20 thoughts on “Help us try to stop the circumcision of a 12-year-old boy in Coventry today (Saturday)”

1. I have no doubt that these people would be carving up little girls too, if they thought they could get away with it. Completely amoral.

2. Indeed – as this Muslim site explains in detail http://www.quranicpath.com/misconceptions/circumcision.html

3. Indeed, the Qur’an nowhere mentions circumcision, but it does warn that Satan will try and trick us into altering Allah’s perfect creation.

4. My strong expectation is that the boy will be persuaded to give ‘consent’, and it will go ahead. The familial / cultural pressures will be extreme, and he won’t be told of the many arguments against it, including the Muslim religious case against MGM https://j4mbdotorgdotuk.wpcomstaging.com/2017/08/16/muslim-arguments-against-mgm/

5. Consent, really? Can a baby give consent? And your clinic is patient centered? I’m pretty sure that the babies whom you chop off part of the penis wouldn’t agree. And you could say that about female circumcision too: it would be safer to do it in an hospital. But isn’t it better to not do it at all, unless it’s absolutely needed or the person who is being circumcised is able to give consent?

6. So they can even do that when he’s explicitly saying no? What the hell?! I’m so glad this didn’t happen!

7. That’s rather what I imagined, Mike.

8. The NSPCC don’t give a damn. Numerous attempts to get them to take up this issue have got nowhere.

9. Out of interest, what are the official positions of Childline and the NSPCC on MGM and why are they not campaigning to end this abominable practice?

10. Circumcision can be used to treat Phimosis, but otherwise how is it beneficial?
    I don’t see why circumcision should be allowed for cosmetic reasons any more than FGM should be.

    If men and women want their genitals mutilated then by all means it should be available to them privately, and only when they are 18 or over so they can make an educated, independent choice – without pressure from their family.

11. Your comments are full of inaccuracies, our response is in a blog piece, link below, which links to William Collins’s blog pieces on MGM, and debunks the many claimed medical benefits of the mutilation of boys’ genitals. We look forward to protesting outside your clinic again shortly.

    https://j4mbdotorgdotuk.wpcomstaging.com/2017/08/20/a-response-to-our-blog-piece-by-qc-clinic-coventry/

12. Circumcisions are performed in hospitals all over the country for health reasons and many hospitals in the country perform circumcisions for cosmetic reasons. There are many civilised countries that have a large male circumcised population, for instance America (which boasts the most advanced medical research and medical facilities in the world) has an 80% male circumcised population. Our clinic is very well run we ensure best practice, everyone is consulted especially the patient. There are many long term health benefits that outweigh the disadvantages of getting circumcisions done. If our clinics that are professionally run and work with all the authorities close down then we will be replaced by backstreet circumcision places, and only then will we be well within our rights to discuss circumcision and mutilation in the same sentence. So please, if you are truly concerned then think of the bigger picture people. Any protests are pointless as circumcisions are perfectly legal as long as they are performed by professionals, consulted and consented for.

    Our clinic were the ones who in fact informed the police and child protection agencies (they were none the wiser) about a possible boy of 12 fearing circumcision, while you were too busy stiring up hate without knowing the facts, we were instead acting responsibly. The police initially thought there was a child of that description on our patient list but after contacting our bookings department they realised this patient wasn’t on our list. We work very closely with all the authorities, and they are more than happy with the best practices and measures we take to ensure child safety. Our clinic is the most professional and patient centred clinic in the UK, we work with only NHS staff. We have qualified therapists and nurses on site. We do consent children and speak to them separately from their parents or family members just to make sure there’s no force or pressure.

    If you are well and truly concerned for male justice you should be protesting against back street clinics and that don’t have all these measures and best practices in place. Thank you for your time and apologies for all this misunderstanding.

13. Thanks, but the BMA guidelines are utterly irrelevant, they are written on the basis that the the police / CPS are reluctant to bring prosecutions, and utterly ignore the legal position. Hopefully their ethical review on MGM will come out strongly against the practice.

14. Precisely. There is conflicting case law on this. On the one hand the Spanner case ruling showed that one can not consent to wounding or actual bodily harm at any age, on the other hand the BMA guidlines state that if a child is able to express a preference than that has primacy. I would argue that a 12yr old can not possibly give informed consent to circumcision because he will not be able to evaluate the complex risks, and as presumably sexually inactive (or at least very inexperienced) can not understand what he will be losing.

15. Thank you for all you do to protect boys, and the men they will become!

16. Apparently whatever they have in the UK that passes for Child Protective Services either doesn’t have enough power to stop this Mulitation of a child or just doesn’t give a F**k. What a way to go UK we (in the USA) all thought you were far more enlightened than this. Unfortunately we were wrong

17. It’s a pity that in all the advice given on Reddit to this 12 year old child, the two most important contact points have been missed.

    #Childline 0500 1111

    #NSPCC 0808 800 5000

    #The NSPCC are now aware and action is in progress!

    The Circumcision IS CANCELED as at 09.00am (GMT) Saturday 19 Aug 2017.

    >Circumcision cancelled. Spoke to the guy he said he won’t do it. Call of the protest, please, it’ll make everyone’s situation worse. Thanks

    https://www.reddit.com/r/exmuslim/comments/6unz77/update/

18. Just seen this. Possibly too late to help or teaching “to suck eggs” but a child of 12 is likely to considered in law to be able to give informed consent to such a “simple” procedure. This means that parents (or anyone else) cannot have overridden the child’s decision unless the procedure is too complex for the young person to understand or it is life threatening. The law is frequently ignored on this on a, wrong, presumption that any and all “consents” are the same and that parents have “rights” (for instance the age if criminal responsibility is 10 the law is full of variable ages for responsibilities and consent is specifically related to the “capacity” which varies over age and complexity).
    So put simply the child’s case can be referred as a child protection issue.
    I hope you had success.

19. You can imagine the uproar if this were to happen to a twelve year old girl against her will. Perhaps the only thing which could stop these butchers is the threat of court action or mass demonstrations and publicity.

20. This is a wonderful gesture and all at incredibly short notice. Real activism making a tangiable difference to young people’s lives.

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