The National Secular Society has called on the Scottish health secretary to end NHS funding for ritual circumcision of children.
Unlike the NHS in England and Wales, the Scottish NHS will circumcise boys if requested by parents for religious or cultural purposes, even if there is no medical need.
The NSS said Scottish Government funding of ritual circumcision was incompatible with newly introduced human rights legislation.
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act 2024, which came into force in Scotland last week, creates a public sector duty to act in compliance with the Convention.
The NSS said ritual circumcision of children violates Articles 12, 14 and 24(3) of the Convention, which enshrine a child’s rights to be heard, to freedom of religion or belief, and to protection from harmful traditional practices, respectively.
The letter pointed to a freedom of information request to the General Medical Council last year, which revealed boys had suffered urinary complications, bleeding requiring blood transfusion, and penile deformity following the procedure.
It also noted the NHS website lists “permanent reduction in sensation in the head of the penis” as a complication.
In 2016, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, which oversees the Convention, recommended the UK Government ensure no one is “subjected to unnecessary medical or surgical treatment during infancy or childhood” and “guarantee bodily integrity, autonomy and self-determination”.
The NSS noted the Scottish Government had, in response, set out strategies to address female genital mutilation and unnecessary surgical intervention on intersex children, but a response to the ritual circumcision of boys was “conspicuous by its absence”.
The letter highlighted the Scottish Government’s ‘Children’s Rights Scheme‘, which seeks to ensure “children are able to participate in the making of decisions that affect them”.
It said a “state sanctioned programme of ritual genital cutting” is “wholly incompatible” with the Government’s goal to “ensure all children in Scotland experience public services consistently upholding their rights”.
NSS: ‘Opportune moment to review misguided decision’
National Secular Society Human Rights Lead Dr Alejandro Sanchez said: “The introduction of this legislation is an opportune moment for the Scottish Government to review its misguided decision to fund religious genital cutting of children at taxpayer expense.
“Ritual circumcision is dangerous, irreversible and deprives the child of an important erogenous tissue. The Government should now live up to its own lofty human rights aspirations and protect children from this medically unnecessary surgery.”