Hospitals in Austria and Switzerland suspend circumcision
Hospitals in Austria and Switzerland have banned circumcisions on infant boys citing a German court ruling that it could amount to bodily harm.
At least one Swiss hospital has banned the practice and two provinces in Austria have suspended such procedures pending legal clarification on the matter.
The governor of Vorarlberg province in Austria has ordered state-run hospitals to stop circumcisions except for health reasons until the legal situation is clarified.
He said he sees the decision in Germany, which arose from the case of a child whose circumcision led to medical complications, as a "precedence-setting judgment."
A Zurich hospital took a similar decision. "Of course we in Switzerland aren't directly affected by the Cologne ruling, but it sparked a debate about how to deal with the medical and ethical issues involved," said Marco Stuecheli, a spokesman for Zurich's Children's Hospital.
The issue has sparked an escalating row between anti-circumcision campaigners, who argue that the act breaches the child's right to bodily integrity, and faith groups who insist it is part of their religious freedom.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/austria/9427592/Hospitals-in-Austria-and-Switzerland-suspend-circumcision.html#