An Austrian province has told state-run hospitals to stop performing circumcisions on boys, wading into a religiously charged debate ignited after a German court banned the procedure as physical abuse.
The governor of Vorarlberg province said he had taken the decision to stop circumcisions until such time as Austria could formulate a uniform approach to a practice supported both by Muslims and Jews. “This is a subject that has to be regulated country-wide,” a spokesman for governor Markus Wallner said.
Austrian broadcaster ORF said such operations were rare in Vorarlberg. Germany’s lower house of parliament has passed a resolution protecting religious circumcision of boys after a Cologne court ban outraged Muslims and Jews. – (Reuters)
