Parents and NSS call on regulator to protect boys from circumcision

The National Secular Society has joined parents in calling on the medical regulator to protect boys from medically unnecessary circumcision.

Two parents, Parent A and Parent B (anonymised), have sons who were circumcised without their consent by Dr Balvinder Mehat, a GP in Nottingham.

General Medical Council (GMC) guidance allows doctors to perform circumcisions for cultural or religious reasons when they believe it is in the child's "best interests".

In a joint letter with the NSS, the parents called on the GMC to update their guidance to prevent doctors from ritually circumcising children.

Parent B has said she thought authorities were "scared to do anything because it's a religious issue".

The NSS campaigns against all forms of ritual genital cutting of children. Ritual male circumcision is performed in some Jewish, Muslim and Christian communities. Unlike ritual genital cutting of girls (female genital mutilation, or FGM), ritual genital cutting of boys is not explicitly prohibited by law.

Parent A: 'the reality of circumcision is actually sickening'

Parent A's son was ritually circumcised at the age of seven by Mehat in 2022. While the mother consented to the circumcision, Parent A did not. Common law requires both parents to consent to a ritual circumcision of a child.

Parent A said: "When most people hear the word 'circumcision' they imagine a quick snip performed on a baby. They need to know that the reality is actually sickening.

"My child was seven years old. He was held down on a bed in a GP surgery, given a lidocaine injection into his penis, cut with a scalpel, then fitted with a Plastibell device."

A Plastibell device restricts the blood supply to the foreskin, causing it to fall off after several days.

Parent A says his son's mother was not allowed in the room with him during the procedure.

He said his son, who was "awake the whole time", told him the pain "was like an electric shock running through his entire body".

Four days after the procedure, the boy "woke up screaming in agony" when the wound became infected, Parent A said. He took his son to A&E, where surgery was required to remove the Plastibell.

The GMC are investigating the case. The police have decided not to take action.

Separately, Mehat is currently before a medical tribunal, accused of referring to patients in a way that was motivated by "racial/religious" hostility.

Mother discovered baby "covered in blood" after circumcision

Parent B's three month old baby was taken by his paternal Muslim grandparents to Mehat in 2013 for ritual circumcision.

Mehat performed the procedure without the mother's consent, despite her being the only person with parental responsibility for the child.

Parent B only realised her son had been circumcised when she later opened his nappy to find him "covered in blood". She said the sight left her "hysterical".

Mehat was arrested in 2017 on suspicion of grievous bodily harm but the Crown Prosecution Service ultimately decided not to prosecute.

A leading human rights lawyer, Saimo Chahal said Mehat had 'acted illegally' and should be prosecuted.

Parent B describes ritual circumcision as "inhumane" and "male genital mutilation".

She said "no amount of money" could put right what had been done to her son, and her only hope now was to "reveal the true suffering this procedure really inflicts on tiny babies".

Mehat was suspended by the medical regulator for one month in 2019, a decision which left Parent B "furious". She described it as a "complete joke".

"If I went round and cut his bits off I would be getting years in prison", she said.

Ritual circumcision is 'medically unnecessary, irreversible and dangerous'

The letter to the GMC said guidance allowing doctors to ritually circumcise boys is incompatible with established child safeguarding practices, which "rightly demand that the most vulnerable are afforded the greatest protections".

It described ritual circumcision as "medically unnecessary", "irreversible" and "dangerous".

The letter said ritual circumcision violates the right to bodily autonomy and "deprives the child of an important erogenous tissue".

It noted the NHS website lists "permanent reduction in sensation in the head of the penis, particularly during sex" as a complication of circumcision.

The letter pointed to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child's 2016 recommendation that the UK government ensure "no one is subjected to unnecessary medical or surgical treatment during infancy or childhood".

It called on the GMC to protect children from unnecessary surgery and allow them to "make their own decisions" about sexually intimate parts of their body once they have reached an age of maturity.

NSS: 'Time for GMC to update guidance to protect children from unnecessary surgery'

NSS human rights lead Dr Alejandro Sanchez said: "We support these parents in their search for justice and want to protect children from medically unnecessary genital cutting in the future.

"The GMC has a statutory duty to protect the health, safety and wellbeing of the public. Their guidance permitting ritual circumcision of children is incompatible with this obligation.

"It is time for the GMC to update their guidance to protect children from unnecessary surgery and allow them to make their own decisions about their body once they are old enough to do so."