Tasmania Law Reform Institute Proposes Banning Circumcision

The Tasmania Law Reform Institute released a report this week on Non-Therapeutic Male Circumcision.

Among its recommendations are:

• A general prohibition on the circumcision of incapable minors with an exception for well-established religious or ethnicity-motivated circumcisions
• Enactment of legislation clarifying the legality of circumcisions performed at the request of adult or capable minor and governing situations where parents disagree about the desirability of performing a circumcision
• Greater dissemination of accurate information on the known and potential effects and significance of circumcision
• The imposition of criminal sanctions for a circumciser who fails to meet minimum standards of care: and  
• Setting of a uniform limitations period in which individuals can bring an action against their circumciser and extending the limitations period for individuals harmed by circumcisions as a minor. 

The Commission looked at the Tasmanian situation as well as the law in other jurisdictions such as South Africa, Sweden and the United States.

As the University of Pittsburgh's legal news site Jurist reports, the Tasmanian report arrives at a moment when there are a heated legal controversies in places like Germany and California surrounding the circumcision of minors.