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Aussie
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Really getting into it |
Registered: August 2006
Messages: 475
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Reproduced from the Canberra Times
At last someone appears to be taking this seriously.
Aussie
Male circumcision sparks legal review
BY PAUL CARTER
20/08/2009 12:00:00 AM
Laws protect girls from genital surgery but parents wanting to circumcise boys can ''go around willy-nilly chopping up bits of their sons'', a state children's commissioner says.
Tasmania's commissioner for children, Paul Mason, and the Tasmanian Law Reform Institute have embarked on what they say is the largest review into the legalities of male circumcision in Australia's history.
Mr Mason said a critical issue for any non-therapeutic circumcision was whether parental consent was sufficient to protect a surgeon from legal action if the child's genital autonomy was thought to have been infringed.
''The only thing that protects a doctor from an action for assault or a civil prosecution is the valid consent of the patient,'' he said.
''The law is getting pretty hazy about whether a parent can give a valid consent for a child's non-medical procedure.'' Mr Mason said about 90 per cent of Australian male babies were circumcised in the 1970s, dropping to about 2 per cent now.
Its infrequency nowadays only heightened the chance of a circumcised boy feeling aggrieved as an adult that his rights were ignored as a child, he said.
But High Court rulings and United Nations conventions on the rights of parents and children and legal consent in terms of bodily integrity argue against parental-consent circumcision, he said.
''To me they suggest parents are not entitled to cut or wound their children unless it is for a medical purpose,'' he said.
Mr Mason said another grey legal area was that many jurisdictions outlawed female genital alteration, not just the most severe form, because it infringed on girls' rights.
''But we have a situation where girls have legal protection from any surgery on their genitals but parents can go around willy-nilly chopping up bits of their boys.
''That is a discrimination any way you look at it,'' he said.
University of Tasmania circumcision law researcher Warwick Marshall is working closely with Mr Mason and the Tasmanian Law Reform Institute.
Mr Marshall said criminal and civil laws failed to provide adequate certainty for parents and doctors.
''The crux of the uncertainty is whether the consent of the parent of the child being circumcised provides the circumciser with protection from criminal and civil actions which may be brought against them for performing a circumcision,'' he said.
Public submissions to the law reform review close on August 28. AAP
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About time too!!
By: Aussie on Fri, 21 August 2009 01:13 |
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Re: About time too!!
By: saben on Fri, 21 August 2009 04:47 |
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Re: About time too!!
By: Aussie on Fri, 21 August 2009 06:33 |
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Re: About time too!!
By: acam on Fri, 21 August 2009 08:11 |
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Re: About time too!!
By: JFR on Thu, 27 August 2009 03:34 |
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Re: About time too!!
By: timmy on Thu, 27 August 2009 11:27 |
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Re: About time too!!
By: Nigel on Fri, 21 August 2009 07:27 |
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Re: About time too!!
By: saben on Fri, 21 August 2009 08:00 |
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Re: About time too!!
By: Aussie on Wed, 26 August 2009 00:57 |
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Re: About time too!!
By: JimB on Wed, 26 August 2009 17:40 |
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Re: About time too!!
By: timmy on Wed, 26 August 2009 21:55 |
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Re: About time too!!
By: johnleeb on Sat, 29 August 2009 00:13 |
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Re: About time too!!
By: timmy on Sat, 29 August 2009 08:02 |
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Re: About time too!!
By: johnleeb on Sat, 29 August 2009 15:44 |
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Re: About time too!!
By: Aussie on Sat, 29 August 2009 11:02 |
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