Circumcision could be ‘child abuse’ if done wrong, UK prosectors warn after deaths

JTA – British Jews are weighing in after authorities said they are considering deeming some circumcisions “a form of child abuse” following deaths from the procedure. 

The Crown Prosecution Service, the region’s chief agency for criminal prosecutions, said that while male circumcision isn’t a crime, it may constitute child abuse “if carried out incorrectly or in inappropriate circumstances”, according to a draft document seen by The Guardian. 

This document, which looked at circumcision as a potential “harmful practice” alongside virginity testing, breast flattening, and exorcisms, has driven heated debate among Jewish and Muslim leaders since it was revealed this week. 

The draft guidance follows a coroner’s report from 28 December about Mohamed Abdisamad, a six-month-old boy who died in London from a streptococcus infection caused by his circumcision in 2023. 

The coroner warned of “a risk that future deaths could occur unless action is taken”, noting that “any individual may conduct a non-therapeutic male circumcision without any prior training”. He said there was no system to ensure that people who conducted religious circumcisions had accreditation or met requirements for infection control. 

In the past, another coroner raised similar concerns over the 2014 death of Oliver Asante-Yeboah, who developed sepsis after his circumcision by a rabbi. Male circumcision was a factor in 14 deaths in England and Wales since 2001, half of them men over 18 and half boys under 18, according to the Office for National Statistics. 

Unlicensed circumcisions are a subject of mounting scrutiny in Europe, raising alarm in some Jewish communities. In May, Belgian police raided three homes in Antwerp as part of an investigation into illegal ritual circumcisions. And in 2024, a rabbi from London was arrested and imprisoned in Ireland for allegedly performing a circumcision without required credentials. 

Some Jewish leaders swiftly condemned the Crown Prosecution Service document. 

“Calling circumcision child abuse is fundamentally antisemitic,” Gary Mond, the founder of the Jewish National Assembly, told the Jewish News Syndicate. 

Jonathan Arkush, the co-chairperson of the Milah UK group that advocates for Jewish circumcision, told The Guardian that the document’s language about circumcision was “misleading”, and he would be in touch with the prosecutors. 

“The incidence of complications in circumcision performed in the Jewish community is vanishingly rare,” he said. “Circumcision is a core part of our identity.” 

Other Jewish voices have urged action to enforce medically safe circumcision. Rabbi Jonathan Romain, who oversees Reform Judaism’s religious court in Britain, said it was “time to clamp down on rogue practitioners”, and called for mandatory training, monitoring, and annual reports on the practice. 

“Given that it is a longstanding and important tradition among Jews, Muslims, and various other cultures, the best way forward is to permit circumcision only if it is practised by someone specifically qualified for it and who belongs to a nationally accredited scheme,” Romain said in a letter to The Guardian. 

The Muslim Council of Britain also told The Guardian that it supported strengthening safeguards. 

“Male circumcision is a lawful practice in the United Kingdom with recognised medical, religious and cultural foundations, and it shouldn’t be characterised in itself as child abuse,” said the group. “However, where procedures are carried out irresponsibly, without proper safeguards, and cause harm, they may rightly fall within the scope of criminal law.”