CULTURAL CIRCUMCISION IN EU PUBLIC HOSPITALS - AN ETHICAL DISCUSSION

Authors: BRUSA, MARGHERITA; BARILAN, Y. MICHAEL

Source: Bioethics, Volume 23, Number 8, October 2009 , pp. 470-482(13)

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Abstract:

The paper explores the ethical aspects of introducing cultural circumcision of children into the EU public health system.

We reject commonplace arguments against circumcision: considerations of good medical practice, justice, bodily integrity, autonomy and the analogy from female genital mutilation.

From the unique structure of patient-medicine interaction, we argue that the incorporation of cultural circumcision into EU public health services is a kind of medicalization, which does not fit the ethos of universal healthcare. However, we support a utilitarian argument that finds hospital-based circumcision safer than non-medicalized alternatives.

The argument concerning medicalization and the utilitarian argument both rely on preliminary empirical data, which depend on future validation.

Keywords: circumcision (male); public healthcare (EU); cross-religious dialogue; bodily integrity; tolerance

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8519.2008.00683.x

Affiliations: 1: Tel Aviv University

Publication date: 2009-10-01