http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2012/06/201262743137489117.html
German court: Child circumcision 'an assault'
Cologne ruling says "fundamental right of the child to bodily integrity
outweighed the fundamental rights of parents".
Last Modified: 27 Jun 2012 14:40
inShare18
The case was brought against a doctor when a boy he had circumcised started
bleeding heavily [GALLO/GETTY]
Circumcising young boys on religious grounds amounts to grievous bodily harm, a
German court has ruled.
The regional court in Cologne, western Germany, ruled on Tuesday that the
"fundamental right of the child to bodily integrity outweighed the fundamental
rights of the parents", a judgement that is expected to set a legal precedent.
"The religious freedom of the parents and their right to educate their child
would not be unacceptably compromised, if they were obliged to wait until the
child could himself decide to be circumcised," the court said.
The case was brought against a doctor in Cologne who circumcised a
four-year-old Muslim boy on his parents' wishes.
A few days after the operation, with the boy bleeding heavily, his parents took
him to a hospital. Prosecutors then charged the doctor with grievous bodily
harm.
The doctor was acquitted by a lower court that judged he had acted within the
law as the parents had given their consent.
On appeal, the regional court also acquitted the doctor but for different
reasons.
The regional court upheld the original charge of grievous bodily harm but also
ruled that the doctor was innocent as there was too much confusion on the legal
situation around circumcision.
The court came down firmly against parents' right to have the ritual performed
on young children.
'Court not scared off'
"The body of the child is irreparably and permanently changed by a
circumcision," the court said. "This change contravenes the interests of the
child to decide later on his religious beliefs."
The decision caused outrage in Germany's Jewish community.
The head of the Central Committee of Jews, Dieter Graumann, said the ruling was
"an unprecedented and dramatic intervention in the right of religious
communities to self-determination".
The judgement was an "outrageous and insensitive act. Circumcision of newborn
boys is a fixed part of the Jewish religion and has been practiced worldwide
for centuries," added Graumann. "This religious right is respected in every
country in the world."
Holm Putzke, a criminal law expert at the University of Passau, told the
Financial Times Deutschland that the ruling was "enormously important for
doctors because for the first time they have legal certainty".
"Unlike many politicians, the court has not allowed itself to be scared off by
charges of anti-Semitism or religious intolerance," said Putzke.
The World Health Organisation has estimated that nearly one in three males
under 15 is circumcised. In the United States, the operation is often performed
for hygiene reasons on infants.
Thousands of young boys are circumcised every year in Germany, especially in
the country's large Jewish and Muslim communities.
The court specified that circumcision was not illegal if carried out for
medical reasons.
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