HELSINKI: Finnish Ombudsman wants male cutting age-restricted

Belatedly....

Finland Times
October 10, 2015

Ombudsman for ending non-consented circumcision

The Ombudsman for Children Tuomas Kurttila has proposed a legislation which forbids the circumcision of boys for non-medical reasons.

The Ombudsman has proposed the initiative to the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health.
Currently, the circumcision of underage boys is regulated by a ministerial guideline but not by legislation.

According to Kurttila, ministerial guidelines are not sufficient regulatory means since parents are not obliged to ask the children their opinion about circumcision in the current guidelines.

“The guidelines do not require the explicit consent of the child regarding the measure even though the child is unable to understand the significance of circumcision,” said Kurttila in a statement.

According to Kurttila, every child's right to physical integrity in the country has to be safeguarded.

HELSINKI: MPs support law to restrict circumcision

They're asking for trouble calling this age-restriction a "ban"


Finland Times
April 3, 2014

MPs support law proposed to ban circumcision

A draft law aimed at banning circumcision has received considerable support from the lawmakers in parliament, reported MTV.


Most of the members in the parliamentary Social Affairs and Health Committee supported the law.
More than half of the members extended their support to either imposing a ban or limiting circumcision.

Some expert ogranisations also supported the proposed law. Circumcision of boys is often associated with religion or culture.

In Finland, most hospitals have refused to carry out circumcision because of religious reasons.

Circumcisions at homes have been subject of suspected assaults. Some prosecutions have resulted to sentences while some have not.

SWEDEN: Province proposes circumcision age-restriction

The Jewish Daily Forward
December 19, 2013

Swedish Province Will Ban Circumcision for Boys

Latest Salvo as Bris Battle Spreads Across Europe
A county in Sweden is planning to ban non-medical circumcision of boys, its commissioner said.

Per-Ola Mattsson, commissioner of Blekinge County, said he would move ahead with plans to ban ritual circumcision by bringing the subject up in February with the county's health board, according to an article published Thursday by the Sydöstran Daily.

According to Dagens Medicin, Mattsson, who is also chairman of the Public Health Board of Blekinge, said he opposed the practice because minors "have no possibility to say no to the surgery and therefore the county should not perform these procedures."

Located in southern Sweden, Blekinge County has a population of about 150,000.

In Sweden, nonmedical and medical circumcision may be performed only by licensed professionals, as per legislation from 2001.

Under the legislation, Jewish ritual circumcisers, or mohelim, in Sweden receive their licenses from the country's health board, but a nurse or doctor must still be present when they perform the procedure. Representatives of the country's Jewish community told JTA they are pleased with the arrangement as it does not prevent them from performing the ritual.

In recent years, Scandinavian countries have seen an intensification of efforts to ban [no, to age-restrict] ritual circumcision by activists who say it violates children's rights and by anti-immigration nationalists who seek to limit the effect that Muslim presence is having on Swedish society.

In September, the rightist Sweden Democrats Party submitted a motion in parliament in favor of banning ritual circumcision.

In October, the children's ombudsmen of all Nordic countries - Finland, Iceland, Denmark, Sweden and Norway - released a joint declaration proposing a ban [age-restriction] on circumcision.