Icelandic lawmakers are considering a law that would ban the circumcision of boys for non-medical reasons, making it the first European country to do so. Some religious leaders in Iceland and across Europe have called the bill an attack on religious freedom. It is seen as a particular threat by Jews and Muslims who traditionally embrace the practice. Under the proposed law, the circumcision of boys — removing the foreskin of the penis, usually when the child is a newborn — would be viewed as equal to
female genital mutilation and punishable by up to six years in prison. “This is fundamentally about not causing unnecessary harm to a child,” said Silja Dogg Gunnarsdottir, a lawmaker for the centrist Progressive Party, who introduced the bill this month. The proposed law calls circumcision a violation of human rights “since boys are not able to give an informed consent of an irreversible physical intervention.” READ MORE
