Pappa åtalas efter omskärelse

GÖTEBORG -- En pappa i Göteborg har åtalats för anstiftan till misshandel sedan hand låtit omskära sin treårige son.

Omskärelsen av pojken skedde utan att barnets mamma var tilfrågad.

Pappan har enlight åtalet falskt uppgett för läkarna att också mamman gav sitt samtycke till ingreppet. Åklargen skriver också att omskärelse innebar smärta och ömhet hos pojken.

Föräldrarna är skilda och den treårige pojken bor hos sin mamma. När han under en period på några veckor bodde hos pappan lät fadern ta hem en läkare till bostaden. Där utfördes omskärelse, på en bädd på köksbordet.

Operationen skedde enlight läkaren, som arbetar på Sahlgrenska universitetssjukhuset, med lokalbedövning. (TT)
 

Father charged after circumcision

GOTHENBERG -- A father in Gothenburg has been prosecuted for instigation of physical abuse after he permitted the circumcison of his three year-old son.

The circumcision of the boy occurred without the child's mother being consulted.

The father had, according to the prosecution, advised doctors that the mother also gave her consent to the operation. The prosecutor writes also that the circumcision involved pain and soreness for the boy.

The parents are divorced and the three-year-old boy lives with his mother. When during a period of several weeks he lived with his father, the father had a doctor visit the home. There the circumcision was performed, on bedding upon the kitchen table.

According to the doctor, who works at Sahlgrenska University Hospital, the operation was performed with local anaesethic. (TT Swedish National news agency.)
 

Allt färre sjukhus gör omskärelser

Finländsk JO uppmanar vården att vara restriktiv med att utföra ingreppet

HELSINGFORS -- Universitetssjukhuset i Uleåborg är det enda sjukhus i Finland som fortfarande utför religiös omskärelse på pojkar. Manlig omskärelse utförs på allt färre orter i Finland. Tammerfors och Åbo universitetssjukhus har nyligen beslutat att upphöra med operationer som görs av religiösa skäl, även om Åbos uppehåll kan bli tillfälligt. Universitetssjukhusen i Helsingfors och Kuopio har aldrig gjort omskärelser, däremot fortsätter Uleåborg att utföra ingreppen.

Sjukhusen i Tammerfors och Åbo upphörde med operationerna sedan den biträdande justitieombudsmannen Riitta-Leena Paunios förklarat att den offentliga sjukvården bör förhålla sig ytterst restriktiv till omskärelse av pojkar.

Utlåtandet strider dock mot social- och hälsovårdsministeriets direktiv. Enligt dessa bör man sträva mot att omskärelser utförs inom den offentliga sjukvården, för att undvika de komplikationer som ofta uppstår då ingreppet görs i hemmen.

Inom den offentliga vården har man främst omskurit muslimska flyktingfamiljers söner, som vanligen omskärs vid sju till åtta års ålder.

Varken sjukhusen eller myndigheterna har kunnat enas om en gemensam ståndpunkt i frågan om omskärelse.

Kräver båda föräldrarnas samtycke

Också Uleåborgs universitetssjukhus har blivit striktare i fråga om religiösa omskärelser, men man utför fortfarande ingreppet där. Som en följd av Riitta-Leena Paunios utlåtande kräver man nu att båda föräldrarna ger sitt samtycke till operationen.

Riitta-Leena Paunio tog ställning till omskärelse av pojkar sedan överläkare Esko Länsimies vid Kuopio universitetssjukhus bett om en utredning av saken. Han ifrågasatte bland annat om det var motiverat att skattemedel används till operationerna.

Leila Savolainen, distriktssköterska för flyktingar i Kuopio, anser att Riitta-Leena Paunios utlåtande är ofattbart och misstänker att antalet ingrepp som görs hemma kommer att öka då sjukhusen upphör att utföra omskärelser. —Jag är verkligen oroad över att omskärelserna kommer att göras hemma om sjukhusen vägrar utföra ingreppet, säger hon.

SATU VASANTOLA
 

Fewer hospitals do circumcisions

Finnish Justice Ombudsman urges medics to restrict the operation

HELSINKI -- The University Hospital at Uleåborg is the only hospital in Finland that continues to perform the religious circumcision of boys. Male circumcision is done at fewer and fewer places in Finland. Tammerfors and Åbo university hopitals have recently decided to discontinue operations done for religious reasons, even if Åbo's suspension may be temporary. The University hospitals in Helsinki and Kuopio have never done circumcisions, while Uleåborg continues to perform the operation.

The hospitals in Tammerfors and Åbo ceased the operations after the assistant Justice Ombudsman, Riitta-Leena Paunios, declared that the public health system should set firm restrictions regarding the circumcison of boys.

This pronouncement however conflicted with the Social and Health Ministry's directive. According to the latter, one should strive to have circumcisions performed within the public health system, to avoid the complications which often arise when the operation is done in the home.

Within the public system, circumcision is done mainly to the sons of Muslim refugee families, who are usually circumcised at seven to eight years of age.

Neither the hospitals nor the authorities have reached a common viewpoint on the issue of circumcision.

Requires consent of both parents

Uleåborg University Hospital has also become stricter on the question of religious circumcisions, but the operation is still done there. As a consequence of Riitta-Leena Paunio's pronouncement, the consent of both parents is now required for the operation.

Riitta-Leena Paunio took her position on circumcision of boys after senior physician Esko Länsimies at Kuopio University Hospital sought a clarification of the matter. He questioned, among other things, whether it was right that tax revenue be used for the operations.

Leila Savolainen, district nurse for refugees in Kuopio, considers that Riitta-Leena Paunio's pronouncement is incomprehensible and suspects that the number of operations done at home will increase if the hospitals stop performing circumcisions. "I am really worried that circumcisions will be done at home if the hospitals refuse to do the operation," she says.

SATU VASANTOLA
 

Omskärelse av minderåriga pojkar ett medicinskt omotiverat ingrepp

Sverige var först med att avskaffa agan. Låt Sverige också bli först med att avskaffa rituell omskärelse på minderåriga pojkar, skriver RÄDDA BARNENS lokalförening i Kalmar med anledning av lagförslaget om omskärelse.

[Full Swedish text not available.]

LOKALFÖRENINGEN FÖR RÄDDA BARNEN I KALMAR

Circumcision of under-age boys a medically unjustified operation

Sweden was first with abolition of corporal punishment. Let Sweden also be the first to abolish ritual circumcision of under-age boys, writes SAVE THE CHILDREN'S local asssociation in Kalmar in relation to a proposed law on circumcision.

It is stated in the Social and Health Department's investigation of the circumcision of boys that the operation falls outside the health care law, that children have the right to be heard in all questions which affect them, and that the State must respect and provide security for all children regardless of gender, race, religion, ethnic or social origin, according to the human rights described in the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child. The key must be the best interests of the child. In an earlier proposition, 97/98:182, the government proposed a strategy to implement the Convention in Sweden, and thereby noted that the fact that the Convention was aimed at the individual—the individual child—and the Convention puts the child's needs before the parent's. The investigation has well understood the intent and content of the Convention, but then still proposes a breach of it: that the health care system should be enjoined to conduct ritual circumcision of minors, i.e. institutionalised violence against small children.

What is suggested by the proposed law? Indeed that certain children should be subject to negative special treatment by the health care system. It is also proposed that health care personnel should break the physican's ethical rules by performing a medically unjustified operation on a defenceless child. What conditions would apply, if one imagines that the amputation related to a finger, or an earlobe. It is a criminal offence to harm, and it is harmful to remove the foreskin, to alter natural function and adaption.

Maybe it should be considered that in the future, young men will make claims for compensation, like the children who were were sterilized by the Swedish health system from the 1930s to 1960s.

All surgical operations can cause complications; none are fully risk-free. A 3-year-old boy died from the complications of a circumcision done in our country last year, by a doctor with Swedish regisration. In modern health care, complications are calculated at 2 to 10 percent (mostly infections and haemorrhage) but serious harm can also result, for example to the meatus, and to the extent of causing occasional deaths. All these complications are inexcusable in the absence of medical indications. There is no medical evidence that the operation is in any way benefical to a child.

Does a ban on ritual circumcision of under-age boys contravene religious freedom? The Koran has no decree on circumcision. The Muslim basis for circumcision relies on a recommedation from Muhammad to groom the moustache, clip the nails, etc.—and to be circumcised. It was recommended as a matter of hygiene, having no religious intent or meaning. Now that we know there are no advantages, hygienically or otherwise, the tradition should be dropped. There is no reference to age, and there is no obstacle to moving circumcision up to adult age.

Judaism sees circumcision as a religious rite. But rites are not fixed and unchangeable. They have changed in the past and must in time be renewed with new knowledge and information. Circumcision could well be performed as a bloodless symbolic ceremony in childhood, to be carried out physically in adulthood by those who so wish.

Neither does the traditional practice, which some Christians from Africa uphold, carry any decree that the operation be performed by a certain age. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child expressly commands that children be protected from traditional practices which are harmful.

Sweden was first to abolish corporal punishment, despite the fact that the Bible says children should be punished. Let Sweden be the first to abolish ritual circumcision of under-age boys. With regard to different cultures and special interests one can compromise. Ritual circumcision should not be banned, but must be postoned for each to undertake as a mature personal decision.

If circumcision is no longer to be permitted on children in Swedish medical care, there are fears that it will instead be done outside the country during visits to former homelands, perhaps under adverse conditions. This is inevitable, just as with female circumcision, but is no reason not to work against the operation in Sweden. Counselling and legislation has a powerful normalizing function in the long run, and changes our way of viewing things.

The health care system must distance itself from child circumcision and work for the best interests of the child. Nothing can truly bring into doubt that it is best to let the child himself make a decision for or against circumcision, upon reaching the age at which adult decisions are made. This is an issue of children's rights, not a political issue. It is about stopping an outrage perpetrated on children.

LOCAL ASSOCIATION FOR SAVE THE CHILDREN IN KALMAR
 

Omskärelse om pojkar utan medicinsk grund bör på sikt förbjudas i Sverige. Det anser Barnsombudsmannen (BO) som på onsdag lämnade sitt remissar till regeringens lagförslag om omskärelse om pojkar. (TT)

Circumcision of boys for non-medical reasons should eventually be banned in Sweden. So says the Children's Ombudsman (BO) who on Wednesday submitted her response to the government's proposed law on circumcision of boys.
—TT (Swedish wire service)