The Jewish community in Denmark is in uproar as a result of the Denmark Medical Council’s recommendation to prohibit the mitzvah of Brit Milah, ritual circumcision. According to the council such decisions are to be made by the one getting circumcised when he is an adult and able to decide for himself and not by the father.
However the council did not outright recommend forbidding Brit Milah, rather in the document they produced they wrote: ‘Since circumcision permanently alters the body of the circumcised child, it is not ethically proper to do such a procedure without his consent’. This was signed by over 300 members of the council.
In the Ethics Committee of the council they pointed out that in spite of their recommendation they take no position on the legality of the issue. They explained: “This a complex issue ethically, culturally and religiously. We fear that if it would be made illegal than people would continue to circumcise illegally. Therefore we take no position on the legality of circumcision”.