7 January 2008
We received a petition asking:
"We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Ban the circumcision of all males under 18 in the UK."
Details of Petition:
"Despite the fact that it has no health benefits, and can be seriously harmful to newborns, around 1 in 14 british boys are circumcised at birth, for cultural and/or religious reasons. However, the circumcision of girls has already been made illegal. It is time for this injustice to end, and to give all infant boys the protection they truly deserve."
Read the Government’s response
The NHS must provide a comprehensive health service and circumcision may be provided on medical grounds. There can also be health and safety reasons for carrying out a circumcision on non-therapeutic grounds, including an identified risk from operations performed outside the NHS.
The question of whether a doctor should ethically carry out circumcision for non-medical reasons is one that the General Medical Council leaves to the individual doctor to decide. Many will not carry out circumcision as requested for religious purposes because they believe it to be unnecessary. Others do so to prevent families going to lay circumcisers who may not be appropriately trained, or may operate out of premises that are not sterile.