Circumcision in Law

Contents

1. Brain-damage in Alaska

PRNewswire, Seattle, March 8, 2000 After 13 years, justice for boy left brain-damaged after circumcision Betrayed by doctors and lawyer, family finally wins case   A Washington couple has finally won justice for their son, 13 years after he was left brain-damaged after his circumcision. When Jacob Sweet was born at Providence Hospital in Anchorage, Alaska, in January 1986, it was a dream come true for his parents. But Beverly and Gary Sweet's dream took a nightmarish turn only nine days later when they took him back to the hospital for treatment of an infected circumcision and the hospital returned a severely brain-damaged and blind child. The nightmare continued for 13 years - but a major settlement was announced today between the family, now of Bothell, Washington, and the Alaska law firm that handled the Sweet's medical malpractice lawsuit against the hospital and the pediatrician who treated Jacob. The Sweets were twice forced to fight for their son in court. First, they sought justice from the hospital and doctor who they allege caused Jacob's injuries, and who then "lost" the medical records critical to proving their case. Then, after Alaska lawyer Alan Sherry mishandled that case, they were forced to resort to the courts again. Seattle attorney Mark Johnson represented the Sweets in the second suit, for legal malpractice, arguing that Sherry had misrepresented himself as a seasoned malpractice lawyer and then failed to argue their case properly. "This has been tragedy at every turn for this family," Johnson said. "First the healthcare system devastated their child. Then, when they most needed an aggressive, experienced and competent lawyer, an attorney with no malpractice experience misled them and failed to properly [argue] the case. That cost them their opportunity to recover damages from the hospital and the pediatrician." The Underlying Medical Malpractice Case The Sweet's tragedy started on January 25, 1986, in Anchorage, Alaska, when they brought nine-day-old Jacob back to Providence Hospital after he exhibited signs of an infected circumcision. [Actually, their tragedy began when they were given the advice that convinced them to agree to have him circumcised. HY] Jacob was admitted to the pediatric ward and had seizures for 24 hours, but their pediatrician, Dr. Daniel Tulip, was absent most of that time and failed to refer Jacob to a neonatologist until after he had suffered brain damage that would leave him physically devastated, developmentally delayed, and utterly dependent for the rest of his life. [At that trial, Dr Thomas Wiswell, an expert witness for the defendants, argued that Jacob's brain damage could not have resulted from his circumcision, but was probably caused by an unknown virus.] Injustice compounded The Sweet's calamity compounded when the Alaska law firm they hired to try their medical malpractice suit improperly handled the case. Jacob's medical records disappeared shortly after his time in the hospital, suggesting that someone had tried to cover up a negligent act. Sweet's first legal team failed to present this evidence properly. The Sweets lost the suit, and with it, any hope of recovering damages from the hospital. With mounting medical bills, they hired Mark Johnson to represent them in an action for legal negligence. Legal malpractice cases are difficult to prove, because the plaintiff must not only prove the defendant attorney was negligent, but that the client would have won the case if the attorney had acted differently. The amount awarded to the Sweets is confidential as part of the settlement agreement. "This brings some peace of mind to our lives, although we are still convinced that Jacob's doctor and the hospital have never told the truth," said Beverly Sweet. "At least now we can provide for Jacob's medical care and future." (The original press-release is at http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/000308/wa_johnson_1.html) Jacob Sweet lived with severe disability and died on September 16, 2012

2. Damages in Western Australia

The Sunday Times, Perth Sunday, December 26, 1999 Botched circumcision leads to $360,000 in damages: The cruel cut that ruined a man's life By Bruce Butler A PERTH man has won a $360,000 [$US232,663] damages payout after a WA doctor admitted he botched a circumcision operation which left the man with a badly deformed penis. The man, 26, who was operated on at birth, has never had sexual intercourse. Due to a lack of information on neonatal circumcision, he grew up believing he was deformed. He was unable to obtain an erection until he had corrective surgery at the age of 18. The man, who wants to be known only as "John", [now speaking in his real name, Shane Peterson] said he has a permanent lack of sensation in his penis but also has suffered extreme pain. Shane Peterson He suffered severe psychological problems from his late teens which led to an attempted suicide at 18, six months after partially successful reconstructive surgery. In January 1992 when his injuries were diagnosed as a bungled circumcision, he turned against his parents, hating them for allowing the awful operation to be done. In 1997 he sued the G[eneral]P[ractitioner] who circumcised him. This month John received an out-of-court settlement after the doctor admitted liability for the injuries and agreed to the payout. His lawyer Hayden Stephens, from the law firm Slater and Gordon, said the payout was one of the biggest in Australia for that type of injury. "This young man has suffered a horrific consequence as a result of this negligent procedure and he now has to live with the problem for the rest of his life," Mr Stephens said. "I am really pleased for him, but no amount of money will ever truly compensate him for the injuries he has suffered." Now completing a doctorate in medical science, John said he took legal action in a bid to draw attention to circumcision and to try to eradicate it in Australia, if not the world. He said circumcision was a disgusting, unnecessary act of mutilation which the medical profession had forced on unsuspecting parents for years. "For my whole life I've been imprisoned in pain and exiled from pleasure. I'm serving a prison sentence for a crime that someone else committed - that's the reality for me," he said. In John's operation, still routinely performed without anaesthetic in Australian hospitals, almost all of the penile skin was removed which prevented the penis from growing normally. John said: "Parents want to see their children grow up to live healthy and happy lives and many parents have consented to circumcision because the Australian medical profession convinced them that it was a quick and painless procedure that was essential to avoid health problems. "Not only is the claim that it is beneficial wrong, the AMA has not adequately informed parents of the surgical risks involved. "I tool legal action against the doctor who circumcised me because I hate circumcision and I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I did nothing to stop other babies being injured and mutilated in the same way as me. "I don't want to walk down the street and see a young mother with baby boys and wonder and worry whether they've had done to them what was done to me." Born in 1973, John's "routine" operation became a nightmare he had had to cope with all his life. The young GP who delivered him cut way far too much skin and had to stretch the remaining soft, scrotal tissue and stitch it in place. The result was a mess. "The shape isn't right, the length isn't right - it's shorter than it should be - and the glans (head) is actually twisted a bit," John said. Believing he was deformed, he hid from embarrassing change-room and shower situations at school. Throughout adolescence - difficult enough years when all is well - the psychological harm matched his physical scars. He was more interested in science than sport and became withdrawn and studious. He prospered academically by pscyhologically was crying out for help. When he went to university, he realised he had a serious problem and the bungled circumcision was diagnosed. He fought severe depression and contemplated suicide but opted for surgery, hoping it would save him. "The pain involved in that was horrific and it lasted for years and still now I get aches and pains from time to time," he said. "With all the pain, the psychological trauma and embarrassment that went with having that surgery, it wasn't worth it. "But I was 18 years old, I had something very badly wrong with me and I was desperate. "I had to try something." Skin was taken from his upper thighs and grafted to his penis, but he was left with little real sensation. The grafted skin had unsightly leg hairs growing from it, which required further electrolysis and caused further scarring. He remains angry that he was circumcised unnecessarily and that the medical profession continues to push the operation on unknowing parents. He is outraged that 12 per cent of Australian boys are still circumcised. "Babies should never be circumcised," he said. "My case was a totally unnecessary circumcision. Yet my mother and father were told it was essential for me to be circumcised to avoid health problems." John said that some medical authorities still claimed circumcision reduced the rate of HIV infection and sexually transmitted diseases - a claim he says has been proven wrong by medical data. He said it was wrong that doctors, who charged about $200 to perform a circumcision, continue to make a small fortune from such a potentially harmful procedure. "I have been assaulted and mutilated and for my whole life I am living with an injury," he said. John said his injuries made it almost impossible to contemplate a relationship with a woman and he found it hard to make friends. He was angry with his parents but he now acknowledged that the operation was not their fault. His mother, a close and loving supporter who carries her own guilt over the surgery, said: "He's never had a relationship with a woman because of how he feels about his body. "At the most important stage of his life when he should have been dating and girls were showing an interest in him, he withdrew". She said they should have been told how to clean a boy's foreskin, not advised to have a circumcision. His mother also regretted the blunder was not diagnosed earlier so that he could have corrective surgery at a younger age. John said he would like to see a support group established in Australia for men who have problems due to circumcision. Information on circumcision is available on the Internet. The address is http://www.cirp.org

An article about Shane published in an Australian women's magazine is also on this site.

3. Death in Sweden

Aftonbladet 010209	Aftonbladet February 9, 2001
Omskuren treåring dog av bedövning	Circumcised three-year-old died from anaesthesia
En läkare åtalades i dag för vållande till annans död.	Doctor charged with involuntary manslaughter today
En 3-årig pojke dog under det att läkaren utförde en omskärelse på honom. Pojken tros ha döttav en fem gånger för stor dos av bedövningsmedlet Ketogan, uppger Radio Stockholm.	A three-year-old boy died when a doctor was performing a circumcision on him. The boy is believed to have died from a dose of the anaesthetic Ketogan that was five times too strong, says Radio Stockholm.
En treårig pojke i Stockholm var på vårdcentralen för att omskäras i augusti 1999. Några timmar efter ingreppet var pojken död. - Jag har i dag åtalat en läkare för vållande till annas död eftersom jag anser att utredningen visar läkaren gett den lille pojken för mycket bedövningsmedel. säger överåklagare Eva Regner till Radio Stockholm.	A three-year-old boy in Stockholm was at the doctor's to be circumcised in August 1999. A few hours after the procedure the boy was dead. "Today I have charged a doctor with involuntary manslaughter because I think that the investigation shows that the doctor gave the little boy too much anaesthetic," district attorney Eva Regner told Radio Stockholm.
Fem gånger för hög dos Medlet var en fem gånger för hög dos av bedövningsmedlet Ketogan. Några timmar efter ingreppet blev pojken slö och fick andningssvårigheter och senare samma dag dog han på väg till sjukhuset. Den legitimerade läkaren hade befogenhet att utföra omskärelsen och hade gjort samma ingrepp flera gångre tidigare. Nu åtalas läkaren för vållande till annans död av chefsåklagare Eva Regner.	Five times too strong a dose The drug was a dose of the anaesthetic Ketogan five times too strong. A few hours after the procedure the boy became inert and had trouble breathing, and later the same day he died on the way to hospital. The licensed practitioner was authorised to perform the circumcision and had performed several before. Now the doctor is charged with involuntary manslaughter by district attorney Eva Regner.
"Skett av oaktsamhet" - Jag anser att utredningen kommit fram till att det här har skett av oaktsamhet. Han har alltså tagit miste på styrkan i det här bedövningsmedlet, säger Eva Regner till Radio Stockholm. I december förra året lade socialförsäkringsminister Ingela Thalén fram ett förslag om att den som utför omskärelse antingen måste vara läkare eller vara utbildad och ha ett särskilt tillstånd. Sådana tillstånd kan exempelvis ges till judiska rabbiner och muslimska imamer. Enligt förslaget måste dessutom båda föräldrarna ge sitt samtycke och så även pojken, om han är tillräckligt gammal för att förstå vad det handlar om.	"The reason was carelessness" "It's my opinion that the investigation shows that this happened out of carelessness. That is, he has made a mistake about the strength of this anaestetic," Eva Regner told Radio Stockholm. In December last year Ingela Thalén, secretary of social security, proposed that whoever performs circumcisions must either be a doctor or have a special education and license. Such licenses could then be given, for example, to Jewish rabbis and Moslem imams. According to the proposal both parents must agree, and the boy must also give his consent, if he is old enough to understand what it's all about.
"Medicindosen inte för stor" Enligt Radio Stockholm har läkaren haft invändningar mot den utredning som gjorts gällande dödsfallet och de slutsatser som dragits. Han anser inte att medicindosen var för stor. Stockholms tingsrätt väntas ta upp målet under våren.	"The dose was not too strong" According to Radio Stockholm the doctor has raised objections to the investigation into the death of the boy, and to the conclusions drawn. He does not think that the dose was too strong. The district court in Stockholm is expected to try the case during the [Northern] spring.
Annika Solhlander TT	Annika Sohlander TT (translation: Anders Püschel )

4. Legality doubted in a learned legal journal:

Circumcision of healthy boys: Criminal assault? by G. J. Boyle, J. S. Svoboda, C. P. Price, & J. N. Turner Journal of Law & Medicine Vol 7 (February 2000), No. 3, pp. 301-310. Gregory Boyle ... Conclusion Reasons for concern about infant male circumcision under human rights principles include: the loss of highly erogenous sexual tissue which also serves important protective functions; the loss of bodily integrity; traumatic and often highly painful disfigurement; complications including death and the loss of the entire penis;64 and the impermissibility of any mutilation of children's genitals performed with neither their consent nor medical justification. No national or international medical association in the modern industrialised world, or indeed anywhere in the world, endorses routine circumcision of healthy boys. Several human rights documents tacitly forbid enforced infant circumcision. Non-therapeutic circumcision of unconsenting minors amounts to culturally sanctioned physical and sexual abuse. No basis in international human rights law or domestic law justifies the discriminatory prohibition of only female genital mutilation. "Ritual male circumcision is non-therapeutic and is not warranted or justified by medical evidence. This form of mutilation should not be legally distinguished from female circumcision ... presently being prohibited throughout Australia and the Western world. As ritual male circumcision is non-therapeutic, may be against public policy, and clearly is not in the best interests of the child, a parent's consent may be vitiated, leaving persons involved in the procedure liable in negligence, notwithstanding parental religious beliefs."65 Non-therapeutic, invasive and irreversible major surgery, especially sexual reduction surgery on unconsenting minors, is unethical. The standard of care for infrequent events such as infections is antibiotics, not amputation. Circumcision of healthy male minors is useless and traumatic, causing severe and lasting harm physically, sexually and often psychologically. As medical ethicist Margaret Somerville pointed out: "Moreover, neonatal circumcision is done without consent of the subject, removes healthy tissue with unique anatomical structure and function, and leads to differences in adult sexual behaviour... We need, therefore, to address the issue directly and end the persistent efforts to find a medical rationale for circumcision by removing the cloak of medicine from this procedure.66" Enforced non-therapeutic genital cutting of unconsenting minors is overdue for recognition by the legal community as sexual mutilation. As we enter the 21st century, appropriate legal action must be taken to safeguard the physical genital integrity of male children.

The full text of this paper is in the CIRP library.

5. Informedness of consent disputed in North Dakota

More recent items about this case.

The Forum, Fargo, N.D. December 1999 Fargo couple want ban on female genital mutilation to include boys Parents: Doctor failed to inform them of circumcision risks, benefits By: Jack Sullivan The Forum A Fargo couple want North Dakota’s ban on female genital mutilation ruled unconstitutional because it doesn’t protect infant boys from being circumcised. James and Anita Flatt also contend a doctor at Fargo’s MeritCare Hospital failed to inform them on the risks and benefits of the procedure before circumcising their newborn son in 1997, according to a lawsuit the Flatts filed in Cass County District Court Thursday against the hospital and the state. The Flatts say they would not have consented to the circumcision if they were property informed. And if the North Dakota law against female genital mutilation was gender-neutral, then the procedure wouldn’t have been legal, the lawsuit contends. The Flatts’ lawyer, Zenas Baer, said circumcision is medically unnecessary and compared the female genital mutilation law to one that said only “it is a crime to abuse your female children.” “That would be ruled unconstitutional within a heartbeat,” he said. MeritCare spokeswoman Carrie Johnson said hospital officials hadn’t received the lawsuit at the end of the day Thursday and couldn’t respond until they reviewed it. The Flatts’ son was born early March 6, 1997. That evening, a nurse asked Anita Flatt to sign a consent form for circumcision but didn’t describe the benefits or risks of the procedure, according to the lawsuit. And Flatt was “still in great pain and on medication for the pain” when asked to sign, the lawsuit states. The next day, Dr. Sunita Kantak spoke briefly with Flatt but didn’t discuss the benefits, risks or potential complications, the lawsuit contends. Baer said James Flatt never was consulted. According to one estimate, 60 percent of male infants are circumcised in the United States. In North Dakota, the rate is estimated between 80 percent and 90 percent, the lawsuit states. In March, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a policy statement that said the benefits of circumcision are not significant enough for the academy to recommend it as a routine procedure. In light of cultural, religious and ethnic traditions, however, the academy said parents should be given complete information about the potential benefits so they can make an informed choice. In 1996, a federal judge threw out a similar lawsuit Baer filed in U.S. District Court, and the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal. Baer said the case filed Thursday differs from the earlier case because it aks for monetary compensation for the procedure performed on the boy, where the federal lawsuit only wanted a ruling against the state law. “Whether the result will be any different, I can’t guarantee that,” he said. Baer compared circumcision legislature with lawsuits that were repeatedly filed - and dismissed - before judges started ruling against civil-rights violations. “Many times these cases are filed and thrown out by the courts, but not until there is an education process do the courts catch on,” he said. Even if the female genital mutilation law isn’t rewritten to include boys, Baer said the lawsuit may change how doctors handle circumcisions in the state. “The effect of it may be to raise the bar for the medical profession to tell more about the effects of circumcision on the baby boy,” he said. “And that’s a step in the right direction.” The judge will hear arguments on April 13, 2000 on the State's motion to dismiss the State as a defendant on the ground that Josiah Flatt (the infant) suffered no injury fairly related to the unconstitutional statute. The two claims are totally severable, so a dismissal of the constitutional claim would not impair the informed consent issue.

6. Lack of consent in Louisiana

The Advocate, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 17 March, 2000 Patient for heart bypass sues over circumcision By MICHELLE MILLHOLLON Advocate staff writer A man who underwent surgery for a bypass at Earl K. Long Medical Center has sued saying the hospital circumcised him without his consent. The hospital has said the circumcision was a necessary part of the bypass surgery, which was not completed because of complications... Robert Banks sued the hospital and Dr. Mary Jo Wright on Wednesday in 19th Judicial Court. Banks says in the suit that he woke up from surgery on Aug. 15, 1995, and discovered he'd been circumcised. His attorney, Alicia Hoover, says no one ever discussed the possibility of a circumcision with Banks. "It's troubling," Hoover said. "I don't think anyone who goes in for bypass surgery would ever expect or anticipate (they) would wake up and find that they've been circumcised." But the state Attorney General's Office has said in court documents that the circumcision was a necessary procedure. Earl K. Long Medical Center is a state hospital. The state says in documents filed in response to an earlier suit that a bladder catheterization to monitor kidney function was necessary to the bypass. A circumcision had to be performed in order to do the catheterization, the documents say. However, doctors had to close up Banks' chest without performing the bypass because of complications that arose during the surgery. Hoover says Banks is now too terrified to undergo any further surgeries. Banks first filed suit in 1996 alleging medical battery. The state argued he was actually alleging medical malpractice and needed to first go before the state medical review panel. State District Judge Curtis Calloway ruled the circumcision was medical battery, not medical malpractice. The 1st Circuit Court of Appeal later reversed the ruling. The appellate court said Banks' lawsuit involved medical malpractice and would first have to be submitted to the state medical review panel. Judge Brady Fitzsimmons dissented, saying the surgical team could have awakened Banks and gotten his permission for the circumcision. Hoover said Thursday that the state medical review panel concluded malpractice had not been committed. That decision cleared the way for Banks to proceed with a lawsuit. Barry Toups, a state assistant attorney general, said the circumcision was neither medical battery nor medical malpractice. Circumcision to enable catheterisation is unknown in non-circumcising regions of the world, such as Europe. Doctors and nurses are taught to retract the foreskin enough to sight the meatus and insert the catheter, then to bring it forward again. Underlying this story is the contempt in which the doctors held the man's foreskin, and their total failure to appreciate that he might enjoy having it.

7. Inadequate consent in Sweden

Helsingborg Dagblad onsdag mars 29, 2000	Helsingborg Daily News Wednesday, March 29, 2000
Pappa åtalas efter omskärelse	Father charged after circumcision
Göteborg. En pappa i Göteborg har åtalats för anstiftan till misshandel sedan hand låtit omskära sin treårige son.	Gothenburg. A father in Gothenburg has been prosecuted with instigation of physical abuse after he permited the circumcison of his three-year-old son.
Omskärelsen av pojken skedde utan att barnets mamma var tilfrågad.	The circumcision of the boy occurred without the child's mother being consulted.
Pappan har enlight åtalet falskt uppgett för läkarna att också mamman gav sitt samtycke till ingreppet. Åklargen skriver också att omskärelse innebar smärta och ömhet hos pojken.	The father had, according to the prosecution, advised doctors that the mother also gave her consent to the operation. The prosecuter writes also that the circumcision involved pain and soreness for the boy.
Föräldrarna är skilda och den treårige pojken bor hos sin manna. När han under en period på några veckor bodde hos pappan lät fadern ta hem en läkare till bostaden. Där utfördes omskärelse, på en bädd på köksbordet.	The parents are divorced and the three-year-old boy lives with his mother. When during a period of several weeks he lived with his father, the father had a doctor visit the home. There the circumcision was performed, on bedding upon the kitcken table.
Operationen skedde enlight läkaren, som arbetar på Sahlgrenska universitetssjukhuset, med lokalbedövning.	The operation was according to the doctor, who works at Sahlgrenska University Hospital, done with local anaesethic.
(TT)	(TT - Swedish national news agency)

8. United States law already criminalizes female genital mutilation:

18 United States Code Section 116: (a) Except as provided in subsection (b) whoever knowingly circumcises, excises, or infibulates the whole or any part of the labia majora or labia minora or clitoris of another person who has not attained the age of 18 years shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both. (b) A surgical operation is not a violation of this section if the operation is: (1) Necessary to the health of the person on whom it is performed, and is performed by a person licensed in the place of its performance as a medical practitioner; or (2) Performed on a person in labor or who has just given birth and is performed for medical purposes connected with that labor or birth by a person licensed in the place it is performed as a medical practitioner, midwife, or person in training to become such a practitioner or midwife. (c) In applying subsection (b)(1), no account shall be taken of the effect on the person on whom the operation is to be performed of any belief on the part of that person, or any other person, that the operation is required as a matter of custom or ritual. Since 1994, 16 states have passed legislation relating to Female Genital Cutting. In general, the statutes address it in a manner similar to that of the federal law, by prohibiting its practice and instituting criminal sanctions. Minnesota, Rhode Island and Tennessee prohibit the practice of FGM on adult women as well as on females under the age of 18. The statutes enacted in California, Colorado, Delaware, Maryland, Missouri, New York, Oregon and West Virginia explicitly address the conduct of a parent or guardian who permits or allows FGM to be performed on her or his daughter. In Nevada, a person may be prosecuted for the removal of a child from that state for the purpose of performing FGM. California, Colorado, Minnesota, New York, and Oregon have enacted legislation addressing the need for culturally sensitive education and outreach to the relevant communities. Other countries with laws against FGM are shown on the Maps page.

9. Call for eventual ban in Sweden

TT Nyhetsbanken Datum: 20000510 kl.17:29	The TT Newsbank Date: May 10, 2000. 5.29pm
BO vill stoppa rituell omskärelse av pojkar	Children's Ombudsman wants ritual circumcision of boys stopped
STOCKHOLM (TT)	STOCKHOLM (TT newsagency)
På sikt bör omskärelse av pojkar utan medicinsk grund förbjudas i Sverige. Det anser Barnombudsmannen (BO) som på onsdagen lämnade sitt remissvar till regeringens lagförslag om omskärelse av pojkar.	The circumcision of boys without medical reason should eventually be banned in Sweden. So says the Children's Ombudsman (BO), who on Wednesday submitted her response to the Government's working-paper (with suggested law) on the circumcision of boys.
I lagförslaget står principen om att barnets bästa ska vara styrande för om en omskärelse ska genomföras eller inte inskrivet. I förslaget regleras också vem som ska få lov att utföra ingreppet. Enligt regeringens förslag ska endast personer som fått särskilt tillstånd av Socialstyrelsen - förutom hälso- och sjukvårdspersonal - tillåtas genomföra ingreppet.	The principle underpinning the law-proposal is that the child's best interest should be the determining factor in deciding whether a circumcision is to be performed or not permitted. The government's law-proposal also suggests that only people holding special permits from the National Board of Health and Welfare - except personnel of the health care system - be allowed to perform the operation.
I sitt remissvar går BO emot att lekmän trots allt får göra ingreppet, och anser att endast läkare ska få lov att utföra ingreppet i medicinsk miljö och alltid i kombination med smärtlindring.	However, in her response the BO opposed letting laypeople perform the operation, maintaining that only doctors should be allowed to do it, in a medical setting and always using pain relief.
I Sverige omskärs cirka 3 000 pojkar varje år, i flera fall av rituella och religiösa skäl.	In Sweden, about 3 000 boys are circumicsed every year, usually for ritual and religious reasons.

10. Damages, reprimand in Texas

This case illustrates, first, the desperate need of some men to circumcise, and then the interlocking psychopathologies of the authorities acting in concert to trivialise and sustain the operation.

based on a NOCIRC press release Doctor pays parents $23,000 for circumcision without consent. Public reprimand to gynacologist who "never even apologised" Dallas,Texas, June 30, 2000: A suit was settled this week for $23,000, against a Dallas obstetrician for wrongful circumcision . The victim’s parents, Charlie Hardy and Randi Harlan say they also endured indignities from Texas medical and government personnel during their nearly three year long legal battle. The Texas Medical Board issued Dr. Roosevelt Taylor a public reprimand - his second - on May 19, 2000 for "failure to practice medicine in an acceptable manner." In September 1997, Hardy and Harlan advised Dr. Taylor that their other children were not circumcised because they felt that circumcision was barbaric and harmful to an infant. On September 26, 1997, when Mrs. Harlan was admitted to Tri-City Hospital in Dallas for delivery, she told the staff that there was to be no circumcision. To prevent an accidental circumcision, the attending nurse threw the circumcision consent form into a nearby trashcan. Two days after their son’s birth, Hardy and Harlan were stunned when their newborn son was brought to them from the hospital nursery crying and bleeding, and were horrified when they learned that he had just been circumcised by Dr. Taylor. "We were hysterical," recalls Randi, "But when Dr. Taylor stopped by the room his only comment was ‘It’s not the end of the world.’ I mean he’s never even apologized to us." The couple believes Dr. Taylor circumcised their son intentionally in spite of their strong feelings against it. "How could this have even been a mistake? There was only one other baby with our son in the nursery at the time, we definitely did not sign a consent form, and we specifically told Dr. Taylor that there was to be no circumcision," Charlie Hardy stresses. "We were totally betrayed by our own doctor." Dr. Taylor’s lack of concern was replayed in the responses Hardy and Harlan received from successive medical and government personnel as they tried to find justice for their newborn child. An attempt to file a police report was met with an amused reaction on behalf of the Dallas police who then advised the couple that a wrongful surgery "was not a criminal matter". The Dallas County District Attorney’s office explained to the couple that a public case was not "worth their time". The couple sought assistance from the state’s attorney general, the federal attorney general’s office, and even the Texas Governer’s office, but, according to the couple, "We were just laughed at, every step of the way." The issue of Medicaid fraud also didn’t seem to concern state officials. Hardy and Harlan contacted the Medicaid fraud hotline to report Dr. Taylor for charging the surgery. "We were told that performing this surgery without consent does not constitute fraud. We can’t believe this doctor made money for performing a surgery we were against, and then the taxpayers had to pay for it," says Hardy. Despite the out-of court settlement, Hardy and Harlan believe that justice wasn’t served. "Dr. Taylor has done this twice now." In 1991 he was publicly reprimanded by the Texas Medical Board for performing surgery without consent. "He’s still out there practicing like what he did was no problem. If the doctor had carved his initials in our son’s stomach, he would not be allowed to practice medicine. But since he cut off our son’s foreskin against our wishes, people think it is funny and all the doctor gets is a slap on the wrist. I wonder how many other families this has happened to, but they gave up the fight after being laughed at and receiving no support?" J. Steven Svoboda, Executive Director of Attorneys for the Rights of the Child, says events like this are neither rare nor isolated.

11. "Contrary to Canadian law"

The entire article, 103KB long, may be downloaded as a *.pdf file from HealthcareLaw to be read with eg Acrobat Reader.

13. Landmark case: suit against a "successful", parentally-consented infant circumcision. [Settled out of court]

14. "He doesn't need this procedure"

18. $1.4 million settlement for botched circumcision

See also the news story based on this case.

21. $80,000 for lack of consent

22. $750,000 for the tip of the glans

24. Penis lacerated (more than usually), clamp blamed

28. German jurist declares circumcision "injury"

29. Ruling that a 14-year-old may refuse to be circumcised

30. Genital Mutilation Bill, Massachusetts

31. Federal Law to derestrict (male) circumcision

HR2400 mercifully lapsed, but California's AB768 is similar:

"No city, county, or city and county ordinance, regulation, or administrative action shall prohibit or restrict the practice of male circumcision, or the exercise of a parent's authority to have a child circumcised." Now circumcision in California needs only one consenting parent, a boy and a boxcutter. You can circumcise your son with impunity because he failed his driving test - or authorize the driving instructor or tester to carry it out.

32. Lawyers specialising in circumcision cases

33. Infant male genital cutting is already illegal:

"One Green Bottle", London Queen's Counsel James Chegwidden's speech at the Healthcare and Secularism conference in 2018, about how non-therapeutic infant circumcision is in breach of national and international law. James Chegwidden QC

 
34.  Germany - from ethical/legal to political

35. Circumcision is unethical and unlawful