German Court: Child's 'Fundamental Right' to 'Bodily Integrity' Outweighs Parents' Right to Circumcise

BERLIN (The Blaze/AP) --  German court ruled Tuesday that circumcising young boys on religious grounds amounts to bodily harm even if parents consent to the procedure.

Cologne state court said the "fundamental right of the child to bodily integrity outweighed the fundamental rights of the parents," the Daily Telegraph reported.

(Related: Calf. gov. bans local municipalities from banning circumcision)

The case involved a doctor accused of carrying out a circumcision on a 4-year-old that led to medical complications. The doctor was acquitted, however, and prosecutors said they won't appeal.

"The religious freedom of the parents and their right to educate their child would not be unacceptably compromised, if they were obliged to wait until the child could himself decide to be circumcised," the court also said. "The body of the child is irreparably and permanently changed by a circumcision. This change contravenes the interests of the child to decide later on his religious beliefs."

The president of Germany's Central Council of Jews, Dieter Graumann, called the ruling "unprecedented and insensitive," urging the country's parliament to clarify the legal situation "to protect religious freedom against attacks."

Graumann said the circumcision of newborn Jews has been practiced for thousands of years and "every country in the world respects this religious right."

Muslims also circumcise young boys, while many parents request it on health grounds.

Ali Demir with the Islamic Religious Community told The Local that the decision is "discriminatory and counters efforts to promote integration":

"This is a harmless procedure that has thousands of years of tradition and a high symbolic value," Demir said in a statement.

He also argued that there were advantages of circumcision in reducing the transfer of diseases. He said forbidding the practice would do nothing to stop it.

"We'll end up with circumcision tourism in neighbouring countries," he said.

The state court's ruling creates a tricky legal situation for doctors who perform the procedure on parents' orders.

Unlike female circumcision, there is no law prohibiting it and the ruling isn't binding for other courts. However, it sets a precedent that would be taken into account by other German courts when ruling on similar cases