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Non-therapeutic [[circumcision ]] of children is not only one of the most widespread surgical operations in the world, but also one of the oldest. It is probably due to this long tradition, that despite its violating the common basic rights to bodily integrity and medical ethics in the western world, it is still widely tolerated there, even though there are barely any legal exemptions in place. The few regulations, which mostly emerged in the recent past, usually only deal with the basic conditions. They regulate how and under what conditions the operation should be carried out, while the general compatibility with basic human rights is rarely questioned, let alone taken into consideration.
== Examples of legal regulations ==
The following information is partly taken from the German Wikipedia:<ref>{{REFweb
|url=http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zirkumzision#Regelung_der_Beschneidung_Minderj.C3.A4hriger_in_einzelnen_Staaten
=== Belgium ===
The Belgian federal government’s Committee for Bio-Ethics has ruled against the circumcision of infant boys for reasons other than medical necessity. Its ruling states that bodily integrity is more important than religious faith.<ref>{{REFweb
|url=https://www.thebulletin.be/ethics-committee-rules-against-infant-circumcision
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 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.