German FM calls for swift and final decision on circumcision debate
Despite Westerwelle’s support, a member of the German Ethics Council — which advises Berlin on moral issues — says that circumcisions without prior anesthetization are ‘barbaric’ and should be banned
Raphael Ahren is a former diplomatic correspondent at The Times of Israel.
Germany’s Foreign Minister on Wednesday called upon his government to create legal certainty about the question of ritual circumcisions, two days after a German doctor pressed criminal charges against a rabbi who had performed the rite more than 3,000 times.
“We must ensure the possibility to keep Jewish and Muslim traditions without legal non-certainty,” Guido Westerwelle said in Vaduz, Liechtenstein. “We must not jeopardize Germany’s image as a country with religious tolerance. In my opinion, a clear agreement on the matter should be reached quickly.”
Earlier this week, Sebastian Guevara Kamm, a doctor from Hesse, filed a police complaint against Rabbi David Goldberg, the rabbi of the Bavarian city of Hof. While Kamm said he has “the greatest respect for the Jews’ traditions,” he considered circumcisions a “harmful rite” because they involve medical risks and are often performed by laypeople, he told the German-Jewish weekly Juedische Allgemeine.
Kamm’s complaint follows a decision of the Cologne district court, which in June ruled that ritual circumcision was tantamount to the criminal act of harming the child’s bodily integrity.
The German Bundestag in July passed a joint resolution calling on the government to ensure legal certainty for ritual circumcisers, or mohels. ”A medically professional circumcision of boys, which does not cause unnecessary pain” should be “generally permissible,” the resolution read.
Germany has a ‘special indebtedness’ toward the Jews, the law professor admitted, but circumcisions without prior anesthetization are ‘barbaric’ and should be banned
On Thursday, the German Ethics Council, a consortium of 25 academics advising the federal government on ethical issues, was scheduled to debate the issue of circumcision.
One council member scheduled to address Thursday’s debate was Reinhard Merkel, a professor of law and legal philosophy. He said in an interview that newborns being circumcised experience an “agony of torment.” While he acknowledged that Germany has a “special indebtedness” toward the Jews, he argued that circumcisions without prior anesthetization are “barbaric” and should be banned.
