EURO CIRC criticizes the prohibition of circumcision:
"Early circumcision prevents from diseases"The community of interest Euro Circ criticizes the prohibition of circumcision for religious reasons issued by the district court of Cologne. Euro Circ perceives this order as an unacceptable interference to freedom of faith. Additionally, Michael Meinert - one of Euro Circ’s executives - explains, "circumcision improves hygiene and health. Scientific studies have shown that circumcised boys suffer from urinary tract infection approximately 10 times less than uncircumcised boys. Moreover, they will not as easily infect with AIDS." His honorary organization makes medical and general information on circumcision available.Further diseases that can be reduced are prostate cancer, cervical cancer of the woman as well as penile cancer. Circumcision in early childhood also prevents boys from phimosis, paraphimosis, painful cracks of the frenulum as well as inflammation of the foreskin and glans. That's why more and more parents turn to Euro Circ and plan on pre-emptively performing circumcision on their boys. A prohibition of circumcision in Germany will not keep Jews and Muslims from undergoing circumcision. They will rather travel to their home country or have the circumciser come to Germany. If this is the case, there is the possibility that these procedures are being performed by laymen. If a child is circumcised illegally under inadequate medical and sanitary conditions, the safety of the child cannot be guaranteed and therefore has to be put into question. Therefore, Euro Circ cannot accept the position of Deutsche Kinderhilfe in this matter. Deutsche Kinderhilfe strongly supports the decision of the district court of Cologne. Furthermore, the community of interest points out that active immunization is also performed on children in early childhood. There are also minor risks due to possible side effects. Euro Circ considers its opinion proven by the statements by representatives of Bündnis '90/Die Grünen (the Green Party). The Greens do not want to limit the exemption from punishment of male circumcision in early childhood to "religious reasons". In addition, Euro Circ agrees with the German Conference of Catholic Bishops ("highly offensive decision"), the Social Minister of Baden-Württemberg Karin Altpeter("the circumcision of boys and the circumcision of girls cannot be compared") as well as Dieter Graumann, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany. Dieter Graumann spoke of an “unexampled and dramatic interference to the right of self-determination of religious communities". The circumcision of new borns has been performed worldwide for thousands of years. EURO CIRC Press release July 18th, 2012. (2 512 characters) |
