Helsinki, Finland – Finland has decided not to regulate male circumcision. A bill legalising the practice has been in the works for seven years, but Minister of Health and Social Services Paula Risikko has decided not to bring it before Parliament.
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In Finland circumcisions are carried out for religious purposes by members of the Jewish, Muslim and Tartar communities. Estimates are that currently about 200 operations are performed annually.
No legislation has been passed on the practice concerning boys.
With no clear rules on male circumcision, doctors carrying out the procedure as well as parents may be slapped with abuse charges.
In 2006, a Muslim mother in Tampere was convicted for circumcising her son, however, the Finnish Supreme Court eventually dropped the charges.
After seven years of drafting a bill legalising male circumcision, the Ministry of Health and Social Services decided not to pursue the matter.
“We’ve deliberated over this for a long time at the ministry, and after many discussions and evaluations, we’ve reached a decision that a separate law isn’t needed,” Risikko told YLE.
Many physicians, police officials and NGOs in Finland oppose male circumcision. Critics say they want clarity on the issue and say the practice doesn’t have a place in Finnish society.
A working group under Migration Minister Astrid Thors is now faced with drawing up guidelines on circumcision for public health clinics.
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So the door is still open to future prosecutions, because although there’s no law banning the practice, there’s no law permitting it, and there seems to be a strong interest in the country to do away with it.