A Helsinki couple has been fined by the District Court for allowing their baby son to be circumcised. The procedure was undertaken by a British Rabbi at the base of the Helsinki Jewish Congregation in 2008 where the one-week-old child received the traditional bris without any anaesthetic. Both parents were present at the ceremony, as was the boy’s grandfather who held him throughout.
The infant was later hospitalised after the bleeding failed to stop. The Rabbi had performed an examination of the child in the morning following the operation but assured the parents that the child was in no danger.
The complications that arose from the ongoing bleeding could have been averted had the circumcision been performed at a hospital according to expert witness Dr Harry Lindahl. The parents insist that not only was the rabbi reputable but that Finnish law does not prohibit circumcision as a religious obligation. The prosecution however, filed charges of aggravated assault or inciting aggravated assault, as the Helsingin Sanomat reports.
The Helsinki District Court declared that the parents were not guilty of inciting assault as they did not participate in the actual operation. They also deemed that the Penal Code could not define the instrument used in the operation as a weapon. The parents have been ordered to pay their infant son compensation of EUR 1,500 (USD 2,000) for his pain and suffering, as well as a 40-day suspended prison sentence.
[…] Finnish parents fined for circumcision […]
I would sooner trust my penis with someone that has done tens of thousands of circumcisions then some random doctor in a hospital setting. Though I prefer to make decisions concerning my penis exclusively or, at least, in concert with a girl of my choosing who is planning on using it for her pleasure.
This is the guy you want when you decide to go down that path SIR Euro —> http://www.emohel.com/
Lah Lah Lah Lah. Pass the pastrami please.
PS SIR EURO, I believe the words you are searching for are “prosecuted” not “persecuted.” And “heartily” not “hardly.”
People should decide if they want to be circumcised or not. That simple. Many circumcised men do suffer lots of complex because that part of skin has been removed… there are pros and cons about circumcision, but anyways i don´t think parents have the right to do something like that, an irreversible operation. Maybe the child wont agree with them when he gets 18… but it would be too late then, I guess… GENITAL MUTILATION OF CHILDREN SHOULD BE PERSECUTED AND HARDLY PUNISHED!! There cannot be any excuse, religious or not, to practice mutilation of sexual organs…
The only real issue here was failing to take the child to a doctor (for the ‘procedure’), instead allowing a non-doctor to do it – and (I presume) the lack of anesthesia (which sounds rather painful).
Blatant anti-semitism –
The rabbi’s should be totally castrated
It’s high time that destructive religious practices of male genital mutilation are outlawed.
This is uncalled for genital mutilation of infants.