A covenant with the status quo? Male circumcision and the new BMA guidance to doctors

Abstract

This article offers a critique of the recently revised BMA guidance on routine neonatal male circumcision and seeks to challenge the assumptions underpinning the guidance which construe this procedure as a matter of parental choice. Our aim is to problematise continued professional willingness to tolerate the non-therapeutic, non-consensual excision of healthy tissue, arguing that in this context both professional guidance and law are uncharacteristically tolerant of risks inflicted on young children, given the absence of clear medical benefits. By interrogating historical medical explanations for this practice, which continue to surface in contemporary justifications of non-consensual male circumcision, we demonstrate how circumcision has long existed as a procedure in need of a justification. We conclude that it is ethically inappropriate to subject children-male or female-to the acknowledged risks of circumcision and contend that there is no compelling legal authority for the common view that male circumcision is lawful.

Male Circumcision to Prevent HIV Transmission and Acquisition: What Else do We Need to Know?

“…There is therefore divided opinion on whether it is humane or not to subject neonates to MC. The consideration is that a permanent procedure is being conducted on an individual unable to consent (Fox & Thomson, 2005). Another option is to circumcise just before sexual debut.…”

The case against circumcision

“…Courts have decided three cases, two in England [44] and one in the USA [45], in which the best interests of the child were adjudicated in regard to non-therapeutic circumcision. In all three cases, the court found non-therapeutic circumcision not to be in the best interests of the child.…”

Cutting through red tape: non-therapeutic circumcision and unethical guidelines

“…5 The guidance states that "the medical harms or benefits have not been unequivocally proven", but it is not clear why medical benefits should feature in a paragraph entitled "nontherapeutic circumcision". 6 Parallelling the GMC line, it is also stated that "the BMA believes that parents should be entitled to make choices about how best to promote their children's interests."…”