Category: Complain

Scotland has become the first part of the United Kingdom to outlaw the physical punishment of children under 16.

The new law is designed to give children the same protection from assaults as adults.

Men Do Complain will continue to campaign for children to be protected from non-therapeutic circumcision. It is a practice that looks increasingly inappropriate in the light of this new law.

The full story on the BBC News gives us this quote from the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC)

“This law sets out in clear terms that physical punishment should no longer be part of childhood in Scotland and it marks a momentous step in making it a country where children’s rights are truly recognised, respected and fulfilled.”

Children’s rights.
We would point to the major elements of our society’s codes of conduct that should protect children from non-therapeutic circumcision.

The Human Right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion which is a qualified right in that one individual cannot override another’s rights; even if that other is a child.

The criminal law protects us from physical abuse even a slap is considered as an assault.

Medical ethics should also protect children from non-therapeutic circumcision. All the elegant dancing on the head of a pin by the medical authorities to allow parents to wound their children beggars belief see this excellent talk by Dr Antony Lempert.

The story below appeared in The Times 9th June 2018.

A son threatened to slit his mother’s throat because she had him circumcised when he was five, a court was told. H******** had been left traumatised and wanted to know why his parents had agreed to the procedure.

H********, 30, bombarded his mother with more than 100 emails and voicemails between Christmas Day last year and January 5, Kwok Wan, for the prosecution, told Leicester magistrates. In one he said: “I will slit your throats where you stand. Happy new year.”

Mr Wan added that H******** went to his mother’s house on New Year’s Eve and threw paint over the front of the house and on the path.

Kim Lee, for the defence, said that only a handful of the messages had been threatening and were “a cry for help”. He added: “He suffers from body dysmorphia and has other mental health issues. There was no intent to cause harm to his parents.”

H********, of Loughborough, was found guilty of aggravated harassment, which he had denied. He admitted criminal damage. He was given an eight-week prison sentence suspended for a year and ordered to attend 20 rehabilitation days.