Circumcision classed as potentially harmful practice in new CPS guidance | Circumcision

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/mar/05/circumcision-classed-potentially-harmful-practice-new-cps-guidance

Posted by 99thLuftballon

27 Comments

  1. Proper_War_3717 on

    Good, baring medical reasons it’s barbaric. You don’t even need a licence to do it. For poxy religious reasons.

  2. It should be banned and only done for medical reasons, by a NHS doctor.
    If they want to mutilate it at 18 then its up to them.

  3. Should only be for phimosis and similar medical issues, never aesthetic or to appease religious doctrine

  4. Ninevehenian on

    Iceland and Denmark have attempted to put a minimum age on non-medical circumcision.

    This had the support of 85%+ of the voters. It didn’t happen and best explanation claimed that Israel + USA said no.

  5. “*Potentially* harmful” – I have to assume they are using classic British understatement here and what they mean is “there is no justifiable reason for us to ever risk doing this to a child as some kind of standard procedure”.

  6. ArmPuzzleheaded9666 on

    Getting something amputated for medical reasons is fine. Doing it because your sky wizard demands it is a bit surreal.

  7. Known_Original_2046 on

    This is crazy to me, my first child was born in the US and I had to constantly remind them that we wanted to leave his foreskin alone. They tried to take him 3-4 times. My British husband was horrified. How is this still a practice??

  8. Honestly the only justification for it is when it’s medically necessary, which is rare. There’s no other reason it should be legal.

  9. Will this make any difference given the influence of religion? The NHS can’t even say anything negtive about inbreeding 🤮

  10. concretepigeon on

    > In certain circumstances, such as the procedure being carried out by those falsely claiming to be suitably qualified practitioners or carried out in non-sterile conditions, it can cross the line into a harmful practice.

    It feels like they need to actually legislate so that carrying out circumcisions unless qualified is a criminal offence. And make parents equally liable if they engage the services of an unqualified people. The fact that at present anyone can operate as a circumciser is abhorrent.

    Given they evidently aren’t going to actually ban it, then this sort of wooly guidance helps absolutely no one. It’s so vague that almost everything will just be passed off as cultural differences.

  11. Calling cutting bits off babies’ genitals “potentially harmful” is probably the most milquetoast way of putting it imaginable

  12. This practice should be banned on all grounds unless there is explicit consent or medical necessity.

  13. If there is unnecessary pain, then it should at least be delayed until age 15 and only done with consent of the boy.

  14. Pocketfulofgeek on

    My wife is a teacher and FGM is a topic she has had to do a worrying amount of training to spot signs of and report and she said it was some of the most disturbing stuff she’s had to learn for work. Circumcision feels like the same for males but is treated as just something normal for some reason.

  15. I’m just glad Jews and Muslims finally agree on something. Maybe it could even be the start of a lasting peace process.