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A circumcision training kit has been chopped from Amazon's website following concern that it encourages DIY surgery.

The online retail giant cut the product after the National Secular Society branded the snip set "irresponsible" in a letter to UK manager Douglas Gurr that suggested it was against Amazon's supply chain standards policy.

Buyers using the "infant circumcision training kit" could whack away on a model of a male child's genitals with a selection of scalpels.

In his letter, Dr Antony Lempert, chairman of the NSS's secular medical forum, wrote: "We fear that the sale of this product may encourage unqualified practitioners to carry out unnecessary surgery on infants in non-clinical conditions, resulting in serious harm."

"Non-therapeutic circumcision is unethical and unnecessary and is putting infant boys at risk of death and serious injury.

"This practice could be encouraged by the morally negligent sale of infant circumcision training kits to the public."

Listed for sale between £365 and £456, customers can choose either a dark or light skinned dummy provided by third-party group ESP.

While sales have been halted on Amazon's UK site, it remains available in the US.

Lempert added: "The British Medical Association (BMA) writes in its guidance for doctors that it has "no policy" on the issue of non-therapeutic, or ritual, circumcision.

"It recognises there is "clear risk of harm if the procedure is done inexpertly", but says: "As a general rule, however, the BMA believes that parents should be entitled to make choices about how best to promote their children's interests, and it is for society to decide what limits should be imposed on parental choices."

Debate has long raged around whether circumcision should be banned for anything other than medically necessary reasons.

The medical procedure is commonly carried out in faiths such as Judaism where it is believed to represent a covenant with God.