I would welcome criminalising circumcision if it was performed by an unqualified person – just as would be the case if someone unqualified conducted any other surgical operation (Circumcision classed as possible child abuse in draft CPS document, 10 January). But leaping from that to banning the practice altogether is not justified.
Given that it is a longstanding and important tradition among Jews, Muslims and various other cultures, the best way forward is to only permit circumcision if it is practised by someone specifically qualified for it and who belongs to a nationally accredited scheme. This would involve compulsory training, monitoring all cases and producing annual reports.
Such a step is vital if we value both the safety of children and the integrity of faith backgrounds, and should be implemented as soon as possible. It is time to clamp down on rogue practitioners who have been tolerated for far too long.
Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain
Convener, Rabbinic Court of Great Britain
• Your article quotes Jonathan Arkush, a former president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews and co-chair of Milah UK, as saying that “I have never met any Jewish man who thinks they’ve been harmed by circumcision.”
I am a Jewish man who thinks he has been harmed by circumcision, and there are plenty of others. The US-based organisation Bruchim emphasises that Jewish men are Jews whether circumcised or not, and counts among its members many who oppose circumcision as a form of harm.
I have long been puzzled by the argument that circumcision shouldn’t be treated as abuse just because it is a tradition. Male circumcision plainly involves nonconsensual mutilation of an infant’s body, and the fact that it is tradition no more justifies that mutilation than it does in the female case.
Name and address supplied
• I was circumcised as a young baby. I learned later in life that it was a medical necessity at the time, but despite that, I have felt disfigured and uncomfortable about it most of my life (I am now in my 89th year). So I would fully endorse the guidance in the Crown Prosecution Service document.
It never ceases to amaze me that two of the biggest religions in the world, both of which believe God made man in his own image, proceed to “improve” God’s work by deforming a child for “religious reasons”. I believe the practice arose for entirely different reasons but was somehow justified on religious grounds.
Ray Fitton
Newlyn, Cornwall
