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=== Legal and ethical issues ===
Considering the severity of the intrusion into the body of the affected person, the question arises, whether it is both legally and morally acceptable to leave the decision about a non-therapeutic operation on a child too young to understand or give valid consent, to the parents alone. In Germany, several basic rights are concerned:
* the right to bodily integrity
* the right to sexual self-determination
* the right to equal treatment of genders (circumcision/FGM of females is illegal)
* the right to religious freedom (where the circumcision has a religious motive)
These four basic rights are relevant from the legal as well as the ethical point of view.
Let us begin with the most obvious intrusion - the one into the bodily integrity. Under German law, children enjoy far-reaching protection, that limits the parental rights and the powers delegated to third persons overseeing the upbringing (such as kindergarten staff or teachers). Methods of upbringing that may cause physical or mental harm are prohibited. This is not only corporal punishment, which was common in families, schools and vocational training for ages, which may cause direct (and sometimes severe) bodily harm - it also covers spanking, which is included under degrading treatment. It is assumed that not only does the immediate injury harm the child, but also the feeling of helplessness and of being at someone's mercy at the time of punishment by an authority figure. This also applies to other treatment that harms the dignity of a child - for example being forced to publicly change clothes in front of the kindergarten group after wetting his pants.
If you take a look at the list of possible bodily and mental harms and late-effects listed in [[Circumcision#Risks_and_late_effects|"Risks and late effects"]], the imbalance becomes apparent. Spanking is already unlawful, but the irreversible amputation of an important, healthy part of the genital organ is not. The inevitable and possible consequences of this operation are ignored to a degree that is in harsh contrast to the established protection of children. Legalization, therefore, represents a considerable limitation of the male child's right to bodily integrity and protection from potentially harmful methods of upbringing.
There are also ethical problems. Can a child be denied the right to determine the visible appearance and degree of functionality of his body? Should a circumcised boy later in life decide that he would prefer to have an intact [[penis]], he has no means of reversing the decision his parents made. Other people's ideas about his body‘s appearance and functionality are imposed upon him irreversibly. He is denied the possibility of deciding upon that according to his own preferences, which can lead to inferiority complexes and depression - regardless of the parents‘ reasons or their idea of what would be best for their child. So great a level of paternalism regarding such a severe intrusion, especially in the most intimate area of the child, cannot be justified by the parents‘ will.
It is not much different with the right to sexual self-determination. Here, the consequences that circumcision has and can have for the body, play a significant role. Normally, a man has free choice as to how he wants to experience his sexuality. It is solely up to him to decide in which way he wants to be stimulated, and he can - if he so desires - limit his sexual experience without a problem. A circumcised man does not have these options. The full range of his sexual experience and sensation is not available to him due the to bodily modification.
An intact [[penis]] enables many men to reach orgasm just by manipulation of the [[foreskin]]. During masturbation, the man can choose whether he wants to stimulate the [[Glans penis|glans]] directly or indirectly through the movement of the [[foreskin]]. Since he has the full, naturally given potential of sensitivity at his disposal, he can use it to according to his own preferences. The circumcised man, however, does not have that freedom of choice. He has neither the opportunity to include the [[foreskin]] into the stimulation, nor can he utilize its nerves and touch receptors. He also only has access to 15-50% of the potential sensitivity of an intact man, depending on the amount and kind of tissue that was removed, and the degree of keratinization of the [[Glans penis|glans]]. In some cases, the limitation can be even more severe. On a heavily desensitized [[penis]], condoms can limit the sexual stimulation to the point where not enough arousal can be built up to reach an orgasm - which means that fulfilling safer sex is not possible.
In particular, the tight styles of circumcision bear the risk, that the loss of the friction-reducing gliding effect leads to unpleasant feelings or even pain for both partners during intercourse. The ability to masturbate without aid - for example, from lubricants - can be significantly reduced or even be lost in such a case. In a study<ref>DaiSik Kim, Myung-Geol Pang: The effect of male circumcision on sexuality. In: BJU international, Volume 99, Issue 3, März 2007, S. 619-622. doi:10.1111/j.1464-410X.2006.06646.x, PMID 17155977</ref>, 63% of the men interviewed reported problems with masturbation after being circumcised. If a boy or man is circumcised, without him making that decision for himself after thorough consideration and in full knowledge and understanding of all possible consequences, he is denied his constitutionally guaranteed freedom to experience his sexuality according to his own preferences. This is much like parental interference to promote a prohibition of masturbation, or to inhibit a homosexual relationship - with the key difference that the parental intervention in form of a circumcision, unlike prohibitions during childhood, will have an irreversible, lifelong effect. Both do not comply with modern views of children's well-being and accepting the child as an autonomous individual, and are, therefore, not ethically justifiable.
The basic right to equal treatment of the sexes is also breached, since girls are legally protected from violations of their genital integrity, while boys are not. This not only contradicts the constitution, but also is contrary to all efforts of equal treatment. Because in this case, decisions are made during childhood that will affect the entire later life, it equals the attempt to have certain educational grades open to one gender unconditionally, while giving parents the right to deny them to the other gender for life. That such an unequal treatment of genders is not justifiable, neither legally nor morally, is obvious.
Last not least, religious freedom is impaired. If a boy is circumcised for religious reasons as a child before he reaches the age of competence, he will carry the sign of that religion on his body for his entire life - even if he decides to abjure that religion in the course of his life.
While his condition will not keep him from changing his religion, or to renounce it entirely, he has no way to discard the symbol of his old religion. This could be compared to a tattoo in the form of a religious symbol, with the difference that such a tattoo could still be removed by laser or covered with a new tattoo, if need be.
Therefore a circumcision does not impair the ability to change religion, but it makes it impossible to discard one's old religion entirely. This is not only a violation of the basic law, it is also ethically unjustifiable to force someone to carry a religious symbol for his entire life - especially in his most private body area.
So why is circumcision tolerated as a means of upbringing, and even explicitly legalized? In Germany, this stems from - although it is not stated in the law for legal reasons - the belief that a ban would impair the religious freedom of the parents. Even though it is stated in Art.140 GG (German basic law):
<blockquote>
''(1) Civic rights and duties are neither dependant on, nor impaired by, the exercise of religious freedom.''
''[...]''
''(4) No one may be forced to take part in a religious act or ceremony, or to participation in religious rites or to the use of a religious oath.''
</blockquote>
Still, it was considered intolerable for the parents to be unable to perform a religious rite that involved interference with the body of another person - in the case of that person being their son. While normally the religious freedom ends "at someone else‘s nose", an exemption was legalized to enable parents to comply with their own, personal, religious duties, even if that means that several of their son's basic rights are impaired. This does, however, not apply for other religious traditions, so that a ritual beating - no matter how religiously important it may be to the parents - is still considered child abuse and would likely result in the loss of child custody here.
=== Business Interests ===
Only very few will supposedly know that circumcision has become a lucrative business. Not only the operation itself, but also the potentially needed aftercare, bring profits. But while this is still obvious, there are also other trades that make money from it.
Baby [[foreskin]]s are a coveted resource. Under the name "Apligraf" an artificial skin product is marketed worldwide, which is used - among other uses - as an alternative to skin grafts using the patient’s own skin. It is grown from the [[foreskin]]s of children as young as possible. Since they are also mostly free of pathogenic organisms, they are also used as the basis for collagen, which is, among other purposes, used for anti wrinkle therapy and for lip augmentation. The manufacturer of the british product "Vavelta" advertised with the use of "freshly harvested (!) [[foreskin]]s". It is ''inter alia'' used as a replacement for animal experiments testing the compatibility of cosmetic products. In the face of the falling numbers of routine infant circumcisions in the USA, manufacturers have already expressed concerns that they might not "bring in enough harvest" more than 10 years ago. The parents of the circumcised boys, however, very rarely know of the "secondary use" of their son's "donated" body parts. While preimplantation genetic diagnosis, stem cell research and genetic engineering are time and again critically questioned and discussed, the lifelong, significant modification of infant bodies for the good of the cosmetic industry is still common practice - supposedly partly because many women do not know what their augmented lips and wrinkle-free cheeks are made of - baby [[foreskin]]. An ethical justification cannot be valid here.
→Rights and Ethics: move more subsections to external article
The [[Rights situation on circumcision|rights situation]] is discussed in separate article.