Should Boys Be Given The Same Protection As Girls Do From Female Genital Mutilation?
8 April 2018, 14:21 | Updated: 8 April 2018, 14:23
A mother who is taking legal action against a doctor who carried out a circumcision on her baby son without her permission says boys should be given the same protections as girls do from Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).
The mother, who can not be named, said "nobody really gets" the problem with circumcision.
"I have had to lay my son on a towel and not even been able to put him in a nappy because he is scratching away and he is in that much pain somebody has inflicted that on my child" she said.
Her lawyer, Saimo Chapel QC, is challenging a Crown Prosecution Service decision taken last November not to prosecute.
A letter written to the mother by the CPS said that "had it been the case that the doctor had performed the operation knowing that you did not consent, then potentially his actions would have amounted to assault."
The case has attracted support from campaign groups who have been watching moves by Iceland to become the first European country to ban the procedure for non-medical reasons.
Maajid said that any "irreversible procedure such as circumcision must not be imposed upon the child."
"There are other parts of the human body that people may agree are unnecessary.
"The appendix and tonsils are deemed uneccesary and yet they're only removed when a problem occurs.
"One of the cornerstones of medical ethics is that there should be no intrusive surgical procedure unless there is a proven need.
"It's why babies are not routinely subjected to having their appendices removed and their tonsils removed."
