In a rare legal analysis of the medical procedure, the Tasmanian Law Reform Institute found that criminal and civil law lacked certainty, and that circumcision might abuse the rights of a child.

No specific laws currently regulate the removal of the penile foreskin in Australia, and there are few clear answers in general law, according to an institute researcher, Warwick Marshall.

“What is clear is that the current laws were not framed with male circumcision in mind,” he said in an issues paper released yesterday.

About 12 per cent of newborn boys are believed to be circumcised in Australia, down from 90 per cent in the 1950s.

Routine circumcision is no longer performed in most Australian public hospitals. But, according to the institute, most practising Jews still consider circumcision to be a requirement of their faith, while Muslims are the largest identifiable group who practice circumcision today.

Concerns about the circumciser’s legal position were first raised by the Tasmanian Children’s Commissioner, Paul Mason, who referred the issue to the institute, based at the University of Tasmania’s Law School.

“The whole subject of non-therapeutic circumcision on boys is so fraught with emotion and unreasonable assumption that it is hard to find answers to the most basic legal questions,” Mr Mason concluded.

He found that the risks of circumcision included pain, surgical mishap or complications and decreased sexual pleasure. Among the claimed benefits were reduced chance of infections, and cultural or religious conformity.

The paper said the consequences of an ill-advised procedure could be horrendous: “Even if a court considers the physical loss following circumcision negligible, the social and psychological effects of a wrong decision can be devastating.”

It said there were cases of suicide and attempted suicide by men forced to live with lasting complications of a circumcision performed on them as a child.

But for other men, the operation became an important part of their identity.

The institute said in law, circumcision might be considered an assault or a wounding. “There is uncertainty as to whether the consent of a parent for the circumcision of their child is sufficient to allow a circumciser to legally perform the procedure,” it said.

http://www.law.utas.edu.au/reform