Circumcision of young boys for religious and non-medical reasons ought to be banned in Sweden, urged the Swedish Paediatric Society (Svenska barnläkarföreningen, BLF)

In a statement submitted to the National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen), the society called the procedure an assault.

“We consider it to be an assault on these boys,” Staffan Janson, chairman of BLF’s committee for ethical issues and childrens’ rights, said to newspaper Göteborgs-Posten (GP).

Removing small boys’ foreskin for reasons other than medical is controversial in Sweden.

After discussing the matter for several years, BLF has now concluded that the procedure ought to be banned on the grounds that the children are unable to form a decision in the matter.

According to BLF and Staffan Janson, circumcision is an attack on boys’ integrity.

“It’s such a complicated and difficult question, but even so, we’ve decided that this is a procedure to be done away with,” Janson said.

“It’s a mutilation of a child unable to decide for himself.”

Not everyone agrees that circumcision is an assault, however.

“Parents decide things for their children all the time,” Omar Mustafa, head of the Islamic Association in Sweden, said to GP.

“Allowing parents to decide over this matter isn’t stranger than allowing them to decide whether their child is to be vaccinated or not,” he continued.