosecutors, he claims, dropped the case on the grounds that applying a painkilling bandage after the circumcision was enough to ensure medical safety. "So clearly it is permissible to amputate a child's foreskin without an adequate anesthetic," said Bahls. "That is what the law allows."

Wolfgang Gahr, general secretary of Germany's academy for children and young people's medicine (DAKJ), has also heard reports of circumcisions being carried out under hygienically questionable conditions and without anesthetic. "They are individual cases," he said. "We don't have any figures." The DAKJ is against non-medical circumcisions in general, but if they can't be avoided, "they should at least take place under medical supervision and be painless."

But this last condition is certainly not stipulated by the law, according to which children under six months are allowed to be circumcised by someone nominated by the religious community - in other words, a circumciser, who in most cases is not a doctor. That means he is not qualified to administer an anesthetic, says Gahr.

The Justice Ministry, on the other hand, cites what it claims is evidence that the law protects children's well-being - for instance a ruling made by a Higher Regional Court in September, which forbade a Kenyan woman from circumcising her six-year-old son because parents and doctors had not consulted the child, and because the parents had failed to properly inform themselves.

Germany's Constitutional Court has also had to address the law, after a man brought a lawsuit because he had been circumcised by someone without medical training, in 1991, when he was aged six. The judges dismissed his case because he was not currently directly affected by the new law. In other words, the court avoided addressing the new law itself.

BERLIN: Penalty for female cutting to increase

europe online magazine
May 29, 2013

Germany plans to increase jail terms for female circumcision

Berlin (dpa) - The maximum jail term for conducting a female circumcision should be increased to 15 years, the same sentence as for manslaughter, Germany‘s government said Wednesday.

The cabinet resolution means the German parliament would be asked next month to amend the criminal code to make female circumcision a separate crime. Currently, it is treated as causing serious personal injury with a maximum sentence of 10 years.

[Like the circumcision law, by creating discrimination between the sexes, this law will be in breach of the Grundgesetz - unconstitutional.]

The procedure is mainly carried out on girls in Africa. German courts have the power to try crimes abroad against German citizens.

The circumcision of boys for religious or medical reasons is legal in Germany.

BERLIN: Metzitzah - "Don't touch our tradition"

European Jewish Press
April 22, 2013

Rabbinical Centre of Europe decries circumcision slurs on Berlin Rabbi as 'truly saddening'

by Shari Ryness

BRUSSELS/BERLIN (EJP)---The Rabbinical Centre of Europe (RCE) has issued an official statement defending a Berlin Rabbi who was criticised for inflicting “bodily harm” on his newborn son by commissioning a religious circumcision.

Responding to media attacks on Rabbi Yehuda Teichtel, a Berlin community Rabbi, the RCE insisted that the Rabbi had sought the services of an internationally renowned Mohel (religious circumcision practitioner) certified by both the Israeli health ministry and the Chief Rabbinate of Israel and that the circumcision has been performed “according to proper medical manner and in accordance with the Jewish law and German laws”.

Describing the negative attention the case had attracted as “truly saddening”, the RCE further commended Teichtel’s reputation within the Berlin Jewish community, where “he is known to stand for fairness and respect and for an open, tolerant cooperation within our society”. [Yes, but did he suck a baby's penis, contrary to the law passed last year?]

“All Jewish leaders have the responsibility and obligation to stop any interference with any detail of Jewish practice,” concluded the official comment.

Berlin’s District Attorney began an investigation into Rabbi Teichtel’s son’s circumcision earlier this month, after the office of public prosecutors received several formal complaints regarding the alleged use of the controversial practice of metzitzah b’peh, used in ultra-Orthodox circles, whereby the blood is sucked orally from the circumcision wound. According to German Jewish weekly Juedische Allgemeine Wochenzeitung, one of the complainants was Christian Bahls, who heads a “working group on victims of circumcision”.

In December, the German Bundestag sought to end months of uncertainty over the continued practice of religious circumcisions by Germany’s Muslim and Jewish communities, by passing a new law ... Although the bill states circumcisions must be carried out "professionally" and "with the most effective pain relief" and in the event that parents have been forewarned of the inherent risks, it critically did not safeguard the practice of metzitzah b’peh.

Gideon Joffe, head of Berlin’s Jewish community, last weekend issued a statement defending Berlin’s “unified community” in the face of the latest negative reports and insisted that “members of every denomination should be able to live out their Judaism as they learned it from their parents and grandparents”.

The Council of the RCE held its annual meeting in Paris last Tuesday , where members signed a formal declaration agreeing that “under no circumstances may the governments of any country become involved in the mitzvah of brit milah” and that RCE leaders should lobby the topical issue with the governments of each country. [Who are these people to declare themselves above governments?]

Based in Brussels, the Rabbinical Centre of Europe serves and represent over 700 Rabbis from across Europe.

Earlier story

LONDON: Two out of five would ban infant circumcision

Nearly two out of five support a ban on infant circumcision

Jewish Chronicle
March 27, 2013

Forty five per cent of Britons ready to ban shechita

by Simon Rocker

Almost half the population favour a ban on religious slaughter of animals for meat and nearly a third want a ban on male circumcision, according to the results of a YouGov poll for the JC.

Asked whether they support or oppose a ban on religious slaughter, 45 per cent back a ban, 27 per cent are against and 28 per cent say they do not know.

Opinion diverges less when respondents are asked about “male circumcision for religious reasons”, with 38 per cent [More like 2/5 than 1/3] supporting a ban, 35 per cent against and 27 per cent undecided.

Dayan Yisroel Lichtenstein, head of the Federation Beth Din, said: “It’s worrying and it shows we need to do a lot more public relations to put our case.”

...

Forty-one per cent of 18-24 year-olds would ban both shechita and circumcision.

...

The German government recently passed legislation to protect religious circumcision after a mohel was arrested last year. [No, not even detained, but convicted and discharged.]

...

But David Graham, senior research fellow of the Institute for Jewish Policy Research, cautioned against reading too much into the figures.

...

If people are asked are whether they support or oppose a ban on an issue, he said, “the seed of doubt is already sown in the respondent’s mind, before he or she has had a chance to consider what they are being asked. It is hardly surprising a majority opts for a ban.”

[Perhaps if the question had been,

"Do you think babies' genitals should

1. be left alone?
2. have part cut off?"

the proportion in favour of intactness would have been considerably higher.]


...

ROSTOCK, GERMANY: Metzitzah Rabbi sued; "Most Jews in Germany don't circumcise"

MOGiS un Freunde
March 23, 2013

Rabbi sued for circumcising his son

by Christian Bahls

Why I am sueing the orthodox Rabbi Yehuda Teichtal for having a circumcision performed on his son
I'd like to make one thing very clear right up front:

This lawsuit is not driven by any anti-Jewish resentments, but by the strong belief that all children bear the same inalienable rights.

With it I don't aim to attack the Jewish naming ceremony that involves amputation of the foreskin, that is an issue for an internal debate among the Jewish people.

I want to point out explicitly that I reject any ideology or action that is directed against a humane, tolerant, free and democratic value- and law-abiding society. I will refuse or quit any cooperation with persons or groups of whom I think would put a society based on democratic values, unconditional and at any time, in question.

In that spirit I also disapprove of any misuse of my efforts to further children's rights to bodily integrity by people that use the issue of circumcision to fuel their discriminating thoughts against minorities.

For now my aim is to shed some light on the circumstances of this particular circumcision. It clearly shows that some people are unwilling to abide to at least the minimum standards set forth by law, for example just obeying the rules for proper medical treatment.

In the video published on the website of the Berlin Tagesspiegel one can see how Mr. Menachem Fleischmann takes a mouthful of wine, then leans down over baby Mendel Teichtal to suck blood from his bleeding penis.

In §1631d BGB the law states that parents may only consent to a foreskin amputation if it is to be performed according to the rules of medical science, with the degree of skill and learning commonly applied under all the circumstances in the community by the average prudent reputable member of the profession.

...

The act of performing a Metzitzah B'peh in itself would be a violation of the demand for adherence to the rules for medical treatment to make the foreskin amputation legal according to §1631d BGB.

It is not to be assumed that the legislator intended to legalize the Metzitzah B'peh. During the hearing in the justice committee of the German Bundestag on Nov. 26th, 2012, Rabbi and urologist Dr. med. Antje Yael Deusel stated: "The most recent medical standards concerning surgical execution, including sterility and appropriate pain treatment, both during and after the operation, have to be met. A so-called Metzitzah B'peh - meaning a direct sucking of blood from the wound - is obsolete and has to be omitted unconditionally." (German protocoll from the hearing)

...

Another reason for me to file this lawsuit is to clarify the practice of "Periah". It can be assumed that the Mohel - when alone with the infant in an adjacent room - while do what he called "caring for the wound" - performed a radical foreskin amputation on the infant.

During a Periah, the remaining inner layer of the foreskin - which on newborns is fused to the glans, much like a fingernail to the nail bed - is scraped off all the way down to the corona glandis. (https://www.realeyz.tv/de/its-a-boy.html)

...

I believe it should be investigated whether the entire inner layer of the foreskin down to the corona glandis has been removed, and if, whether this can still be considered part of the naming ceremony or rather an infliction of bodily harm not covered by §1631d BGB.

...

In conclusion, as Mr. Teichtal - because his involvement in the german discussion 2012 - must know about the illegality of his acts. I see the way the ritual has been performed on March 3rd, 2013, as a deliberate provocation.

Also there is one thing I'm totally aware of: by far the most people of Jewish descent in Germany don't have their sons circumcised. Only a small minority has their sons circumcised, and of those only a few have it done to such an extent and following such an archaic rite like Mr. Teichtal had it done on his son on March 3rd.

BERLIN: Intersex babies need not be assigned a sex

West-Info
February 26, 2013

A victory for intersex babies in Germany

by Mattia Rosini

There has been a small revolution for intersex babies in Germany. Born with a genetic [or other] condition that means they cannot be defined exclusively as male or female, because they have characteristics of both sexes, a new law allows their gender to remain unspecified on the birth certificate. The German government unanimously approved the amendment to the law on recording personal data at birth. Previously, the baby’s parents could choose which gender would appear on the birth certificate. However, the amendment doesn’t go far enough, according to the Ethical Council of Germany. It believes that parents of intersex children need more support and that gender reassignment surgery should be avoided.

HESSE, GERMANY: Charges dropped against circumcising rabbi

Haaretz
February 24, 2013

German prosecutor drops anti-circumcision charges against mohel

by

Court says Hof chief rabbi, David Goldberg, who was charged in 2012 after a Cologne court ruled circumcision illegal in Germany, satisfies child welfare requirements.

A statement by the Hof prosecutor on February 21 said that Rabbi David Goldberg of Hof satisfied all requirements regarding child welfare “which are not jeopardized by the circumcision,” the Jewish-German publication Jüdische Allgemeine reported.

“Circumcisions which are applied with the consent of parents or custodians are not subject to criminal liability,” the prosecutor added. [The prosecuter seems to interpret the new law retrospectively.]

Charges were brought against Goldberg last year after a court in Cologne ruled that circumcision was illegal in Germany. Goldberg, who has been working as a mohel in Germany since 1997, said he was very pleased the case was now closed and that there was clarity on the issue.

“I never had any doubts, I still performed circumcisions,” he said. "But I think this is very good news for parents who did have doubts, and for the entire Jewish community.”

The German parliament has since passed a new law allowing circumcision, with some restrictions.

Earlier story

BERLIN: Female cutting growing in Germany

Jewish Press (!)
February 6, 2013

Female Circumcision Now a Growing Problem in Germany

For many of these women, urinating can take up to 30 minutes, and is very painful.

Between 130 and 150 million women are victims of genital mutilation – most of them are Africans, Deutsche Welle reports. Now, doctors, teachers and social workers in Germany report being confronted by this practice in ever growing numbers.

Jawahir Cumar, who moved to Germany with her parents from Somalia when she was a girl, witnessed, at age 20, on a visit to her grandparents’ village, the funeral of young girl who had bled to death after being “circumcised.”

Female genital mutilation (FGM) is practiced in 29 African countries, even though it is illegal in some of them. It is usually done when girls are between the ages of four and eight – using razor blades, kitchen knives and even broken glass and tin lids. Because these tools are used more than once, it also increases the spreading of bllod-based diseases like HIV/AIDS and hepatitis.

FGM alters or injures female genitalia for non-medical reasons, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). ...

An estimated 30,000 women living in Germany have been subjected to FGM and 6,000 girls are at risk, according to human rights organization Terre des Femmes.

“Mothers-in-law and grandmothers, especially, call all the time, write letters and send messages,” says Cumar. And the message is always the same, “you have to cut your daughters! Or just bring them to us and we will do it.”

...

She was able to prevent 17 girls from being subjected to FGM last year. But there’s still a lot of work to be done in Germany as well, says Cumar, pointing to how long it took for “honor killings” to be viewed by police as a criminal offence and not simply as the customs of immigrants.

...

BERLIN: Green candidate stood down for anti-circumcision poems

Haaretz
December 31, 2012

German Green candidate quits over criticisms of Jews, Muslims

Ulf Dunkel had come under fire from the national Jewish spokesman over two anti-circumcision poems he published.
 
Germany's Green Party said Monday that a candidate who had described Jews and Muslims as "arseholes" because they practice male circumcision was withdrawing from a state poll.

Ulf Dunkel had come under fire from the national Jewish spokesman over two anti-circumcision poems he published.

One termed those who circumcise their sons "arseholes" and "blind fanatics." The other included the line: "Sharpen the knife, sing a hymn, cut off the member's foreskin."

Male circumcision, which is rarely practiced in Germany on medical grounds, triggered fierce controversy in the run-up to federal legislation, introduced in mid-December, which confirmed that it is legal for parents to arrange for religiously mandated circumcision. [The law does not mention religion.]

Michael Jaeger, of the Cloppenburg chapter of the Green Party, said that while Dunkel's name would remain on the ballot in a January 20 election for the Lower Saxony state parliament, the candidate would decline to take up his seat if elected. Dunkel could not be reached for comment.

Jaeger said it was too late to take his name off the ballot because postal voting in the state had already begun.

Dieter Graumann, chairman of the Central Council of Jews, earlier appealed to the Greens to withdraw Dunkel's candidacy. "His works radiate hate-filled arrogance towards Jews and Muslims," Graumann said.

BERLIN: Bundestag legalises circumcision, 100 oppose

Reuters
December 12, 2012

Germany passes law to protect circumcision after outcry

by Madeline Chambers

Protestors in front of the Brandenburg Gate, Berlin REUTERS-Pawel Kopczynski

(Reuters) - German politicians passed a law on Wednesday to protect the right to circumcise infant boys in a show of support for Muslims and Jews angered by a local court ban on the practice in May.

The ban - imposed on the grounds that circumcision amounted to "bodily harm" - triggered an emotional debate over the treatment of Jews and other religious minorities, a sensitive subject in a country still haunted by its Nazi past.

The outcry prompted Germany's centre-right government and opposition parties to draw up legislation confirming the practice was legal - overruling the decision by a court in the western city of Cologne.

The new law passed by an overwhelming majority in Bundestag lower house said the operation could be carried out, as long as parents were informed about the risks.

[Hardly "overwhelming" - the 100 votes against were considerably more than expected.]


[By party: Angela Merkel's CDU/CSU most toed her line; only among the Communsts did most vote to protect children:]


Jewish groups welcomed the move.

"This vote and the strong commitment shown ... to protect this most integral practice of the Jewish religion is a strong message to our community for the continuation and flourishing of Jewish life in Germany," said Moshe Kantor, President of the European Jewish Congress.

Germany's Catholic Bishops Conference said it hoped the bill would help safeguard religious freedoms. No comment was immediately available from the country's Central Council of Muslims.

PAIN MINIMISED

The May ruling centered on the case of a Muslim boy who bled after the procedure [requiring surgery under general anaesthetic and 10 days in hospital] and the ban only applied to the area around Cologne.

But some doctors in other parts of Germany started refusing to carry out circumcisions, saying it was unclear whether they would face prosecution.

Under the new law, a doctor or trained expert must conduct the operation and children must endure as little pain as possible, which means an anesthetic should be used. The procedure cannot take place if there is any doubt about the child's health.

Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said no other country in the world country had made the religious circumcision of boys an offence.

"In our modern and secular state, it is not the job of the state to interfere in children's' upbringing," she said. [Cutting what other body part off is "upbringing"?]

Child welfare group Deutsche Kinderhilfe disagreed, saying the government had "(pushed) through the legalization of the ritual of genital circumcision ... against the advice of child right campaigners and the medical profession." [And against German's Grundgesetz - Basic Law]

BERLIN: Paediatric Association condemns circumcision law

Gesetzentwurf der Bundesregierung
November 27, 2012

German Pediatric Society roundly condemns infant circumcision.

Dr.Wolfram Hartmann, President of the Professional Association of Child and Youth Doctors in Germany, spoke on November 26, 2012 to the Bundestag committee considering the Government's "Draft law on the scope of child's care regulations at a circumcision of the male child" and the draft law of MPs Marlene Rupprecht, Katja Dörner, Diana Golze, Caren Marks, Rolf Schwanitz, other MPs: "Draft law on the scope of the child's care and the rights of the male child at a circumcision "

The Association opposes the first, which sets conditions for the performance of child circumcision, but no limit on who may do it, and supports the second, which sets a minimum age of 14, with informed consent.

Dr Hartmann told the committee

This statement is coordinated with the German Academy for Child and Youth Medicine (DAKJ), the umbrella organization of all pediatric associations in Germany (German Society for Child and youth medicine DGKJ, Professional Association of the Child and Youth doctors, German Society for social pediatrics and youth medicine DGSPJ), to which other organizations are co-opted (see also . I also refer to the statement of the Germany Society for Child Surgery) on that subject.

From a medical point of view, there is no reason to remove the intact foreskin of under-aged boys not capable of giving consent. In pre-school age, it is also very rare to have a true medical indication to remove (circumcise) the foreskin. At this age, the foreskin (prepuce) is physiologically more or less strongly fastened to the glans. Attempts to pull back the immature and adhered foreskin often cause inflammations and painful fissures.

"The male foreskin is part of the dermal organ and fulfills an important role in protecting the very delicate glans. ...

The repeatedly-quoted statement of the AAP contradicts earlier statements by the same organization, without being able to refer to new scientific evidence. The AAP statement has meanwhile been considered scientifically untenable by almost all pediatric societies and associations worldwide.

... The American lawyers association for children's rights, Attorneys for the Rights of the Child also criticized the AAP statement in a letter to the Pediatrics magazine [Which was not published there, but was published here]. It [says the AAP policy] contains errors and inconsistencies and violates both the AAP's own statements regarding bioethics, and several civil and criminal law regulations in the USA.

The WHO recommendations for prophylactic circumcisions only refers to mature, sexually active men in countries with low hygienic standards and is not suitable to justify the prophylactic circumcision of under-aged boys not capable to give consent. ...

.... The government's current draft law on the scope of child's care regulations at a circumcision of the male child unwillingly opens the door for demands to legalize the circumcision of girls.

BERLIN: Bundestag begins debating legal circumcision

DeutcheWelle
November 22, 2012

German parliament debates circumcision law

By Kay-Alexander Scholz
Germany's parliament has started debating a draft law on infant male circumcision. The government wants legal security for Muslim and Jewish traditions in Germany.

In May 2012, a Cologne court ruled that the circumcision of a young boy on religious grounds amounted to grievous bodily harm and therefore illegal.

...

The draft law foresees amending the German Civil Code by article 1631d, which is to be dedicated entirely to male infant circumcision. The operation would be legal if it is carried out according to "appropriate medical procedures" and does not endanger the child's health, for instance in the case of a hemophiliac. Persons other than doctors who are trained in the art of circumcision, such as Jewish mohels, will be allowed to practice the rite during the first six months of a child's life.

...

The Bundestag, or lower house of parliament, began its discussion on the legislation on Thursday (22.11.2012). An alternative draft law handed in by a group of opposition left-wing lawmakers was also on the agenda. They propose that parents should have to wait until their son is 14 so he can give informed consent for the procedure. After all, they argue, circumcision involves a grave operation in which the "foreskin is amputated."

This draft takes into account criticism by children's protection organizations and the Association of Pediatricians, which approved of the Cologne court's ruling. In this scenario, circumcision on the eighth day after birth, as is Jewish custom, would be impossible.

The Bundestag Legal Committee is scheduled to examine the medical risks circumcision entails at a hearing on November 26.

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Earlier story

BERLIN: 50 Bundestag members against circumcision legalisation

NECN.com
November 12, 2012

German lawmakers want circumcision ban under 14

BERLIN (AP) — Left-wing lawmakers in Germany are threatening to oppose government efforts to keep male infant circumcision legal.

More than 50 lawmakers from three parties are proposing that parents should have to wait until their son is 14 so he can give informed consent for the procedure.

The proposal obtained by The Associated Press on Monday would radically amend a government bill that would give parents the power to decide.

The bill was prompted by a regional court ruling that circumcision could amount to criminal bodily harm. The government has enough votes to pass the bill and defeat amendments.

The June court ruling prompted outrage in Germany's Jewish and Muslim communities. Jews circumcise boys on the 8th day after birth and Muslims usually perform the procedure early in a boy's life.

Earlier story

BERLIN: Cabinet approves bill allowing unnecessary "medical" circumcision

My body belongs to me! Forced circumcision is wrong - for boys too

Poster of pro-kinderrechte.de
(For children's rights)

Reuters
October 11, 2012

German cabinet approves bill allowing circumcision of boys

By Alexandra Hudson
BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's cabinet approved a draft law on Wednesday protecting the right to circumcise infant boys, which it says will end months of legal uncertainty after a local court banned the practice, causing outrage among Muslims and Jews.

The June ruling by a Cologne district court that circumcision constitutes "bodily harm" sparked an emotional national debate about religious freedom and the procedure itself.

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Parliament must still approve the bill for it to become law.

The speed with which national lawmakers agreed to draw up a new law underscored sensitivity to charges of intolerance in a country haunted by its Nazi past.

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The bill states that the operation should take place with the most effective pain relief possible and only if parents have been fully informed about the nature of the procedure. It makes no mention of religious motivations for circumcision.

The court ban had applied only to the Cologne region but doctors across the country refused to carry out operations because of what they saw as a risk of legal action.

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About 120,000 Jews are registered as living in Germany along with around 4 million Muslims, many of them from Turkey.

The Cologne court, ruling in the case of a Muslim boy who suffered bleeding [requiring surgery under general anaesthetic and 10 days in hospital] after circumcision, said the practice inflicted bodily harm and should not be carried out on young boys, although it could be performed on older males with their consent.


Anticipating the government bill, Berlin city authorities announced last month that parents were free to have their sons circumcised without fear of prosecution and the operations resumed in the German capital.

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Deutche Welle
October 10, 2012

... The children's charity Deutsche Kinderhilfe was among the staunchest critics of the decision, calling it a "quick-fire" political solution that favored parents at the expense of their children's rights.

"While a smack is forbidden, now an irreversible procedure with the risk of considerable side-effects and pain should be allowed for almost any reason - such a decree in German law would enduringly weaken children's rights," the chairman of the charity, Georg Ehrmann, said in a press release, saying the move sent Germany back decades in terms of protecting the youn

BERLIN: How Germany plans to break its own Basic Law

September 24, 2012

Germany abandons religious test for non-consented circumcision, opts for "medical"

The German Justice Ministry has released further details of its proposed law to enable unnecessary circumcision of non-consenting minor boys. They abandon the idea of an exemption for religious circumcision, but bring it under the rubric of "medical" circumcision. This is in spite of the fact that the change is being made specifically to allow religious circumcision. (There is virtually no demand in Germany for "cultural" circumcision like that in the USA.)
Circumcision of boys - Key Elements of a Regulation
I. Text of the Proposed Rules:

"Circumcision of the male child

(1) The child's care includes the right to consent to a medically not-indicated circumcision of a child who is not old enough to comprehend or consent, if these are carried out according to the rules of medical science. This does not apply if the child's welfare in endangered by circumcision, taking into account its purpose.

(2) In the first six months after birth, circumcision of a male child may be also carried out by individuals designated by religious groups, without being physicians, if they are specially trained."

II. Background

With the (legally binding) judgment of 7 May 2012 (document number: 151 Ns169/11, NJW 2012, 2128), the Regional Court of Cologne concluded that the circumcision of a 4-year-old boy was an illegal assault within the meaning of § 223 paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code (CC), even if undertaken in accordance with the rules of the medical profession and performed with the approval of the Muslim parents for religious reasons.

Parental consent was irrelevant because circumcision is contrary to the requirements of child custody to serve the child's best interests.

To address the resulting legal uncertainty, the German Bundestag requested the following of the federal government by order of 19 July 2012 (Bundestag printed paper 17/10331) [There was no "legal uncertainty" - non consented infant circumcision breaks the Basic Law - there is only a religious demand and political pressure.] :

"Taking into account the constitutionally protected parts of child welfare, physical integrity, freedom of religion and the right of parents to educate [but not to modify] as they see fit, submit [to us] a bill that ensures that a medically professional male circumcision without undue pain is generally admissible."
[Nowhere do they address the breach of gender-equality implicit in this. How will they resist, when Muslim parents demand the right to have doctors "circumcise" their daughters - minimally, surgicaly - under the same law?]

III. Key points of the proposed rule:

Custodial approach: The discussion centered on the question of the reach of parental authority. A regulation therefore should be enshrined and made clear with the Children's Law (§ 1631d BGB) that the parents (with custody under Article 6 Section GG 2, § § 1626, 1631 BGB) may consent to the circumcision of their son under certain conditions.

Parental consent shall preclude any claims of illegality of the procedure with the consequence that properly performed circumcision of boys cannot be punished as assault and no liability for damages shall trigger. [This seems to forclose the man's later right to sue for the wrong that has been done to him.]

Confinement of the proposed regulation to circumcision of boys unable to give consent: Only actually problematic circumcisions of boys unable to give consent would be governed by the judgment of the Court of Cologne.

Religious or ritual-traditional circumcisions are regularly performed at an age where children lack insight and judgment and therefore cannot render effective consent to the procedure. [An excellent reason not to do it to them without consent.] In Judaism, this means on the eighth day after birth. In Islam depending on the sect and culture it could mean anywhere from the seventh day after birth to about the end of primary school age.

Medically indicated circumcisions are excluded: Medically necessary (= Medically indicated) circumcisions are not the subject here, as there is common ground that parents have the authority to consent to medically indicated circumcision of children too young to comprehend and consent, as with any other medically necessary treatment of their child. [Thus any claims of medical benefit are irrelevant.]

No special religious requirement: The law shall be deliberately designed such that the requested circumcision is not dependent on a religious motivation to be legal. Otherwise legal practice would face before all else the difficult task of having to determine the content and specifics of religious beliefs. [Yet this is the sole reason for the "necessity" of a change to the law.]

Apart from religious bases, parents can appropriately elect the globally-now-common [No, only in the United State] , even though not medically indicated, circumcision of their son for an assortment of reasons having to do with beliefs about the welfare of their child. (See, for example, the opinion of the American Academy of Pediatrics from August 2012 that states the health benefits of newborns circumcision outweigh the risks. Pediatrics 2012, 130: 585-586 [Annotated here, video rebuttal here] ).

A scheme recognizing solely religiously-motivated circumcision of boys would not encompass all the varying valid reasons for choosing circumcision and would therefore not be fair or legally enforceable.

Conditions in the interests of the child: The consent of the parents must be bound up with child welfare-oriented conditions for the circumcision, which are increasingly being mentioned in the public debate on this issue (see Ethics, press release of 23 August 2012).

Parents should be able to provide consent for circumcision that is not medically indicated, on their son who cannot give consent, under the following conditions:

• Circumcision must be carried out according to the guidelines of medical science: This includes a professional execution of the procedure, hygienic conditions - as this is also covered by the rules of medical science - and the provision of effective pain management appropriate to individual cases and with respect to medical standards.

• Duty of circumcisers to fully educate parents before the procedure: A comprehensive explanation to parents of the consequences and risks is already a prerequisite for their effective consent under applicable law.
Properly warranted consent to a medically non-indicated intervention into someone's physical integrity is mandatory under current law. It requires an appropriate and more comprehensive explanation to the legal interest holder or - as here - his legal representatives. An additional mention of this requirement in the text of the proposed regulation is therefore not necessary.

• About the caveat of attention to the welfare of the child in paragraph 1, sentence 2, the constitutional protection mandate may be taken into account, if the circumstances of the individual case result in a hazard to the child. In this context any contrary will of the child may ["may"? Why not "must"?] also be take into account.

In Germany, the circumcision of children - even those carried out on religious or traditional grounds - is performed by physicians in a great many cases. However, religiously motivated circumcisions may also be performed by persons designated by a religious society.

The proposed plan allows such designated persons  to carry out circumcisions when they have been specifically trained and exhibit circumcision qualifications comparable to those of a surgeon. The conditions and requirements set out in Paragraph 1 above also shall apply to circumcisions by such persons.

The proposed regulation should limit the assessment of religious freedom on the one hand and the health interests of the child on the other hand to strictly the first six months after the child's birth. [Do children magically gain constitutional rights six months after they are born - or are they just easier to hold down? Is this all just about Germans being squeamish about forcibly circumicising boys old enough to complain?]

UNITED NATIONS: Humanists put circumcision on Human Rights Agenda

September 17, 2012

Humanists put circumcision ethics on UN agenda

The International Humanist and Ethical Union has presented papers to the United Nations Human Righs Council naming non-therapeutic circumcision as a human rights issue that requires the council's attention.

At the session of September 17, IHEU representative Josephine Mackintosh told the Council:
The recent German [Cologne district] court ruling outlawing non-therapeutic infant male circumcision correctly places the welfare, and the "fundamental rights and freedoms" of vulnerable children above the unrestrained expression of adult beliefs.

The court correctly determined that: non-therapeutic cutting of a child's body is an assault; that children are unable to give informed consent; that surrogate parental consent is not valid for an operation with no clinical indication and with the potential to cause serious harm; and that children have a right to be protected from bodily harm.

Such determinations cannot legitimately be overridden by adults convinced that children might be harmed by denying them this forced, irreversible surgery to their most intimate body parts. When the children become adult they can freely decide whether or not to undergo the procedure.

We understand, and have some sympathy with the sensitivities of certain religious groups which may feel threatened or even attacked by the judgment, particularly in the light of recent history. But it would be wrong to describe this judgment as religious persecution, or anti-Semitic; some Jewish voices are calling for an end to the practice and there is even an association called Jews Against Circumcision. Powerful groups must not be permitted to impose their views on the vulnerable on ideological or theological grounds in contravention of international law.

The Royal Dutch Medical Association and seven other Dutch scientific associations concluded in 2010 that the procedure can be harmful and that it violates the boy's human rights to autonomy and physical integrity.

The German judgment is therefore both laudable and overdue. Reflecting as it does States' obligations under the ICCPR, it should be followed by all member states.

Statement to the General Assembly

BERLIN: New law to require doctors for circumcision after 6 months

Reuters
September 25, 2012

Germany outlines new law allowing circumcision

By Christian Ruettger
(Reuters) - Germany's Justice Ministry has outlined a planned new law that will allow the circumcision of infant boys and end months of legal uncertainty after a local court banned the practice.

The ruling in June by a district court in Cologne outraged Muslims and Jews and sparked an emotional debate in the country, leaving an embarrassed government to promise legislation by the autumn protecting the right to circumcise.

Although the ban applied only to the Cologne region, doctors across the country refused to carry out operations because of what they saw as a risk of legal action.

The outline draft of a new bill states that the operation should take place "with the most effective pain relief possible" and only if parents have been fully informed about the nature of the procedure, a ministry spokesman said.

Generally doctors would carry out circumcisions but if the baby boy is less than six months old than it can also performed by another qualified person, such as a mohel, a Jewish individual specially trained in circumcising.

The ministry's outline bill, a first but critical step towards creating the new law, has been sent to Germany's federal states ahead of a consultation with experts due later this week.

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Earlier story