Ritual procedures

CIRCUMCISION is hot-button topic, with some describing the procedure as child abuse.

WHEN a friend's first son was born she automatically assumed he would be circumcised - not for religious reasons, but because it was something of a tradition in her husband's family.

So she was taken aback by the response of the paediatrician, who talked her out of the "completely unnecessary" procedure before informing her that no one at the hospital would do it without a good medical reason.

Her family let the issue go, but for many Muslim and Jewish parents it's not so straightforward.

As Richard Guilliatt writes in today's story, "religion is the wild card in the circumcision debate, the issue which pits the rights of children against the rights of parents to practise their spiritual beliefs".

It's a hot-button topic, with some describing the procedure as child abuse.

Inflammatory language doesn't help, but the question remains: if parents are driven by religious beliefs to circumcise their sons, and no public hospital will do it, where do they go? And how do they find a practitioner who is properly skilled?

Because, as Richard found, when things go wrong, the result for the child can be life-threatening.