Is infant male circumcision an abuse of the rights of the child? Yes

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Legal protectionArticle 24(3) of the UN convention on the rights of the child commits all ratifying states to “take all effective and appropriate measures with a view to abolishing traditional practices prejudicial to the health of children” and article 19(1) says: “States shall take all appropriate legislative administrative social and educational measures to protect the child from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse.”7UK courts have interceded in the past to protect the best interests of children whose parental belief systems have put children at risk. However, male circumcision remains lawful if both parents consent.8910 Since the Human Rights Act has been implemented, however, single parental consent has been found to be insufficient to show that the procedure is in the child’s best interest.11As far as female genital mutilation is concerned, in the United States the Federal Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation Act states that in applying the law, “no account shall be taken . . . that the operation is required as a matter of custom or ritual.” These terms are closely mirrored in the UK Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003. Both the US and the UK legal systems therefore discriminate between the sexes when it comes to protecting boys and girls from damaging ritual genital mutilation.The UK’s General Medical Council abdicates all responsibility for male circumcision to society as a whole,12 but in June 2007 the BMA, which had previously offered general guidance,13 decided that “any decision to provide medical or surgical treatment to a child, or any decision to withhold medical or surgical treatment from a child, should: consider the ethical, cultural and religious views of the child’s parents and/or carers, but without allowing these views to override the rights of the child to have his/her best interests protected.”14Male circumcision was not specifically mentioned, but it cannot be in the best interest of a child to be subjected, without its consent, to an irreversible surgical procedure, often without anaesthetic, which will provide no medical benefit but which has proved adverse consequences both in terms of potential complications for some and reduced penile sensation in adulthood for all.