A regional court in Cologne, Germany, has determined that religious circumcision of young boys constitutes illegal bodily harm, even when performed with the consent of the parents, and that the fundamental rights of the child to bodily integrity outweighed the fundamental rights of the parents.The case arose after the circumcision of a four-year-old Muslim boy led to severe bleeding and other complications. The German physician who performed the operation, identified in the proceeding only as Dr K, was charged by German prosecutors. The Cologne court declined to convict the physician, noting that Dr K had no way of knowing that the circumcision would be ruled illegal; however, the court held that the procedure itself was criminal.The ruling provoked immediate outrage from Germany's Muslim community as well as its Jewish citizens. Dieter Graumann, president of the Jewish Central ...read more: http://www.thenewamerican.com/culture/faith-and-morals/item/11885-german-court-circumcision-of-young-boys-constitutes-illegal-bodily-harm
_________________SI Moderator - Greg Gordon
Quite a flood of things that Art Katz spoke on came to mind when I heard about this yesterday...
_________________Jeremiah Dusenberry
It will become interesting to see what will become of this ruling given the fact that Muslims oppose it.
_________________Sandra Miller
Because both Jews and Muslims hold to the sacred text of law keeping, they will most likely have these things done in secret and not in a hospital. They will have a Jew or Muslim doctor which they will get to perform this rite behind the watching eye of the media and the authorities. Or those who are able to, they will go to another country that will. All the authorities are doing is broadening the underground economy.
