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This paper considers Habermas' model of a post‐secular political order in the light of the debate on male circumcision that arose in Germany after a court ruled that male circumcision was an unjustifiable act of bodily harm. Central to this model is the idea that religious reasons can only become effective in central legal institutions when they are translated into secular reasons. My paper demonstrates that there are two distinguishable readings of this proviso. On the one hand, there is a broad reading according to which it is only necessary to reach a conclusion that is in line with the democratic principle stating that all citizens can be regarded as co‐legislators even if non‐generalizable value orientations might then shape the interpretation of fundamental rights (in the case of circumcision, the right to bodily integrity). On the other hand, a truly secular (narrow) reading would avoid the inclusion of non‐generalizable value orientations. The debate on circumcision demonstrates that these two interpretations lead to different and conflicting modes of justification. The broad reading allows for a justification of male circumcision, whereas the narrow reading makes such a justification unlikely. In addition, the filtering function of the proviso is weakened in a broad reading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article argues that male minors have a moral anticipatory right-in-trust not to be circumcised without a medical indication. Topics discussed include ethical, political, and intellectual persuasions of children's rights, parental rights, religious freedom; moral implications to circumcise male minors without a medical indication; and moral rights of male minors.

A recent judgment by a lower court in Germany brought the problem of ritual male circumcision to the consciousness of the wider public and legal academia. This essay weighs in on this emerging discussion and argues that ritual male circumcision is not covered by parental authority. It first considers and dismisses the best interest of the child test, which is the most widely used test of parental authority in legal practice. Instead, the essay proposes what it terms the autonomy conception of parental authority, according to which parental authority must be exercised such as to ensure that the child will become an autonomous adult. While parents may raise their child in line with their ethical, including religious, convictions, respect for his autonomy requires that this be done in a way that allows the child to later distance himself from these values; this implies, among other things, that irreversible physical changes are impermissible. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A UK doctor was recently acquitted of charges of reinstating a variety of female genital mutilation after delivering a child. In this paper, I contend that this incident reflects a broader confusion concerning the ethico-legal status of non-therapeutic genital surgeries for children and adults, which are not derivable from tenets of medical ethics, but rather violate them. I argue that medical professionals have an obligation to announce and address this confusion in order to motivate legislative reform, since the inconsistency of the current law entrenches the underlying sexism and ethnocentrism upon which its sense depends. Without convincing arguments for (a) condoning male circumcision and female cosmetic genital surgery and for (b) treating adult women of colour as lacking the capacity to consent, the current legislation stands in need of urgent revision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the ethical and legal aspects, and the children's rights issues, concerning non-therapeutic male circumcision, within the context of the debate between the association Attorneys for the Rights of the Child (ARC), the U.S. Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) and American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) over the issue. The authors contend that the pain caused by circumcision makes it unethical, including the pain caused to the penis foreskin. The role that parents play in their sons' circumcisions is discussed.

The article discusses the legal and ethical aspects of newborn male circumcision in the U.S. with parental consent, through referencing evidence-based guidelines by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). The role that male circumcision plays in decreasing the risk of diseases, including of penile cancer, increasing sexual health and reducing the risk of the HIV virus, is discussed.

After an appellate court made circumcision of minors effectively illegal in the absence of a medical justification, the German Parliament passed a statute that restored, with some limitations, the right of parents to seek ritual circumcisions for their sons. Between these events, a fierce controversy broke out in Germany involving Jews, Muslims, and other Germans. Whereas circumcision without medical indication is rare among most Germans, it is a common religious practice in Jewish and Muslim communities in Germany. The debate tapped into ongoing discussions of German cultural norms, German secularization, and a long history of anti-Semitism and a much shorter history of anti-Muslim sentiment in Germany. It also tapped into the religious and traditional practices -- sometimes converging, sometimes diverging -- of Jews and Muslims. This Article discusses the range of opinions on religious circumcision among Germans and other Europeans. It disentangles the social factors at work in the debate and analyzes the court decision and the new statute. It also examines some recent decisions under the new statute and explores problems with the statute's application. Given that roughly 700 million boys worldwide have undergone ritual circumcision, the German controversy has global implications. This Article shows that at day's end, the debate turns on issues of toleration and multiculturalism. It is scarcely possible to resolve this debate without asking, "What is a child?" If a child is a proto-member of his parents' religious community and has only a weak right to bodily integrity, or if the risk-benefit ratio favors circumcision and the parents have a broad scope of consent, then circumcision without medical indication might be legally and morally permissible. Parents might then have discretion to place on his body a permanent physical symbol of his expected or hoped for religious affiliation as an adult. Yet if a child has a strong right to bodily integrity, and circumcision is not medically indicated, then the permanent physical modification of his body with a symbol of Jewish or Muslim identity might be problematic, and circumcising him for aesthetic or other nonreligious reasons might likewise be problematic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article aims to illuminate the recent debate in Germany about the legitimacy of circumcision for religious reasons. The aim is both to evaluate the new German law allowing religious circumcision, and to outline the resulting conflict between the surrounding ethical and legal issues. We first elucidate the diversity of legal and medical views on religious circumcision in Germany. Next we examine to what extent invasive and irreversible physical interventions on infant boys unable to given their consent should be carried out for non-medical reasons. To this end, the potential benefits and harms of circumcision for non-medical reasons are compared. We argue that circumcision does not provide any benefits for the 'child as a child' and poses only risks to boys. We then set out to clarify and analyse political (rather than ethical) justifications of the new circumcision law. We demonstrate through this analysis how the circumcision debate in Germany has been transformed from a legal and ethical problem into a political issue, due at least in part to Germany's unique historical context. Although such a particular political sensibility is entirely comprehensible, it raises particular problems when it comes to framing and responding to medical ethical issues - as in the case of religious circumcision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which was adopted in 1998 and came into force in 2002, enumerates a broader range of sex crimes than any previous instrument of international criminal law. These include rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilisation and ‘any other form of sexual violence’ of a comparable gravity, as war crimes and crimes against humanity. In applying the new residual crime of ‘any other form of sexual violence’, judges and prosecutors in the ICC have had to confront the complex question of what makes violence ‘sexual violence’, and how can the ‘gravity’ of sexual violence be determined, where that is a legal requirement. This article examines how these questions have been addressed in two cases currently before the ICC, from the situations in the Central African Republic and Kenya, where attempts have been made to prosecute forced nudity, forced male circumcision and mutilation of the male genitals as ‘sexual violence’ within the meaning of the Rome Statute. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses proposed legislation to amend the Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch (Civil Code, BGB) of Germany concerning parental rights and parental consent for male circumcision in infants and young boys for religious reasons. The author outlines the legal uncertainties that surrounded such procedures if they were not medically necessary until a decision by the Landgericht (District Court) of Cologne, Germany, on May 7, 2012, which effectively outlawed male circumcision for religious reasons and caused protest particularly from Jewish and Muslim communities in the country. The relationship between the proposed changes in civil law and extant criminal law is considered, as are the consequences of the amendment for child welfare legislation.

A recent Court decision in Cologne Germany concerning circumcision has resulted in a rapid response from the German Government. The German Parliament has passed new legislation confirming the lawfulness of ritual circumcision. However there are questions as to whether the German Parliament has done enough. This note looks at the background to the case in question and considers its ethical implications whilst also considering the analogous position in the UK. The author makes recommendations to change the current English law in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2011, San Francisco placed a measure to outlaw infant male circumcision on its November ballot. Members of the Jewish and Muslim faiths practice infant male circumcision as a tenet of their religions. If approved, this ballot measure would have raised serious questions about the scope of religious liberty protected under the Constitution. This Note argues that the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment prohibits governments from, at minimum, outlawing religious practices--at least not without satisfying the elements of strict scrutiny. This Note will undertake a critical analysis of the United States Supreme Court's concept of neutrality as has been applied to religious practice and will advance an argument for the theory of "substantive neutrality." Given that the San Francisco Ballot Measure fails to satisfy the substantive neutrality principle, and further that a circumcision ban does not serve a compelling state interest, the proposal would not be upheld under the rule advocated for in this Note. Part II of this Note will provide a brief background of the religious motivations and social constructions of male circumcision and the medical debate over the procedure. Part III discusses the text and legislative motives of the San Francisco Ballot Measure. Subsequently, Part IV of this Note summarizes the Court's Free Exercise Clause jurisprudence. Part V will analyze how a court considering the San Francisco Ballot Measure would apply these cases to the proposal, and it will show why analysis confined to the present rule is constitutionally deficient. Finally, the Note argues that substantive neutrality is the correct formulation of the neutrality requirement, and that the San Francisco Ballot Measure violates the principle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Law Commission will shortly begin discussions on reform of the law of non-fatal offences by issuing a scoping paper. This article starts with a review of recent improvements in the ways in which the Commission may get its Bills enacted. It then critiques the principal (to modern eyes) crimes of this kind found in the Offences against the Person Act 1861. Its focus lies on those offences and not the more policy-driven law, for example, on the transmission of HIV/AIDS, sado-masochism, male circumcision, and boxing (all of which are highly important). It concentrates on the Commission's previously expressed concerns that the statute's language is archaic and that the Act fails to provide a hierarchy (a 'ladder') of offences. It concludes with a redraft of the statute and a quote from Henry LJ in R v Lynsey that 'Bad laws cost money and clog up the courts with better things to do'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Allegations of poorly performed circumcisions may arise as negligence claims, civil claims or a professional (General Medical Council [GMC]) matter. This article explains the various types of circumcision, including those done for religious purposes, and attempts to provide an understanding of the issues relating to claims. The writer is a medicolegal expert (Accident & Emergency Consultant) who trained in surgery and for over 25 years has performed neonatal circumcision for religious purposes (usually in the home), child circumcision and adult circumcision. He has provided reports for both claimant and defendants, in negligence claims, civil claims and GMC proceedings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper engages with a changing politics of male circumcision. It suggests that various shifts which have occurred in how the issue is debated challenge legal constructions of the practice as a private familial issue. Although circumcision rates have declined in those Western nations which have traditionally practised it, the procedure is now being promoted as a medicalised response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa. Such initiatives propose a new biomedical rationale for the practice and have been difficult to confine to the African context or to adult bodies, prompting a resurgence of enthusiasm for neonatal male circumcision on the part of professional bodies in the USA and elsewhere. Although we have reservations about such public health policies, which we suggest downplay risks inherent in the procedure both for the individual and for the advancement of public health, we argue that such strategies have the potential to move debates about circumcision beyond the parameters of traditional 'medical law', with its focus on the doctor-patient nexus and the issue of who can validly consent to medical procedures. We suggest that, as with female genital cutting, male circumcision ought to be debated within a paradigm of social justice which gives adequate weighting to the interests of all affected parties (including women whose health may actually be compromised by the procedure) and which renders visible the socio-economic dimensions of the issue. In line with a social justice approach, we argue that public health initiatives must comply with international ethico-legal standards and be attentive to the emergence of an international human right to health. The shift in analytical frame that we propose has the potential not only to make us re-think our approach to the ethics and legality of male circumcision by challenging its construction as a familial decision but also to impact on the need for a broader conceptualisation of health law as rooted in social justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives This study describes a female genital cutting (FGC) elimination communication programme in Enugu State and assesses its impact in changing relevant knowledge, attitudes and behavioural intentions. Methods The FGC programme combined a community mobilization component with targeted advocacy and mass media activities. Data for assessing the impact of the programme derived from baseline and follow-up surveys in three intervention local government areas (LGA) in Enugu State and three comparison LGAs in Ebonyi State. An ideation model of behaviour change guided the analyses of the impact of the programme on personal advocacy for FGC, perceived self-efficacy to refuse pressure to perform FGC, perceived social support for FGC discontinuation, perceived benefits of FGC, perceived health complications of FGC and intention not to perform FGC on daughters. The analytical methods include comparing change in pertinent outcome variables from baseline to follow-up in the two study states and using logistic regression on follow-up data for the intervention state to assess the link between programme exposure and the relevant outcome indicators. Results The data show that while the pertinent ideational factors and the intention not to perform FGC either worsened or remained stagnant in Ebonyi State, they improved significantly in Enugu State. The logistic regression results show that programme exposure is associated with the expected improvements in all the pertinent indicators. Conclusion The multimedia communication programme has been effective in changing FGC-related attitudes and promoting the intention not to perform FGC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A letter to the editor is presented in response to the article "Ritual Male Infant Circumcission and Human Rights" in the 2015(2) issue.

The article offers world news briefs related to medical ethics. Fresenius Kabi AG, a drug manufacturer, barred the sale of the anaesthetic, propofol for use in lethal injections. The High Court in England and Wales rejected the legal claims for assisted dying of two men suffering from locked-in syndrome. The German government announced that it supported legislation which would legalize non-therapeutic male circumcision.

The article offers world news briefs related to perinatal care. The U.S. Institute of Medicine and National Research Council issued a new set of guidelines on the weight gain of pregnant women. According to the research conducted by Wei Xing Zhu and colleagues, the births of boys is greater than 1.1 million than girls and the disparity is wider among children ages 1 to 4 years old. In Australia, the Tasmanian Law Reform Institute scrutinizes the legalization of the circumcision of newborn boys.

This section offers news briefs relating to the field of medicine as of December 6, 2014. Proposals for reducing the legal limit on ozone pollution were released by the U.S. government. Polio vaccination in Balochistan, Pakistan was suspended by the World Health Organization (WHO) because of an attack that killed four programme workers in Quetta city. The Danish parliament conducted an opinion poll to determine whether to introduce tighter regulation for male circumcision.