Orthodox Jewish groups have sued New York City to block a required warning to parents of the dangers of a ritual in which the circumciser uses his mouth to draw blood from the baby\’s penis.
Germany\’s Cabinet has scheduled a discussion on an amendment that would formally legalize ritual circumcision but place some restrictions on who could circumcise and how.
The state of Berlin declared circumcision legal. Berlin became the first of Germany\’s 16 states to declare the practice legal following a Cologne court ruling in June that non-medical circumcisions on children amounted to a criminal offense, according to the German news agency DPA.
An advisory governmental institution in an Australian state is recommending that it ban non-medical circumcision on boys \”except for religious reasons.\”
A rabbi in Bavaria has been slapped with criminal charges of committing bodily harm, in the first known case to arise from an anti-circumcision ruling in May.
Israel\’s chief Ashkenazi rabbi said in Berlin that medical training for mohels, or ritual circumcisers, could resolve concerns in Germany regarding circumcision of male children.
Norway’s ombudsman for children\’s rights has proposed that Jews and Muslim replace male circumcision with a symbolic, nonsurgical ritual.
Today come reports that hospitals in Zurich and St. Gallen have suspended the practice on Jewish and Muslim boys in the wake of a similar ban in Germany ordered by a judge in Cologne.
The Conference of European Rabbis will lobby against recent circumcision bans by advocating legislation supporting the practice.
U.S. military doctors stationed in Germany will continue to perform circumcisions despite a ruling that has roiled the country’s medical and political establishments.
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