The essay on circumcision in the January 2010 edition of the BJGP clamours for ‘the right to ensure that the procedure is carried out by an experienced surgeon …’.1 If circumcision is indeed a quintessentially natural act of human cleanliness obliged by the religious tenet of Fitrah, why should it need a well-trained surgeon (or Rabbi) to perform what is purported to be one of five simple acts of human hygiene? And why is there an absence of agitation — on religious grounds — for the State to provide intensive regulation of people performing the other four Fitrah acts (nail-cutting, shaving of pubic hair, plucking of axillary hair, and beard trimming)?
- © British Journal of General Practice, 2010.
