When a baby boy bleeds to death in Oldham as the result of an Unnecessary Male Circumcision it is time to think again............

Male Circumcision is a risky, abusive and unnecessary practice that affects 1 billion men and boys worldwide.

There isn’t a single medical association in the world that recommends the practice and yet half a million boys in the UK will be subjected to Unnecessary Male Circumcision before their 16th birthday.

The painful and unnecessary removal of a boy’s foreskin is an abuse of a child’s basic human right to be protected from damaging, dangerous and deadly practices.

Many babies and boys in the UK are circumcised without appropriate anaesthetic by non-medical staff in community settings such as homes, restaurants and places of worship.

One study of circumcisions performed in a community setting in Oxford found that 45% of boys suffered from complications.

As well as the considerable short-term risks, Male Circumcision can also cause unnecessary medical, psychological and sexual problems over the longer term.

In the most extreme cases male circumcision kills, as in the case of an Oldham baby who bled to death in 2010. The woman who carried out the procedure will go on trial for manslaughter later this year.

An estimated 500 boys are being subjected to Unnecessary Male Circumcision in the UK every week for religious, cultural, social or ‘medical’ reasons.

However, international research shows that the number of boys with rare medical conditions that may benefit from circumcision is less than 1% - and some surgeons say circumcision is always avoidable.

Over the years advocates of Unnecessary Male Circumcision have claimed that it can prevent everything from asthma and alcoholism to prostate cancer and AIDS.

All the reported health benefits have either been disproven, contradicted or considered too insignificant to justify the agreed risks and complications which include bleeding, infections, meatus stenosis (narrowing of the urethra) and panic attacks.

The British Medical Association, for example, stated in 2003 that “the medical benefits previously claimed have not been convincingly proven” and “that the evidence concerning health benefits from non-therapeutic circumcision is insufficient for this alone to be a justification for doing it".

There is a general trend in the UK to reduce the number of ‘medical’ circumcisions performed on boys as it is recognized that many conditions can be treated without surgery and research has shown that as many as 91% of ‘medical’ circumcisions performed in the UK could be medically unnecessary.

Ritual Male Circumcision is different and in many cases worse than some Female Circumcision practices - such as nicking the clitoral hood - that are outlawed in the UK and other countries.

There is growing concern amongst campaigners that the unequal legal protection from unnecessary genital surgery given to girls and boys could jeopardize the UK drive to protect the 100,000 women and girls who are thought to be at risk from Female Genital Mutilation in all its forms, some of which are more severe than Unnecessary Male Circumcision.

We would like to see the Government take immediate action on behalf of the 500,000 boys in the UK who are affected by or at risk of Unnecessary Male Circumcision:

To set up a national register of all male circumcisions performed in public, private and community settings to assess and monitor the scale of the problem

To take action to reduce the number of ‘medical’ circumcisions that are performed unnecessarily on boys who could have their condition treated without surgery

To begin work towards giving boys the same legal rights and strategic support that girls are currently given to protect them from unnecessary genital cutting and mutilation

For more information visit: http://endmalecircumcision.blogspot.co.uk/